BE RATIONAL!!

         I love online shopping. Because I can shop without walking a whole day and come back with empty-hand. What's more, I don't have to carry heavy loads all the way. I can just wait they deliver to my door. There is no reason not to go online shopping for me. However, I have to admit that I'm not a rational consumer when I shopping online.

         In today's media class I learned a process called the Decision Journey. There is a term in the journey called Trigger which can make you buy something without much thought and planning. It came up to me that I often be "triggered" to buy something useless. The thing that pulls this trigger is the beautiful displaying image of a product. For example:

         This case looks beautiful on the site, right? But it is actually not that good-looking when it delivered to you. Don't ask me how do I know this. Because I bought one and I am very regretted the purchase! There is another experience that I bought a skin for my AirPods' case. It's really silly. But I was just can't be rational when I saw the nice pictures! Their advertising strategy just works on me. 

         However, I do make the rational decision when I purchase online. But the advertising image of the product is still my first consideration. For example, I bought a clothes rack online recently. When I enter the clothes rack on Amazon, it gives me some results:

         As you can see, you just can't ignore the product of LANGRIA because the image is outstanding among those pictures. After viewing some pages, I decided to buy LANGRIA as I already decided to buy it in the first place.  However, my consideration is also based on some other factors. For example, I will choose the product with free shipping. I will compare the reviews of similar products. Also, the product with the title of bestsellers or Amazon's Choice will be my preference.

         Online shopping is really convenient but also has risks. I should be more rational when I purchase online in order to avoid buying stupid and useless products again!!

Digital Inequality

            Thomas Friedman views the world as a level playing field in his book The World Is Flat, he says that all competitors have an equal opportunity. Well, this argument is right to some extent, with the development of digitization, the worldwide information can be shared with everyone from five-year-olds to ninety-five-year-olds. However, there still have inequality in the age, social class, gender and race. Although everyone can access the information equally, the ability and stereotype still can cause the inequality.

            First, the digital inequality is obvious between the young people and elder people, as elder people may lack digital literacy. Take my grandfather as an example, he was a doctor in a hospital, but the hospital required every doctor to use the computer to input patient’s information, so my grandfather decided to have an early retirement. Nowadays, the computer literacy is an essential skill. Most companies will require the candidates master the office software. But there are still many people unable to be trained the computer skill due to the economic condition. The digitalization enlarges the divergence between the wealthy people and poor people. 

            As for me, I have been a social media user for seven years and media is my major so I can say that my digital literacy is above the average. However, there is still some inequality happened to me. For example, when I’m playing the League of Legends, my partners will pre-judge I’m a bad player as they see my username is girly and won’t let me play ADC (Attack Damage Carry, is an archaic term used to refer to a champion that deals strong, continuous damage with their basic attacks and scales with attack-related stats.). I admit that there is the difference between man and woman, but we should strive to erase the prejudice. 

            Social technology did offer a platform for everyone, but it is also a challenge. We need to endeavour to survive in the information era. (325 words)

Co-creation in the Social Media

            In contemporary social media network, users are more active than the users of traditional media, because they are not only enjoying the benefits of media but also participate in creating information on the platform. In the following, I want to discuss my co-creation in the social media.
            During my study career, Google Doc is an important platform for me, especially when I’m an arts student. It is a platform designed for co-creation. Users are allowed to add content or edit the exited content which created by others. Everyone is the creator and enjoying the fruits of others’ labour at the same time. Google Doc is an effective way of revising during the exam, we can get inspired from others’ thoughts and produce new ideas, we can also get the missed information in the class from classmates’ notes. This is the application of crowdsourcing, it’s like 1+1>2, people can collectively produce greater than the sum of individual knowledge. We can get better grades than we review by ourselves.
            Besides, Yelp is also a good example of co-creation. When I don’t know what to eat I will find the highest rate restaurant nearby, I will look through the reviews and decide where to eat. Now, I also write the review on Yelp, because I want to share the nice restaurant with others, and I can give a low rate if I don’t like this spot. Yelp replaced the traditional way of how a restaurant promotes themselves. They used to hand out the flyer on the street, now they just need to advertise on the apps. Also, Yelp changed how I find a restaurant. I used to walk on the street and find a restaurant randomly, or recommended by friends, but now I prefer to choose spot according to the rank on Yelp. This is the presumption, we are adopting to fulfilling needs through the technology. In Yelp, the reputation of a restaurant is not created by the owners, but by the co-creation of users.
            Social media is created by every single user. As social media is becoming an important part of our life, we are becoming a part of social media at the same time. (363 words)

Social Media Autobiography

I’m Maxine, born in 1998. I’ve been a social media user for seven years. 

The chance for me to become a social media user was provided by my first mobile phone, I still remember it was a green Nokia and I really appreciated it. The reason why my parents bought me a phone is they thought I’ve already gone to the middle school, and I’m not under their comprehensive regulatory anymore, so there is need for me to have a communication tool to contact them. At first, I only use the phone to text message or make phone calls, and then I found I can access the Internet with my phone. Then I start my journey of using social media. The most frequent apps I used back to then was QQ (Chinese Skype) and Weibo (Chinese Twitter). Then I went to high school and started to contact foreign culture, so I signed up for Facebook and Twitter. Now I’m studying in Toronto, and now the top3 apps for me are WeChat, Instagram and Facebook. 

On the one hand, social media did bring a lot of conveniences for me. For example, I can join a Facebook group of my course and share ideas or notes with my classmates, although we may never say a word in the class. The group makes my study easier, social media allows we share information here. Besides, social media also changed my way of living. WeChat was designed as a chat app, but now it has become a lifestyle in China because it combine the function of Whatsapp, Facebook, Uber, Ubereats and even can be used as a wallet. In China, we don’t have to bring money or credit card because most shops can accept payment by WeChat. What’s more, users can send or receive money in WeChat, so many people sell goods through WeChat and start their business. The social media is becoming a part of our life.

On the other hand, social media also bring some negatives to my life. I came to realize that I was so obsessed with posting nice pics on Instagram, so when I am going out with my friend, I focus on taking pictures. I was in an autotomy, numbing with what’s happening around me. I definitely have missed so many experiences because of the autotomy. What’s more, social media makes me a boring people. If there is an excellent exhibition, the motivation for me to go there must be taking some good pictures and post them on Instagram. On weekend, I’d rather lie on bed and play phone than go walking around. Social media also fragmented my time, as I get along with the fragmented reading on social media, it’s become hard for me to sit and concentrate on a long reading. 

Although social media has some negative aspects to my life, the truth is I’m already can’t live without it, and I think most people are also like me. As it’s impossible to totally abandon it, I need to find a balance between social media and real life.