On this class..

I though this class was pretty useful, I liked learning a little bit about the Adobe Master Collection and about LinkedIn. This was very relaxed and laid back which is a nice change of pace. I would say this is a relevant class to the new way of business and professional writing; more relevant than say a british lit class.. Mostly because we use this information on a day to day basis. We need to know how much information we should put out there. Also, we should learn the differences between professional social media and Facebook. Some of this information was review, but I learned new information, too. For example, on blogging, never mention work unless you're careful because it easily gets you into trouble. Overall this class was pretty productive for me.

Catfish Review

Editted by Brianne Price and Mikayla Pullin

Rachel Raske

                Facebook rules social media. People communicate through comments and pictures more than they communicate through phone calls and meetings. Therefore, it’s no surprise that Facebook has taken on another role as a site to meet people. Catfish is a movie that highlights the faults of Facebook; you never know who you’re truly talking to when you meet someone new. It’s a real life story unfolding and you can’t help but to question our security online. The story goes like this; Nev meets a young prodigy, her mother, and her sister. He develops different relationships with each one. As the story progresses, the twisting storyline becomes increasingly bizarre. By the end of this movie you’ll want to weed through your friends list.

            Catfish was debuted at Sundance Film Festival, and was well-received. In 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story as they began to film the life of Ariel's brother, Nev. Filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost document a story involving Nev, a 24-year-old New York-based photographer, and Abby, from rural Michigan who contacts Nev via Facebook. She asks for permission to make a painting from one of his photographs. Directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, Catfish is a thriller that truly hits home to billions of people. Starring in the major roles are Ariel Schulman (Rel), Yaniv Schulman (Nev) and Angela Wesselman-Pierce (herself). From the success of their movie Catfish has gained well-deserved popularity and brought light to the over-trust we put into social media networks.

            Nev, the main character, is a photographer; he sends his photos for Abby to paint. Abby is the young girl who contacts him and requests to paint his pictures. Megan is Abby’s older sister. Megan introduces herself to Nev and begins a relationship lasting for about eight months. Finally, Angela is Megan and Abby’s mother who starts talking to Nev on the phone. Her role drastically changes during the movie. Ariel and Melody were the co-producers for this movie, although Melody was on camera much less. Rel and Melody were responsible for getting all the footage to make the movie possible. They used alternate reasons to interview everyone. Rel was Nev’s brother who encouraged him to make this movie. He travels with Nev into Angela’s house and is with Nev when they discover all the discrepancies in Megan’s story. Catfish is a tangled web of relationships and lies that are unforeseen by the audience until the very end.

            There’s a conversation between Nev and Angela that struck me as strange. When Nev confronts Angela on all the lies at the ranch, he is calm and non-accusatory. He had a surprising amount of patience and understanding of her situation. I would not be able to stay so civilized. Why wasn’t he angry? He said it was because she felt trapped in her own life, but that does not come close to rationalizing her actions. Granted, he may not have been so nice if he weren’t face to face, but his calmness helped her create even more lies because she didn’t feel threatened. I thought it sent a mixed message about the movie as well. It began to say to me “let’s try and understand why people are creeps on the internet”, rather than saying we should be careful with what we put out there before truly meeting someone.

            This is a great movie for teens and young adults who use Facebook because it is incredibly relevant to our lives.  The documentary aspect of the movie was great because it made the story real, instead of it coming from Hollywood and being over-dramaticised.  It was well constructed, never got too boring. The story was fast paced and moved along smoothly.

Catfish final day

Clever name.
If I was Aimee Gonzalez I would be pretty freaked out..

I kind of understand what might've made Angela do what she did. She is trapped with two severely handicapped children, which takes alot of strength and patience. She obviously is not happy with her life, so she went out and built herself a life she wanted and was proud of. She is an unhappy person who needed an outlet.

Since the movie has come out she has become slightly more famous, and selling her artwork. I don't understand how craziness earns people fame and fortune. American Idol idiots come out with albums, serial killers become famous.. the list goes on. I guess any publicity is good publicity. Sad.

Catfish day 2

I am disgusted.


When he finally gets to Michigan, Angela has two boys with disabilities there with her hudband, Vince, they were never mentioned.. also Abby is at this beachhouse by herself? Angela admits she falsified making Megan. She pretty easily talked about how she made this up. If it was a family friend how did the real Megan not find out? My prediction is that there's way more we don't know.. Megan is not at all related to Angela.

Catfish

I think it's funnyhow easily people will fall into this trap. Most people are just desperate to find someone they finally connect with that they'll make something completely real out of a facebook relationship. Nev never doublechecks, double thinks or questions Abby, Angela, or Megan. My prediction is that Angela is all of them. My only questions are how did Angela manage to make a fake facebook with countless pictures of the same girl? Why didn't they Skype, most people would think to prove this is real by any number of ways? It has been about eight months, but they havent planned to meet yet? Since he found the fake song, wouldnt he naturally questions Abby? Too many questions... Although I think Nev is sometimes foolish to be so gullible  I could see myself falling for the same tricks.

Photoshop Practice

Implications of Wide-Spread Media

Facebook, Formspring, Twitter, Myspace are taking over. Teen’s lives are filled with social media. Computers are easily accessible, in fact more teens than not have their own computer. Social media started out as a way to stay in touch with people and has developed into the lifeline of social life. If you aren’t connected to multiple sites, you’re not in the loop. This new trend is making waves in the social community and in the business world.

                In the social community the verbal speech and even email is a thing of the past, and the way of communicating has become more immediate. Practically all phones these days require data plans allowing everyone access to the internet, therefore social media, at any time of the day. No matter where we are there is usually a way to check Facebook or tweet a status. This ability to become dependent on a website is growing, Facebook especially, has been called “addictive” by many teens. The dependencies will most like grow, too. Facebook and I’m sure other, less-popular networks will soon begin email within their sites. Everything one would need would be found on one site. Wide spread social media ultimately will mean unavoidable dependence on it.

In order to be successful these days, people have to be “LinkedIn” or up to date with Justin Timberlake’s Twitter page. Since there are no signs of declination the dependence, as I said earlier will only increase. Careers are being created from the sudden rise of social media; for example, Perez Hilton and businesses are starting to advertise specifically to people in certain Facebook groups. I read an interview from a man who depended on social media for his profession and personal life. He had said in the interview how he used it professionally, he said, “On the IT journalism side, I use social media to find sources, provide live coverage of events, gauge sentiment, distribute content, track news and fact-check stories.” Obviously this is quite an expansive list, if just one person uses social media for all of these tasks, sounds like they would be on Facebook most the day. Then he had continued on to say how he used Facebook on his own time to stay in touch with his family and friends. This shows it reaches people of all ages, making it a fabulous place to advertise. Small and large businesses alike are taking notice. Based on what companies, activities, and groups people “like” or belong to makes them a target for certain companies. The create platforms for ads. Facebook has specified areas of the screen for advertisements. In example, If I belong to Eastview football team they may direct me to an ad for Nike equipment or a small fan t-shirt printer. Not all social media has hopped on this train, however. Twitter and Formspring are still free of cost with no advertising all over your screen. Rather, they have the capability to let businesses have their own account so people can stay up to date with them, and keep in contact if necessary.

Social media will eventually fall, once people decide they would rather have face to face contact again. Until that day comes, social media will strengthen its hold over teens and expand to other generations. It will also become a better way to reach target markets for companies. It is much easier, cheaper and more effective to send a message if you can narrow your list to a specific group or team or business. Although it is an effective way to keep updated and to advertise, social media implicates a much larger amount of dependence on the internet than society has ever seen. This may end up being it’s own death, when people break free of the addiction.

Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2010/01/18/alex-howard-interview