Snapchat Valentine

And the worst Valentine of the day goes to Snapchat!

I couldn't believe when I saw the notification on my Snapchat icon on my iPhone home screen. I was thrilled to actually have another Snapchat... but it ended up being the annoying video from Snapchat itself. I wasted seconds of my life watching a video from them wishing me a Happy Valentine's Day!

I LOVE Valentine's Day, but I love it more when I'm getting lots of chocolate. My mom sent me a great care package with tons of chocolate and love all the way from Texas. It was great! But I truly did not feel any love from Snapchat in their valentine. It was a great attempt and brought me back to the site, but I wish that the Snapchat had been from a friend and not a corporation.

On the other hand, I think that Snapchat is an awesome way to share a message on Valentine's Day. Here are some Snapchats that do just that: Snapchat Valentines. These valentines are awesome and did not need much effort. The creators didn't have to pay for postage, and they were able to send the same virtual valentine to as many people as they wanted through Snapchat.

Snapchat is awesome on Valentine's Day, but I sure hope that I never get another meaningless valentine from the company.

Facebook Fraud

     I came across this interesting article on Mashable that discusses how flawed the Facebook model is. Pages are receiving thousands of likes from people that don't even exist and are made up. I still do not know if I can fully understand how Facebook is allowing this to happen. Isn't the goal of "liking" something to show how popular it is. A page should not be popular if it turns out that no one likes it. I have found that most people are now losing their trust in Facebook and looking to Reddit more. 

     I don't know if you guys are like me, but whenever I am on Facebook looking for a product or service and go to its page and see millions of "likes," it drives me insane. I usually don't look at that company again when I am thinking about making a purchase. How do all of these groups find all of these friends to like the page? There cannot be that many people who are liking these pages but are never interested enough to actually interact on the page, and that is exactly the problem for pages that are trying to get attention. Facebook rewards the pages that have the most interaction for the number of likes on the page, so a page that has millions of likes but no one interacting will be shown and supported less by Facebook. It's interesting because you would think that the pages with the most likes would be the most successful.

     The article that I posted a link to above discusses Derek Muller who is behind the Veritasium video blog on YouTube that include science experiments. Muller's engagement percentage has plummeted because he has too many likes for the amount of interaction on the Veritasium Facebook page. 

     Muller is getting a lot of support for the above video, but he still has over 130,000 likes on his page, and he does not want them. He needs fewer likes in order to stand out.

Why does Facebook not fix this flaw? How long will we see the fraudulent Facebook accounts that like everything? The days of being popular and liked on Facebook are over, and it is more important to see the few people who actually support a page.

Facebook: A Never Ending Class Reunion

While looking at Mashable for inspiration for a blog post on this lovely Super Bowl Sunday, this article caught my attention. It is an article about how Facebook has completely changed how we share information during the decade that it has been around. Yes, we all know that Facebook has made our lives so much more connected in every way, and it has also made our lives easier when we want to really connect with someone. Older users are able to reconnect with their "friends" that they haven't seen in decades, and our generation is able to remain connected after many ties are lost with the people that we are meeting every day. We meet someone, and the next day we have a friend request. It's great.

Half of the people that I'm friends with on Facebook I have only seen and spoken to once. Why did I accept that friend request? Why do I keep cluttering my news feed with the food pictures, engagement pictures, and selfies that I do not care to see? Am I afraid to lose contact with these people that I have met? In many cases, I am afraid... What was life like without social media? How did people stay connected?

The article reminded me that my cousin brought up over Christmas that he will have his high school reunion this year. First, it's insane that he is old enough for a 10 year reunion, and second, people still go to high school reunions? I cannot imagine going to a reunion over a decade ago. How did the invitation to attend find you? With Facebook, I can see many life events that I never would have known about until my own high school reunion in 6 years. I can see who has had a child, who has gotten engaged (or even worse-- married!), who has gotten a great job in the middle of nowhere, and who is still living at home working. We all take our different paths, and Facebook allows us to remain connected through all of it.

It's pretty cool and pretty scary... A never ending high school reunion...