Drew's Cool Adventures and Clever Book Interpretations

      This last week at ONU has made me anxious to leave. It seems like the only thing to think about is getting final projects and exams done and then leaving. It is hard to stay in the moment during dead week. There are some things that I just accept because there is only one week left, and I get the change of scenery.      I would say this year was a fun year overall. I was pretty bored not being able to play any sports, but other than that I had a good time hanging out with friends. The school part was obviously not super fun, but I had more time because of my injury. Now after this semester I won't have to take six classes ever again.      I am definitely looking forward to next year. If there are no setbacks then I will be able to hit and field in the fall for baseball, and I will get to live in a quad with my current roommate and a couple other friends. I also don't have to wake up super early for any classes, so I'll be able to sleep ...

      Throughout the semester, our class read the social media marketing book. It covered a bunch of material about different social media apps or how to blog. There were some good things about the book and some bad things about the book.     I liked how the sections were very clear because if I forgot one simple thing it was very easy to find the section I was looking for. Some books don't have sections like that, and it can be very difficult to find something you are looking for. I also liked how the book kept it simple for the most part. I didn't feel like it took too long to read a chapter or section of a chapter.      I also feel like I learned a good amount from what the book had to offer. It is hard to have a book for social media because it is always changing. I definitely have to cut the book some slack if not everything is up to date.     Something I didn't like about the book had to do with the quizzes at the end of each chapt...

      These last few weeks have been quite busy for me, but I think I'm on the downhill part of the rollercoaster now. After the social media exam tomorrow, I have one more exam left. There are also a couple of group projects left but I will have a whole week to finish those up. I'm super glad and lucky to not have a super busy ending to the year.     It is a weird feeling because I'm just ready to leave at this point. Pretty much all of my friends are already home, so they are all back hanging out already. It's only a couple of weeks so I'll just have to get through it.      It's kind of hard at this point to talk about things going on because there really isn't much right now for me. I just do my schoolwork, go to physical therapy, watch the reds and play MLB the show. I go to baseball sometimes, but I don't do much there. The weekends are still fun hanging out with everyone, but the weekdays have been boring lately.  I'm just so ready for ...

    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 wo...

     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...

      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 digit...

      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...

      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 an...

     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 me...

     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 ...

      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 customer...

     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...

      After a couple busy weeks of training combined with schoolwork, baseball and traveling it is finally time for opening day. I've been waiting for the MLB season to start as a fan and as an intern, so I am super excited for baseball to start.      Even though the training days weren't terrible for my internship, they were pretty long and boring. The worst part was when I had to sit on zoom for two of the days, it got very boring sitting in the same spot for hours. The actual information was interesting and helped me feel more comfortable heading into opening day.      There are many unique parts to working for the Reds, but one that stands out as a new intern is that the busiest day is the first day. The interns are thrust into the action without having any experience. Thankfully, our team leaders understand that we may not know exactly what to do and will help us out.      As a Reds fan, this year has the potential to be v...

     Last Friday our class completed a live tweeting assignment where we picked a speaker of our choice during the social media workshop to tweet about. This was a unique assignment and experience. I had never tweeted much before this, so it felt unusual using the post button. I am going to overview my experience with this assignment and what I thought was interesting about it.      First, I like how we only had to tweet during one of the speakers. This gave everyone flexibility throughout the day on when they wanted to do the assignment. For me, I wanted to wait for a couple of speakers so I could figure out how long they spoke or what I would maybe tweet if they were my speaker. Once I felt comfortable and ready to go, I decided to go for it on the third speaker.      The speaker was Colin Wylie, who talked about branding from a company's perspective. Colin works at Ohio State University with the social media team. It was very interesting t...

      Snapchat took over the younger generations shortly after its release in 2011. It is interesting to me that three guys founded it in college. I can't imagine what that must have been like for those guys. Now that Snapchat has been around for a while, it's weird to see that it was originally named "Picaboo". There are many other interesting facts about Snapchat and ways to market using the app.     It makes sense that it is most popular among the 18-24 age group by a longshot. I don't think I know one person in our age group that doesn't have Snapchat. Even if you don't snap people or post on your story, almost everyone uses it to text each other or use group chats. It was surprising to me to see that India was the number one country for Snapchat, while the U.S was number two.     Snapchat is the place to market if your target market consists of 18-24-year old's. The ads on Snapchat receive more visual attention than any of the other popular social...

    I was very excited going into spring break. I was excited to be with my friends and family without thinking about school. I ended up doing a lot over break, and it was a great time.      The first weekend, my friends and I went out at UC. We had a pretty good time, but we were ready for our trip to Gatlinburg. We left on Sunday and were all ready to get going. We got everything set up at the cabin with all the food, drinks and whatever else people brought. We hung out and played PlayStation and chilled out the first night.       On Monday we went on a small hike during the day and grilled steaks for dinner. Then, we all hung out and stayed up late. The next morning, they all played golf. Everyone wasn't feeling the best after the previous night. Unfortunately, I watched eighteen holes of golf. It got pretty boring towards the end, but we still had a fun night back at the cabin. On Wednesday we went on a long 5.5-mile hike on a mountain in...

      I still don't know if I will ever actually call it X. Many people feel the same way, it is almost unprecedented that an app which has been around for a while and is popular has had a name change so abruptly. I don't even remember seeing anything about it before it happened. All I remember was opening my phone and seeing some weird app in Twitter's place.      Elon Musk does many out of the ordinary things, with changing the name to X being the par for the course. At the surface level, it seems pointless to change the name of an app that is already as established as Twitter was. But, after looking at Musk's future vision for X, you could make a case for it making sense. He wants the app to be the hub for pretty much anything on the internet. Whether that is transactions or social media. Now, that is a lofty expectation but if X is somehow able to get on that path, changing the name could force people to be more open minded.      Most soc...

      This spring break is unique for me, because it will be the only spring break ever without baseball for me. All throughout high school we played baseball during break and were never allowed to go somewhere. Last year at ONU I went to Florida with the team. But this year there is no point in me going because I can't do anything. So I have the freedom to do whatever I want for my only real spring break.     I didn't even think about this until right before my surgery. Thankfully I brought it up right as my friends were making plans and I was able to get in on the trip. All ten of us finally decided to rent out a cabin in Gatlinburg and we're staying there from Sunday-Thursday. There are many things that I am excited about for the break.     First, it will be very nice not to have to worry about school for a week. Second, I'm super excited to spend time with my friends. This will be my first vacation without any parents there so it should be interest...

      As we all know, Twitter was changed to X by Elon Musk. There are some very interesting points that came from Musk taking over and the name change. Some are bad, some are good for the future.     First off, when Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, fifty of the top advertisers were lost. After that disaster, Musk appointed someone else as the CEO in an attempt to gain back the advertising that was lost. When Musk changed the name, he clearly had visions of the future for X. He wants X to be a place of unlimited interactivity. His vision is something that isn't exactly for the near future, but it will be an interesting story to watch. Some think that X won't stick as the name, but Musk is unlikely to change it back.     In terms of popularity X is only the fourteenth most popular social media app in the world. Obviously, that isn't ideal for marketing, but there are other reasons to market on an app. For example, people spend 26% more time viewing ads ...

      The last few weeks have felt almost the exact same. The only time when things are different is the weekend. I guess this is how life is most of the time, but it's more obvious right now. I guess I feel this way because of what I do after school during the week. Pretty much every day I work out after class, go to practice for a bit if it's during the afternoon, work on homework and eat, then play videogames.      I'm not saying it's a bad thing to be in a routine, but after a while it starts to become a drag. This gives me a lot of reasons to be excited for spring break and getting a reset. My friends and I are going to a cabin near Gatlinburg by ourselves so that is going to be an awesome time. Even though I've been bored, at least there are a lot of things for me to look forward to.      With baseball season coming up for ONU it is tough watching others get excited. My brain wants to get excited but then I realize that I can't really i...