Objective 6 and Objective 7

Objective 6

I wasn't as successful as I thought it would be. I tried to have friends help me promote it and that did not work as well as originally thought. I cross promoted this page mostly through twitter trying to get more likes or page views but it did not work as I had planned. I have friends that are real estate agents and they received interest through twitter and I was hoping to get more likes through that. The plan that I had was to post educational messages for those looking to buy or sell a home. I tried to post during the peak times around Monday Wednesday and Saturday to increase views. I also tried not to post too much because I personally don't like things popping up in my face every day but figured that 2 to 3 times a week would keep you on their mind but wouldn't be annoying. 

Objective 7

The campaign wasn’t a complete waste as there have been a handful reach out interested in testing the waters of buying a new home as well as some looking to sell their homes which is good. I have also had one who told me personally when they look to upgrade to a new home they would love for her to list their home as well as help them in the search for a new home. I could have done a better job of trying to get reviews from past clients and help promote her. It was hard with her not being able to do much with her father having a quadruple bypass surgery and not getting listings to share on the page. I slightly increased the likes received but not how I imagined I would. I was expecting more of my friends to share it with their friends and help to get more views but now looking back I realize that I have many friends who are closely tied to others our age who have become real estate agents and want to support them. I will continue to monitor this page and hopefully get more likes and views as she gains more listings and have more to offer. I would put more pictures of houses that she had listed as well as post information of other things are happening in the real estate world such as house prices rising or falling in the area to create a sense of urgency to help people get off the fence on if they should sell or not. 

Objective 5

I reached the 30 likes deemed necessary to begin to be able to analyze the effectiveness of our Facebook page through the first 2 weeks or so. Now to the end of the semester I have gotten to 44 likes so I didn’t increase necessarily how we wanted to. In my Sales Management class, we discussed the importance of educational based marketing and help the target audience view you as an expert in your field. I tried doing this each week by posting at least 2 times a week sometimes more with educational things for those wanting to buy or sell a home. The likes did not increase as much as maybe desired but others have reached out with interest to test the housing market. The likes per post were few the average was about 7 to 10 on each post which means only about 16% of the followers would like the content. Each post received varying levels of views but would range from the high being 375 and the lowest being 27. I also posted pictures of a townhome she had listed early in the semester that gained more interest than the other posts it but became difficult as my grandpa had a quadruple bypass surgery and she needed to attend to him and she didn’t get listings during that time.

Objective 4

The original plan I had was to find people who were looking to sell their home or a new family looking to buy or a person looking for a second property. I was hoping to have her do live posts during open houses she had or pot listings that she had received. My grandpa then had a quadruple bypass surgery that then affected my mom greatly and I had to deviate from the plan. The new plan I had was to educate potential first time buyers or first time sellers with things they could do to increase value and interest from others in their property. I also was looking to gain interest from people who were maybe trying to sell their home by themselves and having a hard time finding people with interest in their homes. I tried to educate them with posts about 2 times a week for those looking to either buy or sell a home. I also wanted to receive interest from people who were looking for a new home whether it be a snowbird wanting to move down to sunny St. George or a young couple. 

Facebook Campaign

I did my best to narrow the search and make it not be too specific.

Facebook Campaign Screenshot

Automatic Attitudinal Response

After reading through the things I have posted from "On The Media" it was interesting to see the different automatic attitudinal responses that I had which come from primary certitudes or hidden presumptions. Each person has their own pre-determined responses and automatic attitudinal responses and I definitely do. This isn't bad nor good but we need to be mindful of opting to go beyond our automatic response and to dig deeper. One thing that seems to resonate in each of these posts from a primary certitude is that I was raised in a home where there is a belief that all people are doing there best and we should give each other the benefit of the doubt. I was raised Christian and believe that we all make mistakes but we are trying hard and I seem to give people the benefit of the doubt but they needed to fix their mistake. The hidden assumptions I have had is that we all need to love each other. I come from a home and community that there wasn't much conflict and the importance of love and compassion and I have the hidden assumption that we all love others and respect the circumstances they are in. Another primary certitude is that I was raised by my parents that when something was wrong it was my fault. In each of my posts there is a hidden assumption as well that people need to take ownership or accountability for their mistakes and need to take action themselves to correct it. I need to be better at assessing the situation and think maybe there was other factors in it that caused it.

In these posts I tried to look at all the facts of the situations and post on them from a unbiased view but in all reality that is almost impossible. We were all born into different circumstances and had different experiences our entire lives and that is what shapes our thoughts and ideas. I lived in a foreign country for 2 years and was able to be more open to other people and the challenges that they face. From that experience I am able to be more compassionate and has helped me open up and understand we are each here doing our best and just trying to do our best with the situations we have been put in. These assignments to post on various stories has helped me to look deeper and try to think deeper and consider the other sides. Talking with others has helped me to see other perspectives and try to see it how they do. I have consciously tried to look at other sources to see different sides and see that my opinion isn't the only one out there and isn't always the right one. Hopefully I can continue to improve and not default to my automatic attitudinal response but think deeper and look closer at the matter at hand.  We all must be better at this if we want to continue to grow and hopefully be able to unite our country once again.

OTM: How Prisoners Get Punished When Their Families Post Online

In the episode of On The Media titled "Do Better" a segment within that episode has been titled "How Prisoners Get Punished When Their Families Post Online". In this segment Bob Garfield interviews Dave Maass. Dave is a investigative researcher and has studied this issue for some time for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The EFF is an organization that looks to protect civil liberties in the digital world (1). Dave states that he isn't a lawyer but classifies himself as a "muckracker". He studies and digs up dirt on several issues and uses activism to get different policies that have been passed to be reversed. The issue is that Texas has recently joined South Carolina, New Mexico, and Maine by creating policies that does not allow inmates, their families or any other third party to post on their behalf on social media. The prisons will look at social media platforms to see if any posts are made on an inmates profile and will try to link it to the the actual inmate in prison and will punish them for that behavior. In South Carolina they use to give a Level 1 offense for this activity which is the same level for escapes, rapes, assaults and others. For committing this action they can be put into solitary confinement or can lose telephone privileges. They do this to censor the inmate as well as censoring the outside to know what it is really like in prison and the conditions the inmates live in (2). This was an interesting topic after recently talking in my social media class about the prison system and the flaws within it.This was quite eye-opening to me.

I believe that when you commit a crime and have been sentenced to go to prison that you lose some of your freedom and in a sense lose some rights because of your wrongdoings to society. In this case it is about their first amendment right of free speech. I believe that since they have been convicted of a crime their right to the first amendment can be limited. To punish them for a family member posting on their page is a bit much. In the interview Dave mentions that they don't use the modern technology of what IP address was used to access these platforms. The forum created to monitor their social media accounts merely look and see that there has been content posted and will try to link it to the inmate to then in return punish them. I believe the forum that looks into these social media accounts need to look more into the records of where the login occurred and take a deeper look into it before punishing an inmate. I hope that the EFF will find alternate ways to monitor this and eventually come to a compromise with these forums to be more accurate in if there was collaborations or not and reduce the number of punishments handed out for this.


1. Electronic Frontier Foundation

2. How Prisoners Get Punished When Their Families Post Online

OTM: The Myth of Voter Fraud

In this election season there are many hot topics being brought up by the media and by the presidential candidates. One of these topics being brought up, which is common among those losing in the pre-election polls, is voter fraud. Donald Trump has claimed that dead people are voting and have been doing so for the last 10 years. In a portion of the On The Media episode entitled "The System is Rigged" they discuss the myth of voter fraud. Bob Garfield interviews Michael Wadman. Michael is the president of The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and author of the book, The Fight to Vote. He gives evidence of a study the Washington Post conducted and only found 31 documented cases of voter fraud or voter impersonation out of billions of votes caste. He also explains that there have been 15 laws now put in place in order to stop the ability of people to commit voter fraud. Through these laws it has hit the minorities and younger generation the hardest. Trump says that it will happen in Philadelphia and targets other inner cities which brings in a racial element to it (1). This seems interesting to me as he has been seen as a racist with different comments and now he is targeting those groups of people for potential voter fraud.

I believe that there is going to always be ways for people to work around the system and find loopholes to so call "rig the system" but to be worried about and say that dead people are voting and have been for ten years is ridiculous. In the study done by the Washington Post shows that only 31 out of billions of votes says to me this problem is so small it isn't an issue. We should focus on other problems. Also, when will the racial profiling stop? We are proud to say that we are the land of the free but it seems like when it comes to a problem it is always part of the minorities fault. Why did he have to pin-point Philadelphia's inner city? Why didn't he name Salt Lake City where he may lose to Evan McMullin? He can't accept blame so if he ends up losing it has to be because of another reaon other than his own fault. It seems to me that in the pre-election polls he is losing and needs some way to say that if he loses it isn't because he is a bad politician but it is someone elses fault. It reminds me of someone who makes a mistake but can't accept the blame and needs to cast the blame onto someone else. He didn't finish his homework but of course it wasn't his fault, his dog ate it.


1. The Myth of Voter Fraud

WI: Syria and Immigration

There is war going on in Syria that is very complex. A video entitled "Syria's War: A 5-Minute History" broke it down to be hopefully be a little more less complex and I would recommend it to help give more context to your opinions. The Syrian people began to protest the regime of Bashar Assad and the government in turn opened fire on them so the people decided to fight back. Assad begin to use chemicals to harm civilians and rebels to harm and would eventually kill people. The US eventually begin to train Syrian rebels to particular attack ISIS (1). There are so many involved with different foreign backers that some don't even know or agree who they are fighting. I think people lose sight of why they are even fighting.

There is so much fighting going on in Syria with the Assad regime, ISIS, the rebels and the different foreign backers I believe we forget who is really losing here. The civilians in Syria, they are the ones losing here, they are being killed and trying to seek refuge. It is difficult for them and many believe that they shouldn't be able to find refuge in other countries such as the US while others are very welcoming of letting Syrian refugees enter the US. According to an article in the Business Insider entitled "Why Assad Keeps Dropping Gas Bombs on Syrian Civilians" the Assad regime supposedly in 2013 agreed to destroy chemical arsenal but yet two years later in 2015 there were reported chemical attacks that have killed and injured hundreds of people (2). The Syrian people continue to lose but yet it seems that the countries involved trying to help them and fight ISIS and Assad are confused.

It is sad to see civilians, just like you and me, being killed in the streets with chemicals and dealing with this turmoil. Syrian refugees are being allowed into the US to help them go forward and have a better life. There are several people that are against it and believe that they should not be allowed. Many believe that the US doesn't know who they are and shouldn't allow them in. I understand that point but why treat them like a criminal if they aren't one? What would you like to happen if you were in their shoes? If I was in their shoes I would hope they would try to help me get out and have a better life. I would hope that people would try and help me and respect me. I think that we should allow those in that our national security agencies deem harmless into our country and help them be able to have a successful life and hopefully in turn give back to the community and help others. I believe that we should do our best to help others and trust our national services to only allow those in who do not pose a threat to our society.


1.Syria's War: A 5-Minute History

2. Why Assad Keeps Dropping Gas Bombs on Syrian Civilians

WI: Security and Privacy

The issue of security and privacy in our country is an interesting topic. There are many people on both sides of the issue. Many think that it is a good idea for the government to be able to collect and keep information on us that is obtained through security cameras and license plate detectors. They believe that this will go towards helping keep our country safe. Other people believe that it is wrong and violates our fourth amendment right of privacy for the government to be able to collect so much data on each person. According to the U.S. Department of States about the Privacy Act, passed in 1974, states that this act guarantees that "the right of individuals to be protected against unwarranted invasion of their privacy resulting from the collection, maintenance, use, and disclosure of personal information (1)." Some also have the feeling that they are not a criminal so don't keep my information as if they are one.

In a TedTalk given by Catherine Crump entitled "The Small and Surprisingly Dangerous Detail The Police Track About You" she discusses how there are several license plate detectors around on police cars, roads and other places. Many people don't know the detectors are there and don't understand the data that the police are able to keep on each person. They are able to track where you go and then try to determine who you are depending where you go. Police are not only keeping data for people those who are wanted for wrongdoings but for every single person. They are also able to use a technique to determine what cell phone is in what house (2).  These federal agencies have so much data it is ridiculous.

I believe that it is good that we have such technology to be able to help catch criminals and be able to find people who are wanted for wrongdoings. I also believe that it is a violation of the Privacy Act to be able to follow any person and track where they are going. This can especially be scary especially with the unrest between civilians and police brutality. This then gives an opportunity for a police officer or station to wrongfully track someone and retaliate for protesting. Federal agencies should be able to have this information if they are being sought after for a wrongdoing or have been labeled as a person of interest for a crime. For all other people this data should be able to be collected but then eliminated.


1.https://foia.state.gov/Learn/PrivacyAct.aspx

2. https://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_crump_the_small_and_surprisingly_dangerous_detail_the_police_track_about_you#t-286151

Hashtagging the Debate

I was in class so I wasn't able to watch or listen to the debate but I followed my timeline on twitter. I follow some friends as well as many professional athletes. There really wasn't any tweets that were providing any real information or true opinions from what was happening during the debate. There were several people who would make light of the debate. One tweet that I saw a few times that was being retweeted said "Why don't we give them both a set of boxing gloves and whoever wins can be the next President, otherwise how do you choose between them." There were others that would say maybe we should just wait another 4 years. Another one said I think we have taken the phrase anyone can become president too far. There wasn't a whole lot of actually commenting on the actual debate or what was happening.

It is sad for me to see the turmoil in our country and that it seems almost nobody is excited for this election. People aren't really talking about the different points such as immigration/foreign policy, education, the economy and other important issues. Instead people would rather see them put on boxing gloves and fight to see who wins. It is very disheartening. Hopefully the millennials and younger generation will start to pay more attention to politics and become more involved in state politics which will then affect the way our state representatives affect different issues that are brought up and will truly share the voice that we have.

WI:Learning and Thinking

Education is a very important topic in the world today. How are we educating our children from the time they are very young to going through college? There have been many changes in the way that we are teachers and professors are educating. In the YouTube video "The Future of Learning, Networked Society" made by Ericsson there are several participants who point out different ideas some of which I would like to point out. Seth Godin who is an American Author, entrepreneur, marketer and public speaker said that schools have become like training a factory worker. The school trains them on how they want them to be and if they fail you punish them and make them go through it again. If the kid doesn't conform to the school then he is punished. He states that some kids are able to be engaged and take notes and then 2 weeks later regurgitate the material back but other kids can be engaged but not learn like this (1).

I believe that he is correct in some of his thinking. I believe that students learn differently and teachers and schools must conform to students to help them learn. They need to help cater to other needs that their students may have but if a teacher has a class size of 25 or more is there really enough time to cater to each student, when does it fall on the parents of a child to help him understand a math assignment? Being married to a teacher I see how my wife tries to teach in different styles depending on the students she has and tries to help each student. Schools are trying to provide interventionists to help those students that struggle in a certain area and try to help them learn in the way that is best for them.

During the video Sugata Mitra a professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University in England says that teachers need to point students in the direction of asking the right question instead of finding answers (1). I completely agree, answers are easy to find if you have a good question. Albert Einstein said "If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions (2)." If we spend our time with frivolous problems then the answers we find wont have any meaning. Teachers need to point students in the right direction and help them think critically. I believe that some teachers are doing this but even more need to start. In one course I have this semester the professor will present the class will give a situation and then say you have been in school and learned how to critically think, how do you solve it. We then as a class must come up with different questions that will then lead to finding ways to effectively solve the problem.

Later on in the video it is mentioned that education use to be limited to only the teachers knowledge of the subject and the small textbook for the class. But now with group working and technology students can learn so much more (1). Each student has a smartphone, tablet or laptop and essentially have information on just about anything at our fingertips. We need to be able to be able to actively use that technology in class to not waste time on finding answers that we can easily find and learn more to critically think and think of bigger and more important problems we can solve.


1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quYDkuD4dMU
2. http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/60780-if-i-had-an-hour-to-solve-a-problem-i-d

On The Media: Safe Places and Trigger Warnings

When I began to listen to the episode “Kids These Days” the second story was titled "Free Expression Takes Work", Brooke Gladstone interviews Cameron Okeke. To add context socially, culturally and psychologically in this story Cameron is a recent graduate of University of Chicago, who is an African American and looks to advocate for safe places. When he went to school there he said that he felt unsafe to express his ideas or opinions and needed to go to the office of Multi-Cultural Affairs in order to find peace and feel safe. The University of Chicago in their freshman welcome letter stated that they did not support safe places nor trigger warnings for students. This bothered Cameron and he wrote a piece entitled "I'm a Black UChicago Graduate. Safe Places Got Me Through College." When they started discussing safe places I was confused and unaware of what they meant by safe places. According to an article on the Washington Post states, the phrase “safe places” was first used about 50 years ago for women’s rights forums and included those looking for relief from harassment for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Now it means a place for group of people who feel ostracized can be comfortable sharing their beliefs (1). I believe that students should be able to have places where they are able to go and meet among those that have the same beliefs as them. They should be able to meet together and discuss their ideas just like there are any other kinds of clubs on campus such as the Multi-Cultural Diversity Club. In the episode they explain that some universities have ultimately cancelled scheduled speakers to their university because they may present information that may offend another person or may not be politically correct. Our country was founded on a Bill of Rights and the first amendment in it is free speech. Each of us has the opportunity to share our viewpoints and opinions just as much as the next guy. Our society is now evolving and it chooses to become offended by just about anything. We need to go back when people could express their opinions, disagree on the matter and then walk away and respect the fact that we disagreed. If we are going to grow as a country we must be able to freely give our opinion without someone telling us that we are wrong and cannot do that. In the example of Colin Kaepernick kneeling or sitting during the national anthem, I believe that he has the right to be able to take a stand for what he calls oppression of minorities. I do not agree with how he is trying to gain attention on that matter because people are now only taking about the action of sitting down or kneeling instead of the real issue of people killing cops and cops killing people. I do however understand and see his role in expressing his view points and trying to get his message heard.

After the section of the show discussing safe places they then move to discussing trigger warnings. Once again I was confused by what they meant. Later in the article of the Washington Post, which was mentioned earlier, states that trigger warnings are to alert students of information that will be presented and may be disturbing (1). In this section of the episode Brooke Gladstone interviews Kate Mann, to add context socially her role here is as a philosophy professor at Cornell University. She believes that trigger warnings are to just prepare students for material that will be presented and are not used to have students skip class. I also believe that faculty members should give trigger warnings before presenting information that some might find offensive or disturbing. After giving a trigger warning the students then can choose to participate in the discussion or leave if they would like because that is their right. This should not impede the faculty member to go ahead and present this information although it be disturbing because as a student at a university we are there to learn and become more educated. We are able to learn through other people’s opinions and different viewpoints to widen our scope of thought. I believe that we all have different experiences that shape our lives and there are some things that may bother us and we can have the chance to choose not to listen but this cannot stop the instructor from presenting that information. Trigger warnings are generally used when talking about rape or other traumatic incidents. I personally know someone who was raped about ten years ago at the age of 12. That day continue to haunts her and she can’t escape it. It happened and she can’t go back and change the fact that it happened but she can reduce the effects of the trauma to come back and haunt her again and again through trigger warnings. Many people think that there is no need for trigger warnings and that if a person reads, hears or watches something disturbing they should then make the decision to stop reading, walk out or stop watching. An article in the Huffington Post gives a wonderful response to those people. As a direct quote from the article she writes “by the time we reach triggering materials in an article, it is too late. Stopping at that point doesn’t not help. It makes no sense to have read halfway and encounter a particularly traumatic passage before stopping, when a simple trigger warning at the top of the article would suffice and prevent unnecessary pain and memories. A trigger warning gives us a tool to regulate our emotions and for us to set the content aside, until we are ready to process the content and engage with it in beneficial ways (2).” It is critical to give quick warnings which can ultimately help someone else from feeling unnecessary pain and trauma. It is very important to do your best to know those around you and try to understand their circumstances in order to be more sensitive. We each have the opportunity to speak freely but it also important to respect those others around us. 

Sources

1.  Christina Paxson. Brown University President: A Safe Space for Freedom of Expression. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/brown-university-president-safe-spaces-dont-threaten-freedom-of-expression-they-protect-it/2016/09/05/6201870e-736a-11e6-8149-b8d05321db62_story.html?utm_term=.7c3d0f35e067
2.   Jacqueline T Lin. Why We Don’t See a Need For Trigger Warnings. The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-we-dont-see-a-need-for-trigger-warnings_us_57ce3c8fe4b06c750ddb87c2

Facebook Campaign

The Facebook page that I have created is for Patti Nelson at HomeSmart Advantage. She is a real estate agent here in town. I will work with her to have a better web presence and hopefully get her more business. I will cross advertise using Twitter and Instagram to get more traffic to the Facebook page as well as her website. I will post new homes she has listed as well as share information and tips to help those trying to sell their homes or for those looking to buy a home.

Persona 1: Greg and Rachel, they are 29 and 28 respectively with two children and another on the way. Their family is becoming too big for the home that they have and need to find a bigger home to have room for the third child and enough space to have another. They are looking for a real estate agent who can help them find the home that best fits them.

Persona 2: George and Bernice are about to reach retirement and currently live in Bountiful. They are looking to buy a smaller home in St. George to be able to come and vacation to during the winter to escape the snow. They are looking for a agent who will be able to find them properties that will fit their needs without needing to come down to look each weekend,

Persona 3: Susan just turned 75 and recently lost her husband. She is now alone and is looking to sell her home in order to move closer to family in Northern Utah. She is looking for a real estate agent who she can trust to properly list her property and find people willing to buy her condo.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/pnelsonhomesmart/?fref=ts