Challenge 4: Lurking

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In terms of social media, the term lurking means to read and look through social media but do not post your own ideas or comments. Lurking is usually looked down upon in most social media communities. But for our assignment this week we were given the task to lurk on various social media sites to discover how the different communities communicate and open up ideas on our topics. For this week again I did my lurking on Twitter. But for my other social media site I decided to explore Reddit a website that I already lurk on.

For my lurk through twitter I started with the hashtag #mentalhealth and began exploring the top posters for this hashtag. I would occasionally open up twitter throughout the day on my phone and plug in the hashtag to see which posters would pop up. One of the recurring posters was this twitter account called @MHChat which is an open access community for mental health. On their twitter account they give a link to their actual website mhchat.com which is an open forum that allows people to post their views and experiences. The website also contains links to articles that describe whats going on in the world of mental health research. Other then MHChat the hashtag usually yielded results from everyday users who are either posting their problems or stories of others and links to sites that could help you or that could provide some support. Lurking on twitter was super easy for me because I’m always on twitter throughout the day and I never tweet anything so all I did was focus my attention to the hashtag and learn how the people that posted on their acted with each other.

For my other social media site I decided to use one site that I personally frequent a lot, Reddit. Reddit is a huge online community that self-coined themselves the “front page of the internet” because a lot of things like jokes or news articles usually get shared on reddit first. On Reddit itself you can scroll through the side and find various “subreddits” which are very similar to hashtags on twitter in the sense that these “subreddits” are topics and threads focused on the same thing, so for my lurk I used the subreddit r/mentalhealth. On this subreddit it was very similar to twitter where people posted their own personal experiences and how their experiences can help others. Sometimes users would post question on the site hoping that someone out there would have the knowledge to help them with whatever they are going through. I attached a picture of what the subreddit looked like on my phone just in case anyone was interested in seeing it.

Picture of the subreddit "mental health"

Picture of the subreddit “mental health”

 

For me lurking was not all that bad because I usually lurked regardless on both of these sites. The only thing I had to do different was just frequent either the hashtag or subreddit that pertained to my topic. Things I learned during lurking was that twitter definitely had more people posting but I feel that reddit had more people commenting and actively trying to help their fellow redditors. The connections made on Reddit felt stronger since the community on Reddit has this weird feeling of closeness amongst themselves.

Overall lurking through these sites showed me many more sad stories and experiences and has proven even more that the mental healthcare in our country needs to be greatly improved.

Blog #7. Lurking It. Part One

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I am going to be completely honest, lurking was pretty fun, especially on Twitter. I was stalking the refugee crisis on Twitter and Facebook, but I found myself mostly on Twitter. Tweets are so simple and easy, that people often will tweet the craziest and most obscene things, even about something as horrible as the refugee crisis.

First off, the refugee crisis mainly is a result from the Syrian civil war. It has been going on for five years now, and unfortunately it does not show any signs of slowing down. Many countries were initially helping to refuge these poor souls who are running for their lives, however countries are now backing out. This has caused quite a backlash in social media. There are basically two sides to this, those who want to help and those who do not. Daily there is huge amounts of tweets and articles regarding the refugee crisis, and people will viciously attack a viewpoint different from theirs.

My lurking on Facebook provided plenty of articles from news organizations. These are all interesting, but I want to know what people around the world think, and that is what I received from Twitter. I started lurking on Saturday night, and I would check Twitter and Facebook every night to see the plethora of new tweets regarding the #rebelcrisis. What I found was quite fun.

Celebrities are really involved with the refugee crisis. Imagine Dragons was at a Germany refugee camp. They talked about how serious the issue is, and how much it shocked them. Benedict Cumberbatch stated that he wanted to meet Home Secretary Theresa may to discuss the refugee crisis. Some people were not happy with that and tweeted about it.

Paul NuttallVerified account ‏@paulnuttallukip  14h14 hours ago

Where do these self-important, self obsessed celebrities get off? Stick to playing Sherlock mate. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/benedict-cumberbatch-wants-to-meet-with-theresa-may-to-discuss-the-refugee-crisis-after-claiming-a6690511.html …

 

Imagine DragonsVerified account ‏@Imaginedragons  19h19 hours ago

spent time w/these cute kids at a german @refugee camp today – crisis is real. http://iTunes.com/iwasme  to help #one4

 

Another tweet that I found really interesting was from Time magazine. TIME.comVerified account ‏@TIME  Oct 11

See how refugees use selfies to document their journey http://ti.me/1LsTJRK 

In it are plenty of pictures that show exactly what these people go through. People who did not live in this age of social media would never be able to see photos like these.

On Facebook I found many news articles about the refugee crisis. Facebook “news” provided me with more professional news, while Twitter gave me personal updates from people around the world.

It was surprising to see how controversial the refugee crisis is. In an article from Facebook, it talks about how countries are opting out of saving the refugees due to financial problems. On one hand it makes sense, but on the other hand it is immoral to push the refugees away. I found that some countries and people just want to live their lives without any “burdens” from these refugees. But I always find myself thinking, “Why do these people have no empathy? Put yourself in their shoes!” and it really frustrates me. I can see where these countries are coming from where they basically say, “Look, this isn’t our fault, and we don’t have the resources,” but I still wholeheartedly believe that it is our jobs as human beings to assist other people in need, no matter the cause.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chaker-khazaal/no-arab-gulf-countries-ar_b_8280448.html (Found from Facebook)

Lurking and Why I’m Doing It

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In this week’s post I am supposed to lurk on two social websites about my topic, health care. I am lurking because I’m supposed to get the feel of the community that I’m lurking in and see the interactions/ideas that goes on.

So again this week I am  looking at the World Health Organization, otherwise known as WHO on Facebook. This organization works on trying to bring health care around the world, obviously. Today, 10/13/15, WHO posted that today is the international day for #DisasterReduction. They continued to say that is it important for the community to work together and, of course, for basic health care. In other posts it also mentioned how adolescents can talk to doctors to get more health care information or how to contact an adult if a physician isn’t helping them. What I found interesting is that someone commented on the post about how they wish it would be easy in Paraguay in English. Then WHO actually commented back in Spanish with a flyer in Spanish and a link. Not only that but later on WHO posted a video about Female Genital Mutilation and before that an article on why it’s important for adolescent girls to get health care. On that day they said it was Girl Day, so their posts went accordingly. Up to 2,000 and more liked both posts and shared the links. Although, what I did notice from all the posts was that there were only about 2 comments for every post.

The second place I looked was on Twitter under an organization called StartUp Health. “ is a global health innovation company dedicated to growing and scaling startups focused on transforming healthcare.” (@StartUp Health, Twitter) From what I found on their feed was the promotion of new technology, such as holograms and partnering with other companies to make a startup. What I also noticed is that they mention a lot of people on their feed as well. Not only that, but they also have links and organizations to help you with your startup. From what I saw there was only a few retweets, 20 at the most, which I found interesting because I would think there would be more.

When I lurked I felt a bit odd because it is not something I normally do. Not to mention that I kind of felt bad when doing so because I felt, in a sense that I was stalking. I think it would be worse if it was an actual person rather than an organization because an organization isn’t human. When I lurked all I did was go through their feed, look at the comments, and see how much the organizations were posting. It was about everyday.

Here are the links to the organizations I visited. Listed in order.

https://www.facebook.com/WHO?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/startuphealth?lang=en

We’re Halfway There!

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It’s Week 8 of the semester, which means we are at the halfway point of the term!

Before you know it, it will be time for Portfolio Review.

Examine your work ethic so far and consider what might interfere with your ability to complete the class successfully.

Remember that you must complete all required drafts, meet all assignment expectations, and attend class regularly in order to submit a portfolio for scoring.

Don’t lose steam now!

Protected: Who knows about drugs??

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How Well do You Know Your Own Meds?

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This week we were prompted to look at how much our family members, friends, coworkers, etc. know about drugs. For the last couple years my father has been hovering around the pre-diabetic range in terms of his fasting blood glucose and A1C. He recently started taking Metformin so I decided to chat with him to see what he knows about it.

With my father being an engineer, he is very analytical in his thinking. He seems to actually enjoy taking his blood glucose after meals because he likes to interpret the data and analyze how his meal affected his blood glucose. He has also become interested in how adding a glass or two of wine or beer to his meal affects his blood glucose.

wine

When asked how metformin works he was able to give me a generalized explanation of type II diabetes and how metformin works to counteract these effects by increasing the sensitivity of insulin receptors in certain tissues. We spoke about how metformin also regulates blood glucose by reducing glucose production by the liver and partially reducing absorption of glucose in the GI tract.

We also spoke about possible adverse effects from taking metformin. He noted that he sometimes gets an upset stomach when he drinks wine with metformin but otherwise hasn’t had any issues. He had vaguely remembered something about the risk of lactic acidosis and also knew it is not advisable to drink heavily when on metformin but wasn’t quite sure how these two factors were related. I explained that metformin can inhibit the breakdown of lactic acid and in rare cases can lead to lactic acidosis if it accumulates to toxic levels. We went over the early signs of lactic acidosis (hyperventilation, myalgia, malaise, unusual somnolence) and also discussed how alcohol can contribute to the risk of lactic acidosis as it also inhibits the breakdown of lactic acid.

Although my father likes to drink a glass or two of wine with dinner and is fascinated with how alcohol drops his blood glucose levels, he understands that drinking heavily while on metformin is not advisable. We also talked about how drinking alcohol in general can contribute to the development of type II diabetes by desensitizing insulin receptors. Even though metformin seems help regulate his blood glucose levels and keep him in the pre-diabetic range we talked about how important it is to still continue to try to manage his blood glucose as much as possible through diet and exercise. As with anything, a glass of wine or dessert is okay but do it in moderation!

mud

Discover Your Flamin’ Hot Cheeto!

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As you find yourself neck-deep in paper drafts and midterm exams, consider this story behind what may be one of your favorite products. With inspiration, determination, and a lot of perspiration, you never know what you can accomplish!

 

Lurking

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This week, I turned to lurking on my topic on the social media. Two social media sites I was looking around were Facebook and Twitter. I wanted to see what kind of information or content was put out. This would help me expand my knowledge of my topic as well as identify for I can effectively find information or content I wanted. Using tags on twitter made it extremely easy to navigate through information. I just typed in a key word, such as LGBT, and  the information popped up. The content was never ending and contained many different areas of my topic. Currently, there are 316 million twitter users. It’s amazing to see how fast content is being added in the matter of seconds on their live link. The site is simple and has links to access some content easily such as, videos, news, photos and top content. 

Similarly, I went on Facebook and searched LGBT and other key words to navigate through the site. Like Twitter, Facebook had many links. Mostly, pages of groups sharing information on lgbt. Some of these groups belonged to major contributors of my topic I have previously seen. One being BuzzFeed LGBT and the other, Human Right Campaign. These groups, and like many others, have been verified by Facebook to be authentic page belonging to a real media company. Accounts on twitter are also verified and I most of the time rely on content being put out from these pages. Many articles usually come with links to the original source and I can use it to track my content. Overall, I have found that lurking through media sites can be beneficial and easy to navigate to find content on I am searching for. 

Casey's Capstone 2015-10-13 18:35:32

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data_waveCapstone -Fake- Data

Recent trip to Santa Cruz

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Photo showing the burned and unburned nature of the Bosqe de Cabrillo grove. Seen in the photo are piles of Eucalyptus waiting to be burned this winter.

 

Last weekend I was able to visit the Prisoners Harbor Restoration site with my faculty advisor and NPS Staff. We toured the Bosqe de Cabrillo, Rincon Papal, and Le Selva groves, and were able to place markers for future use in my capstone study. We will hopefully be able to travel to Santa Cruz again in the coming weeks to get this project underway!