arvanluven

[arvanluven]

The nonprofit organization I chose to write about is the ALS Association. This organization is super important to me because my grandmother lost her battle with it when I was in fifth grade. ALS is a gradual paralyzing disease that does not have a cure. It affects people at different rates- some live lots of years, some only live months. We were fortunate to have less than a year with her, meaning she wasn't suffering for too long. I don't remember most of her being sick but I do remember some things, like her feeding tube and picture charts she used to communicate. 

Every year the Rhode Island Chapter of ASLA has a walk in September. Unfortunately, the last two years have been "virtual" because of COVID. Luckily, they have the longest running and highest earning fundraiser called the Ice Bucket Challenge. They raised over $115 million dollars ($2.1 million was paid to credit card fees for online donations, you can see the breakdown of costs and usage here: www.als.org/ice-bucket-challenge-spending). With the use of social media, I would say they are one of the most successful nonprofits. The Ice Bucket Challenge topped charts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram using the hashtag and calling people out to challenge them to do it next.

The advanced metrics used during the 2014 rush were topics like audience growth and engagement, share of community, brand awareness and community retention. They successfully reached the attention of millions of people and got their voices heard. However, I think, since it's been almost 10 years, they need a revamp. Their social media accounts have slowed down quite a bit. The attention has gone away from the challenge. In fact, I follow almost all of their socials and haven't seen a post in months (besides the annual walk). The algorithm also rejects posts from coming across my timeline. I just checked and they actually do post every day.

The channel metrics have probably decreased over the past few years. Although they do post on Facebook and Instagram daily, I think they should include more personal stories (since about five thousand people are diagnosed yearly). This would encourage people to watch videos, visit profiles, and spend a longer duration on the ALS Facebook and Instagram pages.

Through influencer shares and posts, the Ice Bucket Challenge became very big, very quickly. Thousands of celebrities like Jimmy Fallon (see here: https://youtu.be/b_kdke345NQ), Barack Obama, Justin Bieber, and Lebron James shared posts of themselves doing the challenge. Since the end of the era, not many celebrities have talked about it. The ALSA could team up with some celebrities to do a 10 year anniversary challenge in hopes to get more donations. I think this would be a great lead for them to get the word back out there. 

Overall, I think the ALS social media team does a really good job. Almost all of the metrics are met in every category. In 2013 the mentions of ALS were only at about 6,800. The mentions multiplied by six to reach 37k through only half of 2014. Social media can really do wonders for certain organizations and groups. You can find more info here:

https://irisemedia.com/blog/how-social-media-and-the-ice-bucket-challenge-contributed-to-a-breakthrough-in-als-research/

[arvanluven]

Social media, to me, is the way people on the outside perceive you and your life. The digital platforms that people use daily have a direct effect on how we show ourselves to the world. On apps like Facebook and Instagram, we post about our jobs, hobbies, skills, families and pets. It is such a brainless activity that I think, unfortunately, people are slowly unlearning how to be social in person. As humans, we have become reliant on these platforms for people to see how our lives are going. With all the negatives, however, the ability to keep in touch with long distance friends and family is really incredible. I'm thankful I can just post one thing and have multiple people see it, instead of having to share with people individually. Both of my parents have lots of highschool friends and coworkers that often stop me in public and say "OMG, are you Lauren's daughter? I see your kids on Facebook all the time", and its more disturbing than enjoyable. Sometimes it worries me how much of my life is out there

I think, and I hate this the most about me, but I have a serious social media addiction. I think most of it has to do with the fact that my parents restricted my internet usage so much when I was growing up, that now I have an unhealthy relationship with my phone and social media. I have had Facebook for almost 13 years and I post almost daily, Instagram for maybe 10 years, and I've deleted my Twitter a bunch of times (highschool was toxic). I often use Snapchat but mostly so my family can see videos of my kids daily. Since having children, I've noticed the unhealthy relationship and have tried very hard to kick it. I often find myself scrolling when I should be doing other things and it makes me feel super guilty, which I know is probably common. 

I feel that I am pretty knowledgeable on the social media subject. I am aware of most policies, rules and the basic and general usage of most platforms. One of my favorites is Reddit. I do not post, ever, but I get stuck reading the comments for hours. Like I said, I like to just sit and scroll. I like to use my "down time" to scroll but when I've exhausted my options, I don't feel relaxed or refreshed. It is a mindless activity and I hate it more than anything. 

In this class, I hope to learn how to manage my social media time better. I think learning new ways to cope with this weird addiction would be really good for my mental health and my guilt. There's nothing I hate more than when I check my phone and then an hour has passed. I lose so much of my time to my phone and it really drives me crazy. I also wish to learn about the money behind social media. How does Facebook generate so much income and how do I play a role in that? How does my time equal money to Zuckerberg? What does the future of social media look like? Will we ever run out of "storage"?  I fear one day Facebook will remove all my photos and I will cry.