Facebook The Anti Social Network

Well you guessed it; today my rant is going to be about Facebook. People in this day and age are spending more time on their phones than ever with a whopping 1.72 hours per day spent on social networking sites and with that number set only to increase over the next several years. Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites with 1.25 Billion active monthly users.
Now I know what your thinking, Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with friend's overseas and interstate, technically you are correct but for me the positives of Facebook are heavily outweighed by the negatives. Now stop for a second and look up from what your reading and look around at everyone you can see and count how many of them are on their phones. Now my guess is if your in a room of around 5-10 people, the number of people on their phones is between 3-6, so that's between 30%-60% of the people in that one room on their phones. Now I don't contribute this all to Facebook, other social networking sites are to blame too and also the invention of smart phones has made it too easy to access these sites at the touch of a finger. But the amount of time people spend scrolling down there news-feeds pointlessly looking for something to entertain them for a few seconds of their life is creating a very antisocial generation. Just the other day at university I was trying to have a conversation with someone and the whole time they were busy staring at their phone on Facebook scrolling through their feed to find out what everyone had got up to over the weekend. Lets be honest here most people spend 5% posting new content, 15% sharing funny videos, 40% scrolling through the news feed and 40% stalking other Facebook users photos. If we could cut back the time we spend on our phones we would be more productive and also be a better in social situations, but if we keep on with the trend of increasing more time on our phones and social networking sites we will find in the future people wont have the people skills to cope in social situations. Now I don't know about you but thats not how I wish to live my life, so from now on I am aiming to spend less time on my phone and more time living my life outside of the anti "social network".

Well that's all for today hope to have a new post up again soon.
Yours truly,
Luke Henderson

Assignment over :? or not

Hi everyone, id like thank everyone who has read my blog over the past few months and helped give me valuable feedback and data on what starting and writing a blog is about. Id like to give a huge thank you to my friends and family that shared my blog and put up with me spamming their news feeds. Sadly my assignment is over but I will be  continuing to write, so make sure you watch this space closely :)

Your one and only,
Luke Henderson

Whats Trending?

Hey everyone today I'm going to decipher why videos and/or stories go viral and become trending on social media. When looking at the current trending stories on social media you notice all of them one thing in common, they are all relatable. Whether it be kids doing something funny or someone showing kindness that isn't seen everyday these are all relatable to everyone and this is a big part of why videos go viral. Unique content is another reason why videos can go viral and become trending on social media, but the question is what makes each video unique when so much has been there done that online in this day and age? Well there is no definitive answer when it comes down to it, it's just a lot trail and error, finding the right sites to publish onto like reddit or hacker news. When looking back at the recent videos or stories I have been reading lately I have found that I have been watching a lot of time-lapse videos like this video of a man proposing over a whole year. But these videos don't interest everyone so you have to find what works for you best and harness it. If your looking for some more info on how to make a video go viral sus out this link.

Your one and only,
Luke Henderson

When Should You Post On Social Media?

Welcome back everyone I hope my Mothers Day post didn't scare too many people away :) For those that are still here the show must go on.

Today I'm going to give you a rough guide to the optimal posting times and days of the major social media platforms. For futher information click Quicksprout.

Facebook
Time: 1-3pm
Day: Thursday and Friday

Twitter
Time: 12pm, 6pm and 5pm
Day: See graph on Quicksprout

Pinterest
Time: 8-11pm
Day: Saturday

Instagram
Time: Off work hours
Day: Monday

Google+
Time: 9-11am
Day: Monday to Friday

The infographic from Quicksprout is a great rough guide for anyone looking to increase views and shares I highly recomended having a look at it :)

Yours truely,
Luke Henderson

Mothers Day Facebook Updates Are They Attention Seeking Or Just Being Thoughtful??

Hey everyone, first off id like to thank everyone who has read any of my posts because last night we cracked 1000 views so thank you to everyone that has been a loyal reader :).

How Facebook Made Me Feel Mothers Day

Now onto today's main topic Mothers Day Facebook updates! If you haven't been on Facebook over the last 24 hours here's a quick run down for you, Nearly 75% of my Facebook "friends" have posted a status about their beautiful mothers with either a picture or heart felt message or in some cases both on their wall for everyone to see how much they care right? Well Id like to think that's the case but something just seems off when I scroll down my feed and I find myself reading nearly identical "heartfelt" messages. Then I look at the photos and see that over half are the exact same poses or a slightly better version of the previous photo up the feed. So I asked myself, could this be that this is a competition to see who can show their Facebook friends that they love their mother more? or do they genuinely care? Ill let you decide what you think but for me I'm just going to spend that little bit of extra time talking with my mum instead of spending it trying out do someone on Facebook!

Yours always,
Luke Henderson

To Netflix or Not?

This is the biggest question Australians face in front of new downloading laws and with other already available options like Presto and Stan already active in Aus what makes Netflix better?Netflix was the last of the streaming giants to come to the Aussie shores, coming with a depleted library that will make any users who have tasted the forbidden fruit of the US Netflix cringe at the site of it. With under a quarter less content than the US counter part the Australian Netflix leaves you with a sour taste in your mouth at first glance. One of the few things Netflix did right was to create the cheapest option out of the market with $8.99 starting price package including a single stream and standard definition, but if you want HD unfortunately you will need to the package up at $11.99. After my first sour taste of Netflix I decided to go back and have a better look over the content in hopes my first glance was wrong and to my surprise I admit I found it less terrible a second go around. With shows like House of Cards, Daredevil and Vikings, I have to admit I have enjoyed myself but when it comes to finding movie content I found it hard to find anything I would really enjoy. The "recommended for you" section came up short even after I had rated over a 100 titles, you would think it might pick something I could get into at the very least but sadly with such a limited content it just doesn't work. With new content coming out all the time this can be fixed but right now if you wanted a large list of movies than Netflix isn't right for you. The Netflix site is very well set up and very easy for everyone to use with a section that separates Kids content (a great idea to help parents find appropriate shows/movies for a younger audience).

If only you had more 

So if your looking for a site that will fix all your TV and movie needs unfortunately this is not it but it should keep you entertained for long enough until more content is released, but if you cant wait many Australian users are moving onto VPN's and Hola to gain access to the American content, while this is not 100% legal its in a bit of a grey area and surely has to be better than going back to downloading.

Hope this helped,
Luke Henderson

Instagrams New Update Comes With New Filters and a Side of Emoji's

Instagram's has added three new filters to its popular photo sharing app and with names such as Reyes, Lark and Juno, I feel like just by using them I will instantly become more "hip".  With each filter highlighting different colour tones to help maximize your photos you can get that perfect photo of the hipster cafe's you go to. For me though, the best part of the update was the new ability to hashtag emoji's because we all know that they just make everything cuter. The Instagram announcement says it a little more poetically then me with,

 "and just as we share photos and videos, we use emoji to communicate emotions and feelings in ways that anyone can understand, regardless of language or background". 

Now that we can use explore to search hashtag emoji it will be interesting to see how many crazy emoji combinations take off.
Instagram has also promised to bring out more filters at a regular rate to accommodate the filter junkies out there. So if you havn't already head out to your local McDonalds wifi hot spot and upgrade your instagram and give it a go :) #instagram #emoji #whyamihashtagging

Your one and only,
Luke Henderson