Getting My Wiki On!

Wikis have grown to become a big part of how we obtain our information. When actor Heath Ledger died it first became public knowledge when someone changed his Wikipedia page to include a death date. People slowly started to share the news until finally an official announcement from the family was given. Wikis allow us to access wide range of knowledge from a wide range of topics. In deciding what to write about you have to spend some serious time deciding how you want to add your own expertise to the wiki universe. 

One topic example of how to write a Wiki is,  "How to be successfully be a Buffalo sports fan." You might be asking yourself how do I plan on writing a wiki about this topic? Well as most of us know,  there is a lot that goes on to being a sports fan for this town. There is obviously a lot of yelling and a lot of different emotions. There are traditions we have that are a must to supporting our local teams.  You have to be able to accept a lot of changes and a world full of heartache.This topic would be a lot of fun to write about and also very comedic. 

Second example of a good Wiki topic would be, " How to keep your tattoos looking fresh and new."  This topic would be good nowadays because tattoos are common among people. People want to know how to keep them looking good and fresh.  You could research and find several ways to keep your tattoos from fading and keep them looking bright and like new. No one wants to spend tons of money to put something on their body and not properly take care of it. People want there tattoos to look good even if its been years since they got the tattoo. 

Finally a third topic is a recipe "How to make a Peasants breakfast." A Peasants breakfast is similar of slop plate of vegetables, home-fries, cheese and meat. You could walk through the proper way to prep for the meal and take them step by step through how to properly make this delicious breakfast. Peasants breakfasts consist of peppers, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, your choice of meat, potatoes and cheese finally topped off with egg. It is a twist on a traditional breakfast and people would love to try something new at home to eat. 

These are three really good ideas that are not already done. They all seem like they would benefit a wide array of people and could be a lot of fun to write. You can use these as creative foundation to  choosing one and getting your Wiki on! 

The evolution of social media

Social media drastically evolved with the creation of Myspace then later Facebook and Twitter. For me, social media began a long time before those social media networks. When I was young my first experience was with AOL or other known as AIM. You were able to access large amount of news and information talk and socialize with friends and family. Also, email, chat rooms and "away messages" allowed for you to learn more about your friends and what they were doing with their free time. As I went through my teenage years the creation of Myspace, Facebook and Twitter took AIM and AOL to a more evolved level. It has taken over people’s daily lives and become a resource for not only to connect people but to connect people to organizations, media and movements.

 Like everything else social media has its positive and negative effects. It can become very intrusive and can be harmful to people whether it's cyber bullying or just by making people anti-social in real life environments. I prefer to look at the positive side effects though. For example, last year a group created an "ice bucket challenge" to raise money for a disease called ALS. It instantly became an internet sensation from celebrities and to everyday people challenging their friends. The challenge informed millions of people about the disease and helped raise an unreal amount of money for research. Without social media, the ice bucket challenge would of most likely never of reached the level of popularity that it did. It allowed for this small group of people to expose the disease to people all over the world and even inspired athletes, celebrities and people with great power in this world to help make a contribution. Social media is a very powerful tool in our world but with everything there is a responsibility to people to use it in a positive way. Social media was created to help connect the world. It is our responsibility to make sure we show respect to people of all cultures and ideas. Social media allows people of all walks of life a voice and allows all of us the power to police people who want to us it in a harmful way. 

It is fair to say that social media is now a major aspect of the way we live our lives. 

Many people once believed that social media was a fad and eventually would fade away. There is reason to believe that social media will just continue to evolve. I believe in the future we will see it become even easier to access and also contain more abilities then we are able to access now. We will be able to do our everyday lives without even lifting a finger. Social media has already evolved so much in just the last 15 years. People will continue to push the limits on the levels of why we use social media. I believe that social media will continue to help connect the world.