The Five-Second Rule

      I remember back in the days of my childhood, which admittedly was not too long ago, and my peers would tell me about the five-second rule. I am positive that most of you reading this have certainly heard about it. Simply, if your food happens to drop on floor you have five seconds or less to pick it up before it is completely infested with germs and no longer edible. Nowadays I would probably tell you that rule is disgusting and you shouldn't eat any food off of the floor regardless of how long it has been there. However, it seems that the children of today are no longer learning about this five-second rule because in my reading of "The Art of Social Media" by Guy Kawasaki he discusses the principles of the new generation's five-second rule. He calls it, "Optimize for Five Seconds". To quickly summarize it the author states that people should be creating their social media profiles to pass a first glance test. It dates back to the idea where a girl knows if she is interested in a guy within the first five seconds of meeting him. Well, apparently the same applies for social media profiles.

      Personally, I found this interesting in a couple of different ways. First of all, it proves yet again how much the world has changed. The fact that humans are now so heavily focused on their social media that they will legitimately take time to optimize their profile page to pass a five second test shows just how much the internet can control our lives. Secondly, if you were an outsider looking in on the complex narrative that is humanity you would probably think that we were one of two things: simple-minded or very insecure. I mean, to think that people care so much about what others think of them that they are willing to read a book to up their game on social media seems almost child-like. However, while some of us may be simple-minded, insecure, or even child-like I believe as a whole we are the same as we were 20 years ago. Think about it, the five-second rule has been around for decades. Whether it refers to social media, food, or dating it doesn't matter. It all boils down to the fact that we, as a human race, make snap decisions in five seconds or less. Some people may think of it as is silly, and that outsider looking in may see it as simple-minded. Well, there are many ways to look at that, but I think it shows that we know what we want. 

The Rise of Social Media

      Today in my convergent media class we watched an interesting video made in 2009 by Henry Jenkins over the meteoric rise of social media, and how this revolution had placed more power into the hand of the user. However, there was a segment in this video that I found particularly interesting. The narrator discusses the use of social media by the Obama administration and how this allowed him to go from being an underwhelming candidate to the election front-runner. This is so interesting to me because I believe it was a true landmark of the social media era. When you think about modern times it would be silly to not publicize your business/administration all over the worldwide web, but back in those days, over ten years ago, that was unheard of. I think it goes to show the rapid progression of human involvement and interaction regarding social media. We as people have taken what started as an easy-access way to talk to people and turned into a worldwide phenomenon that is used by restaurants, celebrities, airlines, realtors, and almost anything else you could possibly think of. It stems back to simple idea that by the push of a couple buttons you can communicate your message to millions of people all over the country. Also, our class talked about the power individuals have with the power of a single phone, and how much that has changed from many years ago when only million dollar production companies had the capabilities to produce high quality entertainment. However, nowadays you can upload a high quality video using only your devices from your house. A great example I can think of regarding this is YouTube. I am of the generation that has watched a countless amount of YouTube videos which have consumed hundreds of hours of my time, and in my hundreds of hours of research I have found one thing to be true. It only takes one person to create a success story. All of those famous YouTube content creators who have millions of people tune into their channel everyday all started in a similar fashion. Typically, they recorded a video on their phone or small camera, edited it on their phone using the provided software, and uploaded the finished product onto their YouTube channel. Fast forward years later and they are millionaires. In summation, social media has taken over our lives as we know it, and can turn the average person, business, or idea into something catastrophically large in no time. In my opinion, that is pretty phenomenal.

POV: College Freshman

      Life changing and moving forward is something that every single person expects and experiences at some point or another. Yet, you never really understand how that so-called life changing experience is going to hit you until you finally get to there, and I feel that idea truly encapsulates move-in day as a college freshman. It truly is an odd time in, not only my young adult life, but also in every other freshman's life on campus. We all feel that we are gaining this ever-so-powerful independence that we have yearned for all of these years. However, at the same time you are scared at what is ahead, and, for me, there were a multitude of questions racing through my mind. How will I adjust living with new people, how hard are classes going to be, will I meet new friends and can I really do this are just a few examples. Although, I must say, I never dreaded leaving for college. I never had any sleepless nights. Nor did I have any desperation Instagram or Twitter posts about how terrible life away from home was going to be. Nope, nothing of the sort. Honestly, I was excited. I mean, I still am excited because, well, what is there not to be excited about? I have college basketball coming up, I am closer to being an adult, finding my future professional career, and, as I mentioned earlier, that ever-so-powerful independence that I have yearned for all these years. I guess what I am trying to get across is that college is confusing, but I am going to continue to do what I have always done, and that is take things one step at a time. For example, I have put my dorm together in a tasteful, organized fashion, attended each one of my classes, and I have even started doing some homework. I know, amazing right. Needless to say, things are coming together and the life of a college freshman isn't looking so bad.