Drew's Cool Adventures and Clever Book Interpretations

    Throughout our semester in Principles of Social Media class we have been completing a social media simternship. The simternship was basically a simulation where you acted as if you were running social media for a company. It went through different steps including OG content, paid social media posts and even negotiating deals with influencers. Lastly, the last few rounds put all of those together for the final test.      The simulation was 12 rounds long, and it scored how well you did each week by estimating the revenue and engagements that your content would have received if it was real. I thought this was a super unique assignment for school. I also liked how your grade was based off of your ranking in the class. If all school assignments were like that, I would have put in much more effort throughout the years.      Even though the sim isn't exactly what the real job would be like, I think it did a pretty good job of teaching you what it would be like. There were many differ

     This feels like the weird point in the school year where there are one or two important assignments left for each class. It's hard not to just check out and look towards the summer, but grades can easily slip if you do that. For completing final projects or assignments, they are all usually due at around the same time, so it is important to break up the work. This is something that I am terrible at, and I end up having to do everything the last week.     Another weird feeling is the quick change of hard work at school to the freedom of summer. You put in all this hard work and then all of a sudden you walk out of your last exam questioning the relaxation. It usually takes me a couple of days to realize I don't have to think about school anymore.      I have many reasons to look forward to this summer. First, I should be able to start baseball activities early on in the summer, which I am really excited for. Also, hanging out with friends and being able to relax more. Fina

      Today in class we watched a movie about former developers or employees that worked for big social media companies like Google and Facebook. They talked a lot about the harm that is being done by addiction to social media, and there was a story to go along with it showing what they mean in a real-life example.      It was very interesting to me because almost everything they talked about was negative towards social media. They talked a lot about the impact on the younger generations and I agree with some of it. I think that getting too addicted can really be a problem. Obviously, the suicide numbers back that statement and is something that is terrible. However, that doesn't mean that social media is some monster out to kill young people. There are just young people that are still learning and some can get too caught up in what goes on while they're on their phone.     I think the most important thing to teach younger people is that the digital world is not everything. Tak

      Surprisingly, TikTok started in 2016. I would have never guessed that it has been around for that long, but it was only available in China. It then merged with Musical.ly in 2018 and was available to the whole world. After that, TikTok was the most downloaded ap from 2019-2023. Now, over 1 billion people use TikTok per month, ranking them sixth in most popular social media platforms.     For some statistics on TikTok, the 18-24 age range has the highest usage rate among any other generation. The 25-34 age range is right behind them, however. After that, it is a huge drop off to the other generations. More women use the app at 53.5%. The average daily usage is 95 minutes, which is crazy to think about. Also, the U.S is currently the number one country for TikTok.     When it comes to marketing with TikTok, it is newer than most social media apps. There wasn't a huge marketing or ad presence up until not that long ago. But now ads are becoming more and more common, and TikTok i

      It has been hard not to think about hitting or throwing baseballs. Now that it is getting closer to the time where I start to actually do stuff, I'm definitely getting anxious. Especially with baseball season going on and watching the Reds almost daily, it makes me want to get out there even more.     As my elbow gets a little bit better, I find that I can do some little things that I wasn't able to before. I've always practiced my swing with my hands when I'm bored, so it's nice that I can at least do that now. I'm always trying to see how I can improve my swing, even now. I love watching the swings of MLB players and trying to see what I can incorporate into my own swing. Thinking about that makes me want to go out there and try it, but I have to be patient.      I'm glad I got the surgery when I did because the time frame works out to where I had no chance to return this year but safely return next year. Knowing myself, I would've lied and said

     YouTube is one of the most recognized apps around the world, so it isn't surprising that it is the second most popular social media platform. YouTube has been popular for a long time unlike some other social media apps. Another interesting thing about YouTube is that it reaches all generations more evenly. The 25-34 range is still the most popular, but there isn't a drastic change in usage among other generations. A couple more demographic facts include that there are slightly more males on the app and the U.S is the second ranked country for usage.     YouTube advertisements have changed a lot over time. You used to be able to skip right away, but now you have to watch at least five seconds of most ads. It varies on the ad, however, some force you to watch the whole thing or thirty seconds. YouTube has also implemented surveys for after some ads in an attempt to gain feedback from the audience. Personally, I notice YouTube ads more than any other social media app. I haven

     The past couple weeks have been really busy for me. From all of the schoolwork, exams, my internship and keeping up with workouts. Starting my internship has been fun but also has taken a lot of time including training. I had to miss Micro four times because of it and that really put me behind. We had an exam the week I was able to come to class again, so trying to catch up was quite difficult. Mixed in with all of that, I worked every day the past couple of weekends, which felt weird not having any breaks.      The good thing, however, is the tough stretch is mostly over for me. I won't have to miss any more class and the Reds are away for the next couple weekends. It also helps that school assignments are starting to wind down after a tough stretch of work.      I realized that thankfully it will be a lot easier in the summer because I won't have to worry about school and work at the same time. Another good thing that should happen in the summer is I should be able to re

      LinkedIn is a unique social media platform. Unlike most other platforms, LinkedIn is strictly for business. Whether businesses are on it or personal users it is a professional social media app. With this, users have to watch what they post even more than other social media apps. Almost all businesses will look at your LinkedIn page to see if there is anything that shouldn't be there.      For some statistics on LinkedIn, it is the 18th most popular social media app in the world. It is a male dominated app, and the US is the number one country for LinkedIn. Also, LinkedIn has the highest percentage of business-to-business marketing of any social media app.     Obviously with that, most of the advertisements and marketing focus comes from business to business. This means businesses have to create target markets for other businesses in order to start creating their advertisements. That is a very different mindset than marketing towards customers. When marketing to other business

     It was pretty surreal when I was walking towards the Reds stadium in a suit and tie. I had a lot of excitement from starting my internship to the MLB season starting. I didn't know what to expect, but I knew opening day would be one of the busiest days of the season.      Thankfully, we were there really early so I had plenty of time to learn where everything was and what I was doing for the day. Also, we were separated into teams, so you weren't on your own. I ended up selling all you can eat passes behind the outfield seats. It isn't the most glamorous thing, but it helped me ease into the internship with something pretty simple.      It was so weird being at the game but not being able to watch that much. We could see a TV, but the crowd would cheer or boo before we saw what had happened. I was stoked that the Reds ended up winning the first game to hopefully start a great season.      I ended up working on Saturday and Sunday as well, so it was a pretty busy weeken