Participation Attempts Continued (Challenge 5.2)

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This week’s assignment was to continue participation in social media. Similar to my results last week, I did not get feedback from the many users of the Internet. I went to Instagram to attempt to make contact with other users. I commented on several images that were shared in the #lgbtrepresentation tag asking how users felt about representation in the media with the preface that I’m gathering information for a class. I did not receive any replies.

While this was somewhat discouraging, I continued to at the very least lurk the Internet while awaiting responses to my comments and replies to posts. I looked to Twitter for different accounts that I felt had active users that spoke about LGBT rights and topics, and I found the @BuzzFeedLGBT account! I thought that this account was a very good source especially because BuzzFeed is a site that many young adults browse for information (whether that information is a food recipe or something more worthwhile). I scrolled through their feed and favorited some tweets, but I did not find anything that I felt warranted a retweet.

Unfortunately, from Tuesday to Saturday, I came down with a cold and this limited the amount of time I spent online. Because of this, I did not do too much participation or any browsing online. Hopefully this week, I will be able to commit more time to the assignment at hand. In the meantime, I may continue to participate online; maybe this week will produce more activity!

Santa Rosa part 2

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While I was at the Santa Rosa Island I learned a lot but two things that I remember are the species on the island are all originate from the main land , also that since the plates are in constant motion, this island has been moving north along the coast. Now what I was able to deduce from these two facts I learned from my faculty lead session is that the animals from southern California starts to vary as the island moves further north some species begins to change and as a result. To help understand what I’m talking about I will first explain each theory that I learned while on the Santa Rosa Island then draw a clear connection to these two things I picked up.

The first one I will want to cover is the theory of Island Geography, which states that the number of species on an island is based on the island distances from the main land and also based off of the size of the island. So since the Santa Rosa Island is part of the channel island (3rd farthest of the mainland) and is the second largest island of the Channel Islands it is susceptible to the main land but with a few differences. These spices are able to get to the island through birds, humans, floating, and fecal matter. Once a species finds its way onto the island they evolve or mutate to help survive or thrive on the island.

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The other concept that I picked up at the Island was that the island is in fact in constant shift. My guides was also able to tell me that the Island is in fact moving north and the island run East to West it’s a constant line moving up. Since it’s constantly moving north that means that the islands are never in the same place and who know they could even end up outside of the San Francisco Bay.

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Now let’s put these two ideas together, if the island thrives on the main land for species and biodiversity. So if the island is dependent on the mainland then if it moves far enough north toward a different area then the species provided by the main land then change and the island will experience a new type of a species, so in a few hundred years we may find that new species now live on the island.

Made Contact!

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In my last post, I explained how I was trying to make contact with people who are apart of the community I am studying. I am studying the LGBT community in regards to social media. So I made a few comments to see if I could  get anyone to talk to me.

My post included the following, “Hello friends :) I am a university student learning about the magnitude of social media, and I have a question for you all. What does it mean to you as a member and/or ally of the LGBTQ community to be able to connect with others on social media?” I was happy to have a few responses. They are as follows: “It is a lot easier to find people like you and people who share the same views. Plus you honestly learn a lot more from other people’s point of views,” another responded, “I feel more accepted when people accept who I am and not judge me based on my gender or who I like. Sharing experiences makes you feel much happier and less alone too,” another wrote, “It’s comforting to know you are not alone,” another person agreed with the last statement replaying, “Yesss,” still another said “It’s really nice to know that there are others who are like you. You are not alone. They accept you, unlike some members of my sh*^% family,” and the last response was someone who answered my question and the user’s question, “It stopped me from killing myself the other say it honestly means so much to me seeing other people’s journeys and how far they’ve come and being able to connect and question and find out things and discover yourself-Hunter (oh and SKITTLES).”

I thanked all these people, not alone because they commented back, but because they were so honest. What I found out was that social media helps LGBTQ members and/or allies from feeling alone. That is the over arching theme of all the comments I’ve had. One specifically said, “It’s comforting knowing you are not alone.” Aloneness or feeling isolated is highly evident (I don’t want to say proven) in the studying I have done. Social media is used as a gateway to connect these people with others just like them, free of judgement, compassionate, understanding, humorous, and liberating. It is used in the pursuit of self discovery, and answers. It lifts them up and brings them together because sometimes they are not so lucky; and their families don’t support them with who they are, they do feel alone, they do feel hopeless, they do want to kill themselves. That is when social media comes in and they are able to connect, truly connect with others who understand all that they are going through.