Let's make some lemonade..

             “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

     We all remember hearing this phrase from our childhood. I can recall many a time when my mother started a “life-lessons conversation” with this saying. At those moments I wanted to roll my eyes and complain about the same talk we had had million times. The moral and message of her stories were all the same: if there is an opportunity right in front of you, take it, use it; that’s why it is there. These lessons from childhood have trickled into my present moment in life. This week, I decided that it was time to start utilizing the tools to success that are around me. When I saw the grade that I deserved for our blogging project thus far, I was not pleased. I am not a C+ person in life. I have always strived to do my best. I am in Corinne’s social media class to be educated on a subject that could potentially set me, and you, apart from the rest of our peers in the business race. She is teaching us the tools to be successful, and I have not utilized that. So at this moment I say, when life literally puts the lemons in my hands, I better go and make some lemonade. 

     This week we needed to read several chapters titled The New Media University.  In reading the content this go-around, I was not simply passing my eyes over the words while my mind was off thinking about what I was going to have for dinner. I read the book as if I was already working for a business and learning ways to 1. Create a job title for myself and 2. Become educated on how to improve, express, listen, and communicate the values of the company with customers in a way that was not selling our product to these people. Brian Solis, author of the book Engage, said that this is a mistake that many companies make when they begin to blog, tweet, facebook, and any other tool in the social media realm. These instruments of communication are about building a community around the people that keep your business running: your customers. Social media is a participatory world where, for example, our business can build bridges that connect with the world around us. People do not wish to converse with the brand, but instead, the people who make up the company that they have decided to be involved with. Our priority must be to increase our value and connect to anyone who impacts our business. Though social bookmarking, for example, is very frustrating for the majority of us, we can use it to analyze what is grabbing people’s attention and why.  It may be difficult to understand and use this channel of media now; however, riding a bike was not too simple for us at one time as well.  Remember, when you fell off, what did you do? The answer is simple: you got back on your bike and tried to ride again until you got it.

      We go to a school that costs more than a lot of families make a year. We have an outstanding Communication faculty that feeds us their knowledge, experience, and passion every day. Why in the world are some of us not truly taking advantage of these blessings? For too long I have showed up to classes just to make sure I was counted for attendance. What are you going to do with the lemons that life has put before you?  

I thought this video was quite adorable and wanted to share it. Enjoy. 

You + Your Computer + Internet = Social Change

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending”

-Maria Robinson

On Thursday night I went to the viewing of the new Invisible Children campaign and began to ponder on my life. I began to think, what am I truly doing to make a change in this world? I do not wish to simply pass through having not touched someone’s life. This quote by Maria Robinson is applicable to every single person alive. There is no sense in trying to go back and change the past, but today we can create a new ending. I would like to create a new ending for someone else whose future looks grim.  These emotions and thoughts led me to consider social media and its roots in changing the world. Therefore I came up with a simple equation:

You + your computer + internet = social change

This equation can literally change the world that we live in. We live in a new era where we can and SHOULD all utilize the benefits of social media. Faster communication, networking, and so on can help spread a message. Social media is the medium for the 21^st century “shot heard around the world.” Social media has, literally, allowed each individual to have an audience that we can influence. Looking at our reachable audience this way gives us somewhat of a responsibility. There are things that need to be exposed and spread in the world, and every single person reading this blog right now has the ability to do so. I read an article titled “10 Ways to Change the World through Social Media.” The article offered many options for each person to get engaged and cause a change. I encourage each person to take some time out and read the article. The simple to ask yourself is “do I want to change the world?” There are people that need help, even within our own country. What are you willing to do? 

10 Ways to Chang the World through Social Media 

Its Our Time

With it being Black History Month, I cannot help but look back and appreciate all that supporters of Civil Rights lived and died for. They lived for change. I remember the stories my father, mother, aunts, and uncles would tell me about living through civil rights and its immediate effects. One could not escape it, Black or White. I remember asking my aunt if she was involved in the Women’s Rights movements occurring at the same time as Civil Rights and she told me, “Taylor, I was Black before I was a woman.” I am so proud to be able to learn from a generation that inspired change and, in fact, not only changed the time they were living in, but history itself.

Lets fast-forward 45 years to today. We are the new generation that is responsible for the change. An article in the UN Chronicle, titled “Are "Twittering" Youth Agents of Positive Change?” urges youth to get involved in change for our generation. The article focuses on youth using their tools of social media to share information and encourage activism. Through this medium, youth from all over the world have the ability to be connected and generate a message.  

Social media is an effective tool of communication for the youth to take advantage of. Someone once told me, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Our generation may not battle an entire legal system, march to the Lincoln memorial, or protest through sit-ins, but we can do something. If Facebook, Twitter, and blogging is what we have, a message can still be spread. Change starts with us.

Twittering" Youth Agents of Positive Change?

Change the World

This week I started messing with my Google Reader, specifically trying to find articles on Social Media and Africa. I ran across an article that paralleled what I would like to focus on with my blog: using social media to promote social justice. There is truly a way to promote social justice on the internet, rather than simply networking with friends and commenting on photos. The net is such a powerful tool. I think that in this day and age, its amazing the amount of power that common people have in their hands with the net. We are those people. We have the power to transform our world, with the simple click of our mouse. The world has seen how quick news spreads via the net with the recent social media crisis occurring in Egypt right now. As a global community we have had the ability to be aware of an arising problem. With this said, I believe that it is very possible to let the world see the issues happening in places such as Uganda and Sudan. With the spirit of community and caring, we can transform this world. 

To see the article 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-01-29/news/ct-met-civil-rights-summit-20110129_1_social-media-social-justice-facebook-page