Crystal Amberlyn

As I was finishing up Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick’s book, “The Art of Social Media," something stood out to me. Kawasaki opened my eyes to an unknown truth about Facebook, one of my beloved social media platforms. I thought I might have noticed something sketchy before, but now I know for sure there is. To be honest, now that I know this, I am a little upset. After I explain what I am talking about, maybe you will be too. Here is a recent experience of mine to help shed light on the situation: T he other day, I was at my boyfriend’s house and he showed me this neat video of someone we both knew. I told him to share the video so I could share it too. After he did so, I immediately refreshed Facebook and it did not appear. I refreshed it again and got the same result. Then, I scrolled down my newsfeed, and I still could not see it! I eventually had to go to my boyfriend’s profile to find the video. Why was it so difficult to find the video? Where did it go? Doe...

I gave a lot of thought about what I should share next. I decided before I get too personal, I should share something in my life that is lighthearted and might relieve some stress for those who are constantly stressing out like me! If anything, please skim through to see some cute pictures and videos. This is my cat T.J. Yes, I am going to be that girl who posts about her cat. I have had a lot of cats in my life, but I have never had one like T.J. He truly has a personality of his own. Now, he is quite old and extremely overweight, so I know he is not the most attractive cat out there, but there are times he can be quite adorable. I like to believe T.J. and I have had a nice, odd relationship ever since the day we brought him home. The reason we got T.J. was all because of my brother, Jake. T.J.’s owners, who were Jake’s friends, got a new puppy and the cat was not too happy about it. Shocker, right? They could not have him live outside because he was completely declaw...

I must admit that Facebook is one of my go-to platforms because it gives me a good variety of everything. I can see pictures, videos and news and yes, occasionally the news is fake. Facebook has been taking some hard hits for not filtering the news that is published, but should we go as far to say that it is “negative for democracy?” According to this article by Merrit Kennedy, people are starting to believe it is. According to Kennedy, Facebook admits that social media can be negative for democracy. Now, did Facebook say this because they believe it is true or did they say it to get people off their tail? After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, people criticized Facebook for not doing enough to stop fake news that could have influenced viewer’s votes. So, are these people ultimately blaming Facebook for the outcome of the election? I completely agree with Mark Zuckerberg when he says , "There's a profound lack of empathy in asserting that the only reason why som...

On social media, many people have experienced some form of negative comment. There will always be those debbie downers roaming about, but how are we supposed to deal with them? In Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick’s book, “The Art of Social Media," Kawasaki gives some advice I find to be quite intelligent.  One of the first pieces of advice Kawasaki gives is to stay positive. Personally, I find this to be the most important. Of course, no one likes a negative comment, but it is important to remember that one person’s opinion is not everyone’s opinion. It took me a long time to accept it is impossible to satisfy everyone. Therefore, if one person gives you trouble, do not fret about it. Keep your head up and do not let their negativity bring you down.  When you receive a negative comment, there is nothing wrong with commenting back, but Kawasaki explains to keep it controlled. He suggests going only three rounds. This means if you receive a negative comment, you can comm...

When I was in elementary school, as many elementary kids are asked, I was asked what I wanted to be when I grow up. For a long time, I responded that I wanted to be a zookeeper. Looking back on that answer now, I think, “wow that was an odd answer”. I may think that answer is odd, but it turns out that today, quite a few children respond that they want a career in social media or gaming. Alison Kershaw explains in her article that a study shows these careers have been growing in popularity for younger people. Although these careers do not beat out the answers of teacher or veterinarian, they are still ranked higher than I would ever expect. It took me awhile to find out that these careers even existed as careers, not just hobbies. Therefore, it amazes me the younger generation knows this as a career and wishes to pursue it. I can only assume these children know more about these careers because, as Kershaw explains, they are more exposed to them. I can already see this being true...

It looks like I am going to have a semester full of blogging! That said, I feel it would only be fair to share a little bit about myself. Of course, you will learn much more about me in my future blogs, but here is some information to get started. My name is Crystal Amberlyn Brown, but I go by Crystal Amberlyn. I am currently a sophomore graphic design major at Ohio Northern University . Practically all my life I have lived in northwest Ohio. I graduated from Upper Scioto Valley High School in McGuffey which is approximately 10 minutes from ONU. My mother and I moved to Ada my junior year of high school and I still live at home with her. It has just been my mother and I since I was four. It has never been easy for us. I would go into further detail, but I plan to save that for a later blog. Within the first visit of Ohio Northern I knew college would be much better than high school…   and it is. I love ONU and I am proud to call it my home away from home. Therefore, I try...

The first step to enter into the world of social media is to create a profile. Overall, it seems simple. You enter your first name, last name, email address, username and then you are done. Sure, creating a profile is easy, but creating a professional and successful profile takes work. What I recently learned from Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick in their book “The Art of Social Media” is that there are many details that can easily be overlooked when creating a profile. A lot of these details contribute to customization. Before, I never realized the importance of the customization of your social media profiles. I thought that once your name was on the page, it was good. Kawasaki and Fitzpatrick basically stress how customizing your profile is key to making yourself appear unique and competent and I agree. If every person on Facebook had no information or pictures on their profile, what would be the point? Who would want to view their profile with nothing to engage in? It is important t...