Marissa's Blog

  The Social Dilemma is a documentary about the impact of social media on users and how technology companies manipulate society and human psychology. As someone who did not have social media, or even a phone, until high school, I can definitely tell it has made a difference in my life.  Many people, especially younger kids, can easily get addicted to social media if that is all they have known. My generation was the first group of kids that had social media available to them in elementary school and middle school, and it shows. Rates of anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and suicide have gone up tremendously, starting when social media was initially available to the public. Many people, especially girls, around my age and younger have developed severe anxiety, which may, in some way, be related to social media usage. For many people my age, it is also hard for them to go without their phones for an extended period of time. While there are times I can't seem to put down my ...

Now that the temperature is starting to cool down, it is really starting to feel like the holiday season! Although summer is my favorite season, November and December are two of the best months because they have the best holidays. Christmas is hands down the best holiday and Thanksgiving is definitely a close second. It is also the start of basketball season, which has always been my favorite sport. Christmas is my favorite holiday for many different reasons. When I was younger, it was always exciting to get a couple weeks off of school. I loved getting to stay home and help my mom decorate the house for Christmas and to just hang out with my siblings and watch Christmas movies. I also loved looking through Christmas catalogs to make my Christmas list, as well as going Christmas shopping to buy my siblings and parents their Christmas gifts. Looking back, Christmas was always more fun as a kid and I wish it would still feel like it did back then. There is still a lot to look forward to ...

TikTok is one of the newest social media platforms and has really taken off in the past couple of years. TikTok was originally released in China in 2016 and was later available worldwide after it merged with the social media platform Musical.ly in 2018. From 2019-2023, TikTok was the most downloaded app and has been one of the fastest-growing social media platforms globally. With TikTok growing in popularity, it is important to implement successful marketing strategies in order to take full advantage of the platform. Here are three examples of companies who successfully marketed their brands on TikTok. The first company who has implemented a successful marketing campaign on TikTok was McDonald's. McDonald's collaborated with notable hip-hop stars, including Travis Scott and Saweetie, to launch the National Menu Hacks campaign. McDonald's added personalized menu customization beyond these celebrity endorsements to tap into the cultural truth that everyone can make their meal...

This weekend was much needed, not only because I got a break from classes and homework but also because I was able to see family that I haven't seen in a long time! I am one of the youngest on both sides of my family, so many of my aunts, uncles and cousins have moved away from the area, so it's always nice when we can get together again! My weekend started off busy, having to work both Friday and Saturday. Friday night, I worked the home women's basketball game, which was the first of the season. Basketball is my favorite sport, so I'm glad it's finally basketball season again! ONU won 77-49, so it was a great game to work! After the game, my roommate and I watched a couple episodes of "Friends" before calling it a night. Saturday afternoon I worked the women's soccer OAC Finals game. ONU won, which means they are OAC Champions and have an automatic bid into the NCAA III Tournament! The men's soccer team didn't earn an automatic bid into the N...

YouTube is the world's most popular online video sharing site and the second most visited site in the world, behind Google. YouTube has over 2.49 billion monthly active users who watch over 5 billion videos on the platform daily. Based on those facts alone, YouTube is a great social media platform for marketers. However, you need to know how to correctly market on YouTube in order for it to be effective. In today's day and age, audiences demand visual content over any other type of content. Just think, would you rather read a how-to article or watch a how-to video? Most everyone would prefer a video so you can actually watch how to do something. Today's generations also have much shorter attention spans and spent much of their time on mobile devices. This is why it is so important for marketers to adapt to this trend by producing engaging video content for their audiences. In fact, many businesses have already accommodated for this change. Studies show that 81% of businesse...

I had been looking forward to this weekend for a while and it finally came, Halloweekend! Halloween isn't my favorite holiday but I still love being able to dress up and have fun. One of my favorite parts about Halloween is seeing everyone else's costumes, because some people come up with funny ones. This year, my friend and I decided to go as Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Boothe! I saw the idea on TikTok last year, so we have had this planned for a year now. I think it's so funny, so I have been looking forward to this weekend for a long time! My weekend started off slow on Friday night, I just hung out in my apartment with my friend and watched some movies. Saturday, I worked the men's soccer game. It was a very exciting game because it was close the whole time but we scored with just a minute left to win! And the same guy scored all three of our goals for a hat trick, so it was really cool! After the game, I wrote the game recap for the men's and women's ga...