Week 5 - Miracle gros online presence

 Miracle gro is a popular garden supply company that sells gardening products such as soils for different plants, fertilizers, care products, and even their own brand of plants. As a gardener, I am a big fan of the plant fertilizer product miracle gro sells. I use it on my plants and usually get big healthy plants as a result. This is a product I use quiet frequently in the summer months and wanted to do some research on the companies online presence.

When logging on to miracle gros website, the first thing one will see is a display of hyperlink images that reference different products sold on the website. At the top left corner, there is the miracle grow logo that is adjacent to a drop down menu with a shop products tab, learn and grow tab, and a purpose tab. When scrolling down the page to the bottom, the individual scrolling will pass the display of images in the center of the page. If one of the image hyperlinks is clicked on it  takes the user to a product sold on the company website. At the bottom of the page, their contact info is listed along with their social media profiles. They also have the same hyper links listed at the top of the page listed at the bottom which I personally didn’t like.  For the most part the layout of this website is clearly designed to be a user friendly way to buy miracle gro products, and for gardeners to educate themselves on how to use those products. Miracle gros website also educates consumers on the company vision in gardening in terms of the environment and the next generation of gardeners. For the most part, I think this is a nicely designed website and gives people a clear idea of miracle gro as a brand yet I feel that  it lacks any information on miracle gro as a company. They should have an about page that explains more of the companies history, who the current ceo is, show us some of the people who work for the company, and show the opportunities miracle grow has to offer people besides the products they sell. I also find the repetitive links on this website redundant. They have a lot of space on the website that I think could be utilized better to tell a story about miracle gro. One thing I admired about the design of this website was the grow and learn tab. This was a section of hyperlinks of different gardening articles providing miracle gro  customers on information including subjects like gardening basics, planning and landscaping,  and information on a variety of different gardening styles like veggie gardening and flower gardening. 

Miracle gro has a strong social media presence with an Instagram, Twitter profile, a Facebook page, a Pinterest, and even a YouTube. On all their social media pages it seems that Miracle gro is very engaged with their customers.  Their instagram shows a series of different photographs of tagged customers with their plants they’ve grown using miracle grows products. It seems like miracle gro has a very personal social media out reach and is trying to encourage people to garden. I really appreciate the company sharing beautiful images and telling customers stories about gardening. Another platform where they shared their customers stories was their Youtube page. Miracle gros YouTube page had an entire section dedicated to different gardeners stories, how they got into gardening, and what they grow call “How I grow”. In this blog I have attached a video from the miracle gro YouTube page with one of these stories. From what I’ve learned in this course, it seems like miracle gro is trying very hard to be transparent and interact with their consumers and their online viewers which I was honestly wasn’t expecting. I am glad such a giant corporation is able to see that their customers are the ones to thank for how far and successful the company has become over the years their products have been around. 

Website: Miracle gro 

Week 4 - digital immigrants and digital natives

- Questions 1 and 2 

     In this weeks readings we learned the difference in digital immigrants and digital natives. Although this sounds like how immigrants use technology different from native people in a specific country it actually refers to how ones experience in the digital era differs depending on the time someone grew up. A digital immigrant refers to people who did not grow up with internet  but are people who saw the internet come to be, and had to adapt to the way it changed the way people learn.  Due to this distinction these people had to learn the internet and incorporate it in ways that worked for them at the time everything was changing. Somethings include, printing hard copies to make edits on assignments. Prenskey referred to these things as an “accents” but really its just the way older generations were taught to utilize a computer for their studies as opposed to millennial's or people my age. The divide refers to the way older generations relationship with the internet affects the way they teach the modern generation information. Not only that but it involves their judgement of how younger generations absorb information. Based on Prenskeys findings, many of the digital immigrants think that old school methods of teaching can still be utilized and are better for the mind.  Which Im sure is true to some extent, for example I will probably always be a traditional note taker yet, I have to be able to take what I learn in a “traditional way” and apply it to a digital platform to do my assignments. That is something I’ve probably had to learn to do when they first taught me how to make a power point in 5th grade. Needless to say processing information digitally is not a problem since I’ve been doing it forever. I think this divide comes from the fact that “digital immigrants” think traditional learning methods are better because that's how they process information and that's what works for them without considering like the article said, digital natives learn completely different from them due to early exposure of the internet and learning how to learn on a computer at a young age. Anyone born in the late 80's through the 90's had at least one educational 4 disk computer game that their parents bought for them. I grew up on those types of games, and I doubt my mother thought it was making my ability to learn any worse then if she didn’t buy those games for me.  My point is digital learning is something most digital natives are highly comfortable with and it doesn’t make sense for the push back from the “ digital immigrants”. 

As being someone who is a digital native, I remember seeing this divide among educators and students as I was getting ready to graduate high school. I remember having teachers being very anti-online schooling, and remembering them not appreciating students going from truly traditional methods of learning to the technologically advanced way. I even remember asking my teacher why she felt that way and she said “ Because people don’t learn the same way in front of a screen as they do not being in front of a screen” and I remember saying “Yeah but were use to its not a new way of learning to us” she did not agree. Well id say I was right considering I am completing a bachelors degree online and feel comfortable doing everything digitally in fact I prefer it. I mean “digital immigrants” can have those opinions but at the end of the day they’re the ones that are going to have to adapt to a constantly changing technological world. They're the ones that have to learn how to teach using virtual methods not the other way around. I mean if this pandemic has taught us anything most kids K - 12 are probably going to learn online majority of their lives they’re not even going to remember the switch from traditional methods to ipads in every room. All they're going to remember is Ipads in every room and doing kindergarten through zoom. Take that however you want but the fact is it is what it is, and its not going to be surprising if most of those kids from this pandemic do their degrees online as well.  Being a digital native, I just don’t see how being anti or disagreeing with the way  people obtain information is going to change the way digital natives learn.  Although, I am probably bias because I am a digital native I found this video online that explains the positives and negatives of being a digital native. The video also explains how being a digital immigrant has its advantages and finishes with how no matter where you fit in the digital era we can all benefit from disconnecting once and a while which I agree with.

Week three- Knapps Model applied

 

        The most recent relationship that comes to mind when thinking about knapp's model is an old college friend who I have drifted apart from since graduating community college. We originally met at a scholarship dinner, where we both had been rewarded the same scholarship for women in horticulture. This initiated our relationship, and when we met again in our agriculture classes we began experimenting our relationship by engaging in small talk in class and learning things we had in common.  From seeing each other everyday in class and getting to know each other this intensified to a friendship. This person would even give me rides home from school. Those car rides further integrated and bonded our relationship learning we had similar music tastes and ragging on our days together. Linking up everyday to talk, sharing personal information with each other, studying together, talking about what we had learned in class, and sharing our passion for plants really bonded us. My professor one day asked me, "where my buddy was" when weren't together. It was a really fun relationship that I still value to this day. I am glad I got to go through community college with such a good friend. Eventually, we started to differentiate and circumscribe having different ideas of what we wanted upon graduating college, and also not graduating at the same time caused us to psychologically distance. We were on different time lines going down similar yet different paths. Our relationship eventually got to the point of stagnating and avoidance. Which I truly believe is because as our relationship distanced, what we wanted, and who we were becoming just completely differentiated. These differences and different life experiences during college lead us to put a wedge in our relationship. I am sure if we saw each other we still talk to each other we’d probably even have a lot to say, but its terminated in the sense that we are not close like we were when pursing our degrees. In fact, we were never that close after college. Sometimes its just the way she goes, that being said I hope shes doing well.  The video I shared in this assignment explains five signs you have out grown a friendship, and most of these signs are what I experienced in this relationship. Lastly, I guess it is important to remember that there is nothing wrong with no longer engaging in relationships with people we no longer feel connected to. The people we are met to have in our lives come for a reason and the ones that are met to stick usually don’t go anywhere.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNV01mxFOw0 

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Week 2- Oversharing Online

3.) I think one of the biggest links between social media and depression is FOMO syndrome, or fear of missing out. I know I have experienced this feeling before. In fact it happened the other day. I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and I saw people I know sharing posts from their time at the firefly festival in Dover,DE. After seeing peoples groups photos and videos of Megan thee stallion I automatically thought to myself, “ I should’ve went to that”, “why didn’t I go to that”, and things like “ Do I not know how to have fun?” Just really judgmental statements about myself that are unnecessary..When the reality is my life is completely different from theirs. I don’t know what's going on in their lives besides they went to that festival, or why they may have been able to go. Despite what  is true of a situation, most people have experienced those thoughts from time to time. Instagram and Facebook were designed for individuals to share life events and photographs with people so most of the time people are sharing the positive life events and the well done photos not the bad ones. When experiencing these feelings of fomo though we are only going off what we can see.

Unfortunately, when individuals are having a difficult time in life (don’t have access to certain things, having financial trouble, health problems or lack resources,etc.) and they see others doing well, going places, buying lavish things , or a happy moment it can cause the viewer to compare and despair. Compare and despair is another aspect of depression when the individual is constantly comparing themselves to others. They start to feel really low about their situation, appearance, themselves, and sometimes their relationships. For example, If someone is in a bad relationship with their partner and constantly sees another couple post happy photos together it could  cause someone to compare and despair and have thoughts like, “ I wish we did stuff like that”, or “oh why doesn’t my partner do that for me” and so on and so forth. I have seen a lot of these things occur with people I know personally. Some of them are depressed in general and then they go on social media to escape, yet it tends to make them feel worse about their situation.  

On the contrary, everything I described can be viewed with a positive outlook. If someone sees another person online doing good in something you are also trying to do well it can be very inspiring, or if someone leaves a positive comment on a photo you shared it can boost that person's confidence!. The same thing could be said for fomo.  If someone sees someone in their feed take a trip to Jamaica, and that's where the viewer has always wanted to go instead of feeling bad, it could inspire them to actually go there, and encourage them to have experiences instead of just seeing it online. The positive side to fomo is well if they can do that I so can I! 

 4.)  Yes I do. I think social media should take some responsibility for their user's mental health and at least address the negative side effects of their platforms. Like I stated above, people with depression tend to get on these platforms and tend to feel worse about their lives more frequently than not. Even if users are not people struggling with depression like our lecture video said, “more often people who communicate mostly online often feel more stressed and alone” (interpersonal communication in the future world Celine Fitzgerald, May 5th,2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlI2qDO0J6s). More and more studies have come out about how social media affects our mental health but rarely ever hear the people who create social media addressing mental health. I’m just saying individuals who run these companies such as Mark Zuckerberg of facebook have a lot of power and money. They are aware of their control and effects on society's well being..There's no reason these billionaires can't donate to mental health programs or help provide access to mental health professionals.  Facebook literally has encompassed every other form of social media it has dating, its own craigslist, event pages and groups, the last thing it's missing is a therapy section. Even though it is odd to seek mental health through the place that causes so many issues, but it certainly is accessible and a lot of people log on to Facebook virtual therapy via facebook might be the move. Maybe Facebook could provide free mental health services to billions of people.

     *I know I focused on a lot of the negative aspects of social media in this post but I do believe there are a lot of benefits. So far when it comes to OSU I have been able to chat with some fellow horticulture majors because of facebook, and today I made a facebook group for plant science majors and green majors to connect on I am going to leave the link below.  

 OSU Ecampus Horticulture and Green Majors