Facebook Analytics

My Facebook campaign has been a great opportunity to learn and grow my page that advertises my YouTube channel. This experience posed some interesting and unexpected challenges. My goal was to market my page to a more mature audience. Here are the personas I created for my campaign.

As you can see below, contrary to what I wanted, my page drew in mostly men from the 13-24 year old range. I had hoped to attract more of a female audience, but it didn't turn out that way.

One of the more exciting things about my campaign was that I ended up investing $30 in an online Facebook ad campaign. This $30 brought an avalanche of new likes and exposure. I believe I started with around 50 likes initially and it skyrocketed to 556 likes as of today. Most of these are paid likes, so it will be an interesting challenge to convert these new fans to engage in my YouTube channel and other mediums.

My post reach grew steadily as my page likes increased. I was a little disappointed with fan engagement. It will also be a fun challenge to drive more action with likes and comments. Funny enough, the post that got the most likes and engagement was a Valentine's Day post with some Harry Potter themed memes. This makes me think that I should try to incorporate a little more humor, instead of posting funny videos. 

I feel like this campaign was definitely a success. I learned a lot about what my fans do and don't like. I am looking forward to growing my Facebook page even more and reaping the benefits of a good following on this platform.

Gender Equality in the Gaming Industry

I am a gamer. I also have a small following on websites like YouTube and Twitch. Being in the public eye was a decision I made because I have a desire to share my deep love for gaming with everyone, and explore the possibilities of how it can change and improve the world we live in. So many wonderful things have happened and I've met so many amazing people through these outlets. I have no regret.

With anything in life, if there is light there is also shadow. An unfortunate side effect of being a female gamer on the internet is that I deal with hateful strangers who find entertainment in trying to tear me down, threaten me, make unwelcome sexual comments, and try to tell me that the only reason I am successful is because I am a woman. This a moderate disappointment in comparison to the large doses of joy that I get from being involved with gaming. For every douchebag there are about 20 loving and supportive people that I meet. Until I am a wrinkled grandma on my deathbed, I don't plan to ever end my involvement with the gaming industry.

It is difficult to have a conversation about gender equality in gaming without questions arising about the largest train wreck in Twitter history: the #gamergate war. Depending on what side you took (assuming you took a side at all), gamer gate was either a campaign for harassment against women, or about ethics in game journalism that started during August 2014. In summary, game developer Zoe Quinn was publicly accused by her ex of sleeping with several staff-writers in exchange for increased positive publicity of a game she developed, Depression Quest. This started a movement of people who demanded more transparency in game journalism, but also became breeding ground for a disgusting display of how low (parts of) the human race can go.

Although parts of the human race reared their ugly heads during this controversy, it is an incredible example of citizen journalism and involvement of individuals attempting a conversation, but failing miserably. I say fail because to my knowledge, no good solution was found. 

This article does an incredible job of going over the finer details of the impact this hashtag had on the physical context of the internet, particularly Twitter. Here are just a couple of the visuals the author made to represent the metadata he gathered on Twitter. This is only a drop in an ocean of information the author gathered during a 72 hour period. 

Each point is a single person in the #Gamergate universe, the lines connect who they follow. 

Psychological context: Reading the tweets that were sent & getting a feel for exactly how much civility, respect, and understanding was lacking is very depressing. The internet has been around for several decades. You would think by now we would know how to treat each other with respect, and be able to hear each other's opinions without catapulting insults at each other. I am sure I am not the only one who was frustrated and discouraged by this public display of gross incivility. Although #gamergate is not trending on Twitter anymore, the impact and angst it created is still reverberating throughout the internet.

What is even more frustrating, is that this train wreck went mainstream. News agencies like the New York Times, BBC, and CNN did obligatory articles trying to report what exactly happened. Of course they reported on  what would make readers' blood boil the most: the excessive, disgusting harassment of Anita Sarkeesian, Brianna Wu, and Zoe Quinn. Although I'm sure they were attempting some objectivity, their coverage (and other similar sites) swayed the public opinion to assume that most gamers are trashy, uncivilized, hateful internet trolls. The generalizing & stereotyping of a group as amazing and diverse as the gaming community is extremely frustrating, and is going to follow the industry around for a long time. It will probably discourage many women from entering professions in gaming. It could take years to undo and move on from the damage that was done. Here is a video from consumer activist and YouTuber "Boogie2988" that touches on a lot of the psychological and emotional issues surrounding the controversy. 

In case you don't want to watch the whole video, my favorite thing he said in regards to ethics in journalism was this:

“Be skeptical of game journalism but also be skeptical of all things you read. All types of journalism. All things you are told. Be skeptical of all things in your life. Skepticism is the number one most human trait in my opinion. And it is the one that served the human-animal very well in it's time. Absolutely there is corruption in all things you see and all things you are told in all things that you read. Never trust anything blindly. If Zoe Quinn is the one that made you realize that, she did you a big favor.”

.....but enough about gamergate

Why does the video game industry need more women?

Although about 52% of gamers are women, females are very under-represented in game development studios. In a temporal & social context, the world is really missing out on what could be brought to the table. Not just because there will be more females, but because including women will bring in a whole new pool of individuals with ideas that can help improve society thorough gaming. This article talks about a few brave individuals that are changing the world by using video games as a medium for social good.

Change is the only constant. In a world where technology is evolving faster than we are, it would benefit human-kind a great deal if we started celebrating and welcoming diversity of all kinds. For decades, men and women had different roles that served society. Things have changed, and those roles are changing. In regards to the cultural context of gender equality, we will need it more and more as the years wear on. Learning to cooperate and share each other's territory is vital. 

Facebook Ads Are A Success!

Since my Facebook page wasn't just created for the purpose of this class, I found it appropriate to look into paying for a Facebook ad campaign. I set the budget to only $30. I honestly didn't expect to reach as many people as I have already. It has only been about a week, and my likes have grown exponentially. 

As you can see, my page likes have increased dramatically. Although I wish there were a way to inspire more fan interaction, having a higher amount of likes looks really good for an internet personality. This is what my ad looks like.

So far, I have only spent about $8 of my $30 budget. I marketed my page to male and female 13-40 year olds who have gaming and similar interests on their page. I am really looking forward to how much more my page will grow, and hopefully it will bring in more audience to my Twitch and YouTube channels!

Contextual Analysis

I've adjusted my contextual analysis topic to something I deal with on a daily basis. I deal with it so much, that I've grown very weary of the topic. However, I think it would be healthy to do an analysis on the subject. After graduation I am planning on being heavily involved in the gaming industry, so analyzing the issues surrounding this subject would be good. I would like to focus on the issues surrounding the need for gender equality in the gaming industry, and how social media has played it's part so far. Here is just one of the sources I will be using for my post. 

Social Media and the Green Movement

This article only puts into words what I've thought since the green movement started. Social media has been a big help to climate change in the sense that it creates a social pressure on others to purchase "green" products. This pressure is particularly strong in the 18-24 year old demographic, since these are the people who consume social media the most, on several platforms. It is now trendy to buy recycled goods, and ride your bike. 
However, parts of the green product movement are extremely ironic to me. For example, right when it was getting very popular, I was in Jr. High. My mom bought me a necklace that said "Go Green". Now I think about all the resources and fuel that were spend to create that necklace and thousands of others just like it. 

What I Would Change

When I was in Elementary School, my parents put me in a program called Spanish Immersion. All of my core classes were taught in Spanish. Although it was very cool, and I developed a deep fondness for the culture, learning math in a different language was a struggle. When I finally left the program for sixth grade, I was very behind in math. My teachers would tell my parents, "Emily is more artistic, she isn't good at math." This and other statements made by my teachers about my ability to learn math poisoned my mind and I soon decided that I wasn't good at math. It took until this semester for me to break that poisonous thinking. I have actually learned that I'm quite good at math. How can we stop smothering the confidence and creativity out of our children? School needs to be a fun, colorful wonderland where learning and play can take place. My education experience was not like that as a child, but I want it to be for my future children.

We've established that the education system is broken, but when it comes to finding a solution to fix the issue, there are varying ideas. I feel like discussing why the education system is broken could lead to some good areas to begin rebuilding a new system. 
People have been trained to think that if you go to an Ivy League University you are a smarter person. I think people need to realize that just because you have spent tens of thousands of dollars to go to a university, doesn't necessarily make you smart. (In fact, spending that much on anything is not smart when there are less expensive alternatives.)

The optimist in me wants to believe that change will happen organically because companies are needing more and more creative thinkers in their workforce. Individuality is praised today more than ever before. I would like to think that it will happen on it's own, but we will probably need to speed up the process.

I'm really fascinated with the idea that learning releases endorphins, which can eventually make learning a (good) addiction. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a study that proves this, but I know that personally when I learn how to do something on my own and get it right I feel satisfied and elated. I'm sure others are the same way. If we could build a system around the most basic human reward system, I feel like that would make school a better place to be. 

I think having students learn things for themselves is one of the best ways to do that. I agree with Sugata Mitra's idea and think that would be an amazing way to fix our education system.

Connecting The Dots

Yesterday I sat down and Googled myself, and realized exactly how large my digital footprint is. I have been an internet user since Elementary school, use products that collect data on me, run a growing YouTube channel, and actively use social media. Seeing exactly how much information has been saved about me starts to make me feel a little dizzy. The unsettling part is, this is only searchable/view-able information. What other data have companies and the government collected that I'm not aware of? The internet has absolutely changed my life, with good and not so good results. 
One of the ways the internet has changed the world is through telecommuting. The article I studied says that work is no longer a place, but an action. The internet is revolutionizing the way that we work. I have a good work ethic and am excited for this change because it really rewards the people who know how to prioritize and produce quality work. My group presented the benefits and negatives of this revolution. We had a difficult time coming up with negatives because really, those are just adjustments that need to be made. As technology progresses, the world needs to adjust and the people need to set ground rules. The technology we use to work during travel and at home can jeopardize our privacy. These are things workers need to address as we continue the transition into more telecommuters.