To view my project, please click: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WtnHu7W8e5Y1XeJyoJXTr89AudKHrlLSytDlwTyhi3Q/edit?usp=sharing
Creative Project: WRT 302 (https://you.stonybrook.edu/wrt302fall2021/files/2021/11/WRT-302-1.pdf)
To view my project, please click: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WtnHu7W8e5Y1XeJyoJXTr89AudKHrlLSytDlwTyhi3Q/edit?usp=sharing
Creative Project: WRT 302 (https://you.stonybrook.edu/wrt302fall2021/files/2021/11/WRT-302-1.pdf)
I like how there is a table of contents that is linked to the specific pages. This allows the reader to skim/skip to a desired section. The introduction clearly shows the similarities and differences between digital and and paper writing. Both styles of writing use the same format (plot, character development). However, the attention span of digital readers is shorter. Digital writers must use alternate sources to keep the attention of the reader. It was cool to see how different platforms are used. Bringing up facebook as connecting with friends and twitter as a news outlet shows how different each platform can be. This is important for users and influencers because they need to engage their followers differently. This allows social media influencers to build more interpersonal skills with their fan base. This makes them more relatable than traditional celebrities. Being able to connect with their niche fan base, they have influence over specific topics. I like how you included your favorite influencers such as Stephanie Soo. As I continued reading, I kind of got lost and forgot what the main idea of the paper. I like that the conclusion clearly restates the purpose of the paper and what each section of the paper was about and its purpose.
Sydney,
The visual presentation of your paper was very pleasing. The visual cues you used, such as the color-coating the social media platforms you discussed, bolded and italicized quotes, numerous photos/images, and hyperlinks to examples of social media pages, helped make your project easy to navigate and engaging. Your writing style is engaging as well. I liked your use of rhetorical questions and addressing the audience directly. For example, the first two sentences in the second section “Think about it. When you visit platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, what kind of posts do you look forward to?” piqued my interest in what would come next.
I found your discussion about what content is standard on different social media platforms and how being literate on one platform does not necessarily mean that your skills will carry over to another to be very interesting. It is an important consideration for all of us who use social media. Knowing that one shoe does not fit all and considering that the audience expectations are different on each social media can help us as writers ensure our social media content is as effective as possible.
I also found the discussion of research that shows the personality traits of “extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness ” are correlated with increased social media usage fascinating. It helps prove that social medias are truly “social” and that interest in social media is not based social on environmental factors.
I was impressed by the wide range of topics your project covers, but also a little overwhelmed by it. I would have been interested to read more about how aspects of writing, such as word choice and grammar, change on each social media platform. Overall, very informative and engaging project.
Hey Sydney,
I thought that your paper was organized well and included proper breaks in the text. The material you provided was informative, but lacked a clear argument. Although you covered each section in depth, I think that focusing on so many different topics made it more difficult for the audience to take something away from it. I enjoyed how you used a colloquial tone and brought the reader with you through referring to them by “you” and asking them questions in the Introduction. The addition of your own experience with social media and your admiration of Stephanie Soo (I need to check her page out because I loveeee true crime). Doing so was an informed decision that kept your audience in mind. Nevertheless, you go into great detail about different social media platforms, which is thorough and informative; however, the decision to include this information didn’t take your audience into consideration. The students in our class are aware of different social media platforms and most likely use them quite often, so I didn’t find it necessary to go into so much detail about each social media platform and their use. Lastly, I think it would be beneficial to go back to each section of your piece and see what’s connecting them, instead of providing a different conclusion from one subject area to the next.
It was fascinating to hear about what makes certain social media platforms different from others. I have recently noticed social media influencers trying to build a following on other platforms– not just the platform that they initially became famous on. Many times I will watch a video on YouTube only to find the content creator ‘plugging’ their other social media accounts at the beginning or end of the video. Whether influencers pursue other platforms in order to explore their creativity, or whether they do it simply to make more money (this is probably the case for most), it is clear that there is a widespread interest in ‘expanding your horizons’ as a content creator. Yet like you mention numerous times throughout your project, it is rare to see an influencer gain more followers on a different platform than the one they originally became famous on. This was an excellent point from your project that I enjoyed thinking about.
It was also interesting to hear how parasocial interactions are a way that social media influencers often bolster their following. One platform that I think of when I hear ‘parasocial interactions’ is Twitch. You mention Twitch when you talk about the differences between social media platforms. However, I think that Twitch can also provide the perfect example of parasocial interactions between the viewer and the creator. Twitch is a streaming service where viewers can interact with others in multiple ways. The first is the ‘chat’ feature, which allows someone who is tuning into a livestream to interact with fellow viewers. The chat feature also allows the streamer to interact with his or her audience throughout the stream. Another means of interaction on Twitch is through donations. In this case, the viewer can donate money to the streamer, with the added bonus of having a customized message appear on the screen for the entire audience to see. While this isn’t something you touched on for the purposes of this research, I thought it was a cool example of those parasocial interactions you were writing about.
I also appreciate you mentioning platforms that aren’t often thought of as ‘social media’, particularly Twitch and Reddit. As someone who doesn’t use many of the ‘typical’ social media platforms, I still felt very engaged with the content of your webtext as I read along.
Finally, in terms of layout, I enjoyed the visual cues throughout your project. I love how the hyperlinks to each social media platform matched the color of the platform’s logo. Bolding quotes was also effective at highlighting important messages. I also appreciated the images planted throughout the text. Little details like this made your project a pleasure to read.
The formatting of your project was very well done, it integrated Google Templates with the usage of rhetorical devices such as bolding and headers. My favorite part was the table of contents, which I was pleasantly surprised were linked to each section, making it easy to travel through the sections. Also, the bolding and italicizing of each quote made them each stand out through the text. The pictures fit in perfectly and complimented what was talked about, my favorite being the fact that pizza is the most Instagrammed food. I feel as though all these components showed how even the simple changes made can elevate text more than a regularly formatted essay. As visual technology grows, so should the way we display information.
You were able to describe each piece of social media and help readers understand it thoroughly. All of the different forms of social media from Facebook to Snapchat, shows how much it has grown and developed. They have all become mainstreamed, which explains why newspapers are now becoming digital. As you stated, newspapers will have to become digitalized to stay relevant and keep up with social media platforms. People get their information from influencers and, as seen in other projects, memes. Even if people do not know an influencer on a personal level, as you showed, they are able to connect to them and believe what they are saying. They are not as credible as a newspaper, but people will believe them and their biased perspectives, because of their attractiveness on their platforms.
I like how you begin by explaining how “social media” is used so vaguely. I am the culprit of doing this. I mainly thought that if you can talk to other people in some way it can be classified as social media. Your claim at the end is also clear and I am a fan of these styles of claims. I especially liked how you went into detail about each of the main social media platforms, and what someone going on to them might expect. The explanation on Twitter was right on the mark. I remember when it felt like everyone was using Tumblr. It’s crazy to see how a platform can go out of style so quickly. I feel as though Snapchat may have the same fate.
It is quite interesting how someone on instagram with 100 million followers may only have 10 million on Youtube, but it can be the opposite for someone else. That really does support your claims that each platform is a niche with specific things that appeal more to people using that platform. Influencers are just as, if not more known and even powerful than some celebrities now. They are invited to so many different prestigious events like celebrities now, and they are honestly getting their name out there more across the world through social media platforms. I would also agree that influencers seem more like normal people compared to celebrities. I feel as though this can be attributed to the fact that they show themselves and what they do in their lives more so than most celebrities.
I then liked how you went into different mediums. I was always a personal fan of magazines, yet disliked reading a newspaper. Even though they are both print, they are clearly tailored to different people and in different ways.
Hi Sydney,
It was great looking at your final project and I liked how you used the table of contents as a way for readers to navigate your presentation and how you linked the pages on it. In your second section, the organization by social media platform was great since it let me focus on one platform at a time rather than having to think about them simultaneously. In addition, in your fourth section, it was interesting to learn about the driving factors for the choice of platforms as I never knew that was a thing and I liked how you used the map in order to emphasize your point about social media popularity, After reading your whole project, I found that I had a comprehensive understanding of the topics you talked about and writing on social media and I liked that I was able to gain such a varying amount of knowledge about different topics since you presented all this information and were able to tie everything together in each section.
Hi Sydney,
I enjoyed reading your project. In terms of formatting, I really liked the table of contents. I knew what to expect in the paper. I also really liked the format and colors used. The different sections broke up the text into manageable sections that kept me engaged throughout. You also used first person point of view in some places, which helped me connect to the text more. I liked how you asked the audience questions. This also kept me engaged and allowed me to reflect on what I read.
I liked your section in the beginning on the basics and benefits of each platform. I don’t really know too much about many of the platforms, so this section helped me understand the rest. I also never really compared them in that way.
I feel like I should probably know the influencers you mentioned, but I don’t really use social media in that way. However, I do know people that follow influencers like that, and I understand when you say that they are more relatable. They got famous online, so other people think that they can also be famous that way. Other celebrities often feel unreachable. I definitely use social media to research products to buy, like you mentioned in the paper. It provides a great starting point and has pictures. I also consider myself an introvert, and social media does allow you to control how much social interaction you have. If I don’t feel like connecting with people I don’t look at social media. This has its positives and negatives.
Overall, you made a really great project!
Hey Sydney,
It’s been such a pleasure to watch your project evolve over the last couple of weeks. Witnessing it develop from just a bunch of thoughts and grow into this 21 page monster of a paper is so beautiful. It almost feels like sending my kids to college or something.
Anyways, it’s absolutely stunning. From the table of contents I promised to steal to the super intuitive and well integrated graphics all I can say is voila.
Seriously consider doing something with it though, I know how hard you worked on it so I would definitely say that publishing it somewhere official would be worth it.
Right off the bat, the structure you have used in your document helps set the tone of the piece. The usage of a table of contents connotes a more serious piece of writing–and personally, it reminds me of scholarly texts and policy recommendations.
You took on such a huge topic here and I am amazed at your ability to do justice to all the subtopics that you chose to include. I felt while reading this that it was such a good introductory piece of writing into social media. This might be a piece that I quote to my grandma when trying to explain what social media is. This piece could also act as the context that many of us who wrote about social media left out when assuming our audience and their knowledge base about social media.
Hi Sydney,
Right off the bat, I absolutely love that you included a table of contents. It made it so much easier to navigate your project, what a thoughtful idea!
I liked that you brought up the point about the rebranding of celebrities with the glorification of social-media sensations like Emma Chamberlain and David Dobrik. Traditional celebrities that we see on the cover of magazines and on ads have an air of unattainability to themselves and their lifestyles, whereas the celebrities of our generation that rooted their fanbase through their social media accounts have more grounds to be relatable for us. However, I am interested in how social media users our age navigate having so much to relate to a famous insta-celeb, yet not being famous themselves. On one hand, we see these celebrities vlog their daily chores and target-runs, but on the other hand, we also see them at red carpet events and the Met Gala.
Overall, I loved the ideas you brought to your project, and loved how you formatted pictures to cut up your text. You can really tell just how much effort you put into your project. Fantastic work!!
I really enjoyed the case studies of each social media site and the nuances each brings. It’s easy to view social media as a type of monolith but each site has its own user patterns, expectations for content, and niches.
An internet celebrity is a new form of notoriety that has emerged in recent years. I’ve heard the term “parasocial relationship” being used in so much discourse and I feel as if that type of relationship is looked down upon now. It’s definitely still a way to cultivate an audience but as more people are talking about it, creators and fans alike are realizing that a parasocial relationship is harmful for both people involved. My favorite quote from your presentation was “introverts are rather successful in social interactions online as they find it easier to express themselves online and are drawn to the online connections they’ve formed that are otherwise lacking in their offline or “real” lives” because it rang so true for me personally. Your project was fantastic, it’s one of my favorites so far. The way you presented your information as well as the tone set through writing and the genuine passion you show for your topic all combine to create an engaging and easy to read project.
As Danny and Marlene mentioned, I think the use of a Table of Contents was a great way to format your project. It immediately reminded me of a book, but being able to anticipate the main topics you would discuss made it a lot easier for me to understand how everything connected. I’m not sure why we don’t do this more for essays we write!
I found your bonus section most captivating as it reminded me most about Wolf’s book that I read for book groups. With so many new mediums for reading and writing, there always becomes a question of what format will shine the most in the future. Although it is likely there will be a preferred medium, I think it is crucial to remember that it is entirely possible for them to coexist as well.
Hi Sydney,
I really like your table of contents and it reminded me of a book. It really shows how organized your paper is and it was really easy to find specific content that I wanted to read. The information you gave was very informative about social media. Your introduction was also very informative on what social media is. Every social media is meant for a different purpose and influencers are popular on certain platforms. Influencers can be popular on YouTube, but they might not have many followers on Facebook. This really shows in what you talked about how each platform appeals to people differently. Overall, I learned new things about social media and the way they work.
This topic is relevant because we as college students use social media on a daily basis. I like that your paper has a table of contents so that the reader knows where to find certain information and you hyperlinked it so the reader can just click on it to go directly to the section instead of scrolling through. Also, I like that the hyperlinks of the social media you talked about match the color of their icon. The section about how different personality traits affect how people use social media was very interesting. I’ve thought about how different personality traits affect how people socialize in person, but not on social media. I kind of find it surprising that introverts can successfully interact on social media even if they don’t in real life. However, this also makes sense because since they aren’t there in person, they have the confidence to interact with others. I consider myself to be an introvert. I decided to make a video of myself presenting my project for my creative project. I guess by doing so, I wouldn’t have to present in “real life”.
Hey Sydney,
I really enjoyed how organized you project was and how you broke it up into all the specific sections that you did. When I work on some of my personal blogs, I tend to give a layout since I know that I packed in so much for the reader to look at. But it always makes me nervous as it I feel like it could be a little dry or break up the flow of reading, but after looking at your project, I think how you structured everything reassures me that it might not be as bad as I think because it actually helps the reader in the long run. Really enjoyed this one and really enjoyed the presentation.
Sydney,
: I found your project really thorough and well-researched. I particularly liked reading your descriptions about each of the social media sites, and the things that people specifically do on them. As someone who’s grown up with the internet, getting written explanations of each site and what happens on them was a lot like getting a refresher course on something I already know. But it was odd to compare my relationship and engagement on each site to that of others. I found the Twitter and Facebook ones the most antithesis to my personal experience, and I never realized that this was out of the norm. She talked about how Facebook involves the interaction of friends and acquaintances, while Twitter is the exact opposite. My personal experience is the antithesis of both, as I find that I have more friendship-like interactions on Twitter, while Facebook feels like it’s simply for the appearance of having an account to maintain interactions with others (which might purely be a symbolic act – who knows?). I’m not entirely sure why, but reading her paper made me think about a common theme of memes from one social media site being posted on another, and how that might affect discourse about that topic. For instance, if something that was initially posted on Twitter gets moved to Instagram or Facebook, how does that affect what the comments look like? I know that it’s a really common thing to happen, especially when memes or funny comments on Twitter get disseminated to Instagram.