Week Six

            This week in the Psychology of Social Media we discussed several very interesting topics. I especially enjoyed one of our preparatory assignments in which we were required to calculate how much time we have spent of Facebook. Although I am a bit embarrassed to state the horrific amount of hours that were calculated, I stand by what I said in my assignment, not all of those hours were wasted. I have lived away from home for the last five years, and Facebook has been an awesome way for me to keep in contact with my friends and especially my family back home. There are certainly problems that have been caused by Facebook, but over all I am so grateful that it was created and I have been able to utilize it in an effective and beneficial way.

            In class on Thursday we were visited by a guest teacher again and learned about the awesomeness of YouTube. The guest instructor began by sharing some cool facts about YouTube, such as the fact that there are over 1 trillion views per year. He then asked the question of how many years 1 trillion seconds is, just to make sure that we fully understood the amount that 1 trillion entailed. Students threw out answers like “6 years,” and “16 years.” When I heard these numbers I thought to myself, “wow, 1 trillion isn’t that much!” Boy was I wrong, considering 1 trillion seconds is in fact 31,688 years! There hasn’t even been 1 trillion seconds since the birth of Christ!! It is so crazy to think that there is that may views on YouTube per year; it is so hard for me to even comprehend it. The guest teacher shared some super great videos in his pursuit to describe YouTube in super-hero terms. I loved this unique approach to teaching and felt it was very creative. One of the videos he shared at the beginning of his lecture that I enjoyed was one called “Buyral.” This was a satire video advertising how you can make your videos go viral by paying for people to click all day long. It was so funny and yet it was such a believable business plan that I’m surprised it hasn’t been pursued before.  
             Another discussion that came up was about the Internet and social media being a gift from God. He has given it to us to do good, and to help build up the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. I truly believe that this is true, and if we utilize it correctly we can do amazing things.