Google Reader

Using any new social media can be stressful for anyone.  Change is always very difficult for me, with no exception Google reader was one of them that gave me anxiety trying to figure out.  Even though this was a stressful process it is good to broaden my horizons and try new social media sites.  Google reader offers many benefits to any person.  By this I mean that any person could find at least one thing to help them out with a project or to acquire information which could help.  For me personally, I subscribed to certain sites that will help me out with my majors.  I am a political science and business major; so knowing what is going on in the world is essential.  I subscribed to Aljazeera which is a news paper published in the middle east.  Also, I am interested in foreign policy so I also subscribed to the council on foreign policy.  These may not intrigue anyone else, but it is a good helping tool for my studies.  Google reader is almost like the flip board app but I feel like the reader gives you a more well rounded amount of stories and information.  I still prefer using my Iphone apps to find out news but while on a computer Google reader seems to be a helpful tool.  It took a little while to understand how to navigate on this site but once I figured it out it was not too difficult.  This site will help when I have to research for my foreign policy projects and help keep me updated on what is going on in the world.   

Online Activitiesz

In a recent class we discussed what role does gender play with online activities of people.  I have come to realize that females tend to push more towards the social aspect of the internet while the males have a tendency to put more emphasis on sports and news.  This does not hold true for me though.  I spend much more time online checking the news because of my major and trying to stay worldly.  By worldly I try and keep up with what is going on around the world and trying to not be ignorant to different events going on.  I rather spend my time reading aljazeera than sitting on pintrest.  This isn't the case for most people though; my roommate for example could sit on pintrest all day and not get bored.  If it wasn't for relatives on Facebook that would be the first thing to go.  As we discussed in class, I find the only use for social media sites like Twitter or Facebook is to make things more accessible and allow people to communicate in a timely fashion.  Which to me is the purpose of having a cell phone, but in today's world you can have all in one and trying to get a hold of someone is still a process.  I feel social media has taken away from personal interaction which is a shame.  Even though I can say all these negative things about social media sites, the likeliness of me getting rid of mine would be slim.  I tweet an obscene amount each day which after only having twitter for around a year, I have completed almost 10,000 tweets... to say the least I abuse twitter. 

Social Medialess

Getting rid of someones phone for a few hours was a decent experience.   I went 8 hours without my Iphone and this was such a process.  This forced people to communicate face to face and actually interact.  Some people say that the feeling of disassociation from the social world is overwhelming but this was not really the case for me; this gave me time to myself and not worrying about what everyone else was doing with their time.  My focus was no longer, "what is everyone doing" or "am I missing out on something" I just did my own thing and still hung out with people.  I found out that if people really want to get a hold of me they will make the effort to find me.  The only bad part about this assignment was that I missed a phone call from my brother during that time.  This really doesn't seem like a big deal but seeing he heads out for his second deployment Thursday, any time I can talk to him I try to.  Also, my mom went off on me for not wishing my sister a happy birthday via Facebook because that is clearly a deciding factor on whether or not you care about someone in my household.  On a brighter note, I didn't lose any twitter followers due to over tweeting that day.   Putting my social media life on the side was not a life ruining experience, like I had said it was a pretty relieving experience which now I find myself leaving my phone at home when I go out for short periods of time.  

About Me

My names Megan Lapointe and I am 19 years old.  I am a sophomore here at UNE and am a Political Science and Business major.  I grew up in a little town named Gorham, located in Northern New Hampshire.  I lived there for 17 years until recently my family moved to the middle of nowhere Maine to a little town called Knox.  I am the youngest in my family following My brother who is 21 and I have a sister that is 25.  I have a niece who is 2 and a nephew that is 3. Some fun facts about my self are: I love John Mayer, my favorite color is blue, I love to play soccer, snowboard, and go hiking, my parents sold my goat, I have two horses named Autumn and Misty.  My most prized possession would have to be my fish Marvin.  Living in Maine is not always the most desirable but to me I wouldn't want to trade it for anything in the world.