Website Mania

These past couple of weeks have been very busy, filled with a number of fun projects that I have finally completed! The first was a website on an important, recent social movement: The Women's March on Washington! This event, which took place January 21, 2017, was the biggest social march in the history of the United States. If you would like to learn more about this event, check out my team's website by clicking on the image below:

This week I also worked on a blog about virtual reality. If anyone is interested in that topic, take a look at that blog as well:

Anyway, this week in class we talked about the Umbrella Movement of 2014, which began as a protest for fair elections in Hong Kong. The umbrellas were significant because they were often used as protection from tear gas used by law enforcement during their protests. The movement was organized through an online forum called HKGolden, and volunteers, with the help of donations, were able to organize medical care, clean up, and other basic necessities. To learn more about the Umbrella Movement, watch the video below:

I also wanted to comment that Zootopia, the movie I mentioned earlier in my blog, won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of 2016! 

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the content in this week's post. Have a great rest of the week!

#NYPD? More like #FAIL

Last week in class we had a discussion about the uproar regarding the trend on Twitter, #myNYPD that was popular 2014. The hashtag was created by the New York Police Department in order to show that police had a kind side to them, and were not just about police brutality:

However, that idea backfired and it led to people using the hashtag to display police brutality. To learn more about the incident, watch these two videos by MSNBC and WSJ.

I collaborated with a few of my peers and we discussed the factors that contributed to their failed collaboration, and this is what we came up with:

"The NYPD was trying to release positive content on their Twitter page with the hashtag "#myNYPD". The purpose of this was to engage with the community and show people their positive side, but the citizens answered with negative photos that displayed police brutality instead. The NYPD did not achieve their goal of uniting the community with the police, which brought new issues to light and actually created a bigger divide between the two groups. According to MSNBC news correspondence, one of the main reasons for this failed collaboration is that the NYPD did not go through the "listening/research stage". The NYPD did not look at the community they were addressing or at the perception of the community toward them. It seems as though the NYPD was naïve about the negative stigma toward them, and they were not realistic about the kinds of responses they would get from this hashtag. The marketing strategist of the NYPD underestimated how powerful people's voices are on social media; they were under the false belief that since they are a government entity, their voices would be louder than the rest. They did not realize that their original intent would be drowned out by everyone else's responses."

Something that we did not touch on is that I believe they tried to do this in a time where there still strife with law-enforcement. It was too close to all the incidents of police brutality, so they quickly tried to recover by doing something they thought would help. I think the idea would have worked better if it were centered around a time when the police really helped people, such as during 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombing, rather than as a distraction for the wrong they were doing. It was mostly a matter of bad timing, and what could have been a good idea turn into the backfire of the century.

On that note, I do just want to say that not all police officers are bad people. The ugly acts are always the ones that make it into the news, but the simple acts of kindness rarely do. I have had my share of good experiences with law enforcement, and after watching the recent movie Patriot's Day, I gained a new appreciation for law-enforcement. Try taking the time to thank an officer every once in a while. Some of them really do care for our well-being:

The Culture of Reddit vs Pinterest

Hey everyone! I'm sorry about the late post this week, but I have been very ill since Monday. :(

Last week in class, we talked about Reddit and Suicide Intervention, and how Reddit has provided a platform for people who are looking for help working through suicidal thoughts. I remember in class, one of my peers asked what Reddit was, and I explained to her that Reddit is like Pinterest but for guys. We then discussed how Reddit is usually preferred by males because there tends to be a fair amount of misogyny on this site. I just thought that was interesting because when I described Reddit to my classmate, I was basing it off of my own personal experiences with my male friends being Reddit users and with me being a Pinterest user; I had no idea that there was actually an explanation to this phenomena. For that reason, I would like to pick apart the design differences between the two websites that might explain why males and females prefer one over the other.

Log-In Page:

Pinterest

Reddit

Just by looking at the log-in page, right away we can see that Pinterest is much more colorful and lively. Its main focus is an artistic photo, while Reddit is simply provides a place to log-in/sign-up. Pinterest looks like a magazine, which might attract more women to it. It also has a "cuter" logo, with a cursive P, while Reddit has a robot logo which could be viewed as more masculine.

User Profile:

Pinterest

Reddit

Here we can see the user profile page, and again we can see huge differences between the two. The Pinterest page is more organized and has boards in which to save different categories of posts, which can be controlled by the user. It also has cute shapes like squares with rounded edges and a circle for the profile picture. With Reddit, there is no profile picture or any information about the user, but we can see any posts that the user has made and any Sub-Reddits they have saved. Again, I feel like the Pinterest page looks much more colorful and feminine, while the Reddit page is more straightforward and is not as customizable.

Homepage/The Fun Part:

Pinterest 

Reddit

This is where all user posts get displayed. With Pinterest, they are organized into columns and the comments on each post can be changed. On Reddit, posts are viewed as picture icons with text next to each one describing what is in that post. I personally believe that Pinterest is more visually appealing, which might attract more female users.

Culture:

Pinterest

Reddit

Here is where the gender divide between the two websites can be really seen. If you click on the explore option on Pinterest, you get different categories to choose from. Those categories range from food, DIY (do-it-yourself), and beauty to quotes, travel, and men's style. The content on Pinterest definitely seems to be more geared towards women, which explains why they may find themselves on that page. Reddit, on the other hand, has more general content. However, in class we talked about how Reddit users can often post misogynistic comments, which is what turns women away from the site.

All in all, I think it is clear why certain genders prefer one website over the other. I am a die-hard Pinterest user, but I can appreciate the content that Reddit has to offer as well. Anyway, I hope everyone has a good rest of the week!

The Hidden Figures in Successful Groups

This week, I really wanted to focus on the article we read, "The Secret to Smart Groups: It's Women". The article was about some scientists from MIT who did a study on what makes a group smart, and believed that the "c factor" (or collective intelligence) was what makes a group successful. However, they found that the true identifier of a cohesive team is something they called "average social sensitivity". Basically what this means is that people who can read non-verbal cues tend to make better team members, and the scientists found that women are actually much better at this than men.

This article made me think about the recent movie that came out called Hidden Figures. Here is the trailer, in case you don't remember what it's about:

This film showed a number of teams that were successful because of the women that were involved with them. In particular, there was a scene where one of the women taught the rest of her team how to code because it was the upcoming advancement. Once the new computers were installed in NASA, her team was the only one who knew how to program those computers. I just really enjoyed this article because it talked about a special skill that women have that gives them the edge when it comes to being an effective team member. Hooray for women!