Priming my self for the journey back to the US of A, I topped off the end of my FOUR FABULOUS months in BARSHAWLONA spain at OPIUM BEACH CLUB. our FOURTH and FINAL BARC “bigtime” DJ appearance by DIRTY SOUTH ft Dj BErrie took place on THURSDAY APRiL 28th.Most of us only knew about DIRTY SOUTH bc of the BROmoted song ” I’m Coming Home” orignally sung by Diddy.
But it ain’t no place like home… ! My ears no longer vibrate with HOUSE music.No longer can i called myself #barshawlona. i’m back in the D… where the streets are filled with HIP HOP and UNDERGROUND RAP(Eminem BLASTS out on the radio), cars are actually AMERICAN MADE, and you hold true to being a WiNGS, PiSTONS, LiONS and TiGERS fan even if they suck.
“I’m BACKKKKKKK” tweet tweet tweet via @LSHAWTAYY detroit Legend.
Many moments of my abroad experience were tracked via SOCIAL MEDIA. Live-up dates of what i was doing and where i was doing it could have been found via MUPLOADS ( mobile uploads on Facebook), TWiTPiC ( pictures submitted via Twitter), Tweets, or status updates on Facebook.
Tweets, status updates, blogging and even email can be seen as ways to track your personal history. We don’t need diaries and note books any more, its easy to digitize it !! I am tracking and documenting my personal history via social media platforms. I have been an avid blogger since 2004. Even though i have moved around between different blogging forums, I have continuously documented my Life. I have also created a range of blogs outside of personal life.
we have to think of journalism on a bigger scale now..!
“Journalism is distributed to anyone with a smartphone” now a days, anyone can report “what’s happening” at any given moment in any given city. My new favorite website that i follow : WIRED.COM they take note of the fact that social media is now being used as a way to document history.
As if Landing back in the US wasn’t enough on its own… OSAMA BIN LADEN is now known as the most LEGENDARY HIDE AND SEEK player of ALL TIMES!! after staying hidden for almost 10 YEARS – he was shot to the head !! and how was this FIRST discovered?! TWITTER. is it a good or bad thing that the news was FIRST broadcasted via “Sohaib Athar, the Pakistani computer programmer who live-tweeted the recent U.S. military raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound.”
At a quick glance at the television, a magazine, or simply walking down the street you are bombarded with a symbol that represents a BRAND. BRANDS are ubiquitous in our everyday lives.
Do you recognize any of these symbols that represent the success of marketing? recogonize the black swoosh?? www.nike.com or how about the silver apple ?? www.apple.com.
A simple personal or organizational website is no longer the single source of information available online about a BRAND. With the help of social media, corporations can communicate effectively to their consumers. with the click of a few buttons, the corporation can advertise their message/BRAND from one to many.
Get the latest updates on your favorite BRAND via twitter update, or facebook page.
social media is beneficial to BRANDS because it creates a relationship with the consumer of the product and the company.
Over 54 consumers were able to show that the like the new website and 15 consumers were able to give FEEDBACK and share their opinions about the new NIKE WEBSITE. social media can benefit the image of the company. By receiving consumerFEEDBACK , the company can alter its image to further satisfy the consumers needs or wants. allowing for early detection and smooth transitions of crisis management.
social media is changing the communication with guests of the media. it allows for a new way of attracting talent.
facebook allows users to keep in touch by posting pictures, messages, videos, audio clips, links, etc. twitter allows for an exchange of quick, frequent 140 character texts. best for one to many and the chatter surrounding a product. both of these social media services are creating customer loyalty and FEEDBACK from their consumers.
Barak Obama is noted as one of the first presidential candidates who really took advantage of SOCIAL MEDIA . His campaign basically invented the idea of politics 2.0. What do might I mean by politics 2.0? and what was learned from Obama‘s campaign?
> Micro-politics : noting that most people are NOT interested in politics,Obama learned that every single person is a universe. Stressing personal communication he wanted to figure out what individuals or individual groups of people are interested in.
>Politics out of politics : media broad casted political forums can take place in multiple forms. They are not just televised debates or speeches, but are Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. Obama‘s campaign exemplified the benefits of using SOCIAL MEDIA FORUMS. This would be the most successful route in reaching the “Y-GENERATION”- those who were born after the year 1982.
> Addressing Individuals : not only did Obama’s campaign obtain mass amounts of money in relation to his rival candidates, but a majority of this money came from donations that were LESS THAN $100. Proving that many people can come together and make a fortune.
MYBARAKOBAMA.COM was a website created by his campaign that gave citizens an opportunity to SHARE their points of view and CONNECT with other typically like- minded citizens. This image can be found on the website.
– He basically created his OWN SOCIAL NETWORK of followers. There are over 2 million profiles created on the website.
> Pay attention to details : Obama made sure that he ALWAYS looked presentable, in put together outfits, spoke appropriately, and maintained well behaved.
In addition to his own SOCIAL NETWORKING website Obama relied heavily on FACEBOOK! Top Ten reasons why FACEBOOK worked for his campaign:
1. Facebook gives transparency- there is nothing to hide on facebook
2. Facebook molbilizes people – the viral capacity is HUGE , many people can be connected and share in ONE place.
3. Facebook and “micro feelings”/ “micro points of view” – any little tiny thing you promote can be easily passed on and gain a larger amount of “friends” or “followers”
4. Facebook communicates – images, posts, and opinions are easily accessible and shared
5.Facebook creates politics out of politics- Obama was able to figure out what different types of citizens were interested in by CONNECTING on facebook. Then he was able to COMMUNICATE what they wanted to hear about.
6.Facebook connects people – although you may not personally know hte person you are COMMUNICATING with you, you can still easily share your LIKE MINDED ideals and opinions. Others may also be able to share their information.
7. Facebook works for citizens – it is easily accessible and is shaped by the people who use it.
8. Facebook is global- everyone around the world can be informed about this topic.
9. Facebook and creativity- people can express and promote their opinions in a creative manner.
10.Facebook humanizes – makes Obama seem like a real person who the individuals feel they have a relationship with.
Ahh… what a REFRESHING and EXCITING feeling it is to wake up on a LOVELY LUNESmorning. These mornings are almost always bright & sunny. In American, Monday mornings are associated with a drag and sadness that the weekend is over. But it could not be be more opposite here in BARCELONA.
Sunday, the official day of rest for the Catalonia city of Barcelona. EVERY single essential store that you wish you could go to , you can’t. It is like the city wants you to prepare for what is about to come the following day… LOCO LUNES. As abroad students we quickly found out that Sunday’s are a time to bond with your friends and family. I like to make my sunday’s the day of the 4 S’s : sleep, spa, study, and socialize! On Sunday‘s I try to SLEEP in as late as I can… nothing is open anyways. I like to treat it like a SPA day. Because it is expensive to treat yourself to a professional SPA day , I create my own at my apartment. I start off by polishing my nails and toes a fresh color. I always end up doing my same favorite HOT PINK– because I have LOCO LUNES on my mind ( an upbeat and colorful time!).
After finishing up my personal mani/pedi I work on my hair. It is hard to tame that curly fro that I was blessed with from gene pool. I spend about 45-1 hour blow drying and straightening my hair. Let me tell you, this ends up being quite the production.
Study Time rolls around after dinner- some times I have a bit of reading to do for my classes or I will sit and write my free post blogs from the weekend’s adventures!
Last but not least, SOCIALIZE! I LOVE being able to share a long meal with my friends here in BARCELONA. As meals are a time for bonding, getting to know someone, or catch up on the past weeks news and whats to come in the following week. Depending on when we arrive home from our weekends travels, my roommates and I generally decide between TWO SOCIAL options : cook a big “family” dinner or go to George Payne’s Irish Pub. If there is a sports game on we choose to go to George Payne’s Irish Pub located centrally in the city right by the CEA Main Campus at Plaza Urquinaona 5.
Check out their website at http://www.thegeorgepayne.com/ George Payne’s has amazing LUNCH deals – where you can buy ONE lunch and get a SECOND lunch for FREE. Many student’s find this lunch spot CONVENIENT since it is located a few feet from school. I recommend the hamburgers! This Friday they are showing these games:
Amanda and I at George Payne
Slovenia v Italy K.O: 20:45
Spain v Czech Republic K.O: 22:00
One of the best parts about George Payne’s Irish Pub is that they broadcast AMERICAN SPORTS! Our group of friends loves to go to there to watch NFL games on Sundays.
When we do not attend George Payne’s we like make a festive meal!! This past week we made a MEXICAN themed dinner. Here is a picture of us in the apartment enjoying our family dinner.
Sunday dinner with the "familia"
From the left: Logan, Wes, Rebecca, Will, Amanda, Chris, Liza and Geoff. They are all chewing in this picture, I caught them a little bit off guard oops!
The meal is cleaned up and we finishing our studies and off to bed! There is much needed sleep before LOCO LUNES begins. Monday mornings start early, because all of my roommates and I have class at 10:30 am! We take the half hour journey to school and begin our days. We have class the entire day, til 7 or 7:30 pm. Saving up our energy during the school day, we meet up during breaks to talk about what we are going to do to begin our LOCO LUNES night.
Sometimes we like to head back to George Payne’s Irish bar to grab a few drinks before headed to the MAIN EVENT AT OTTO ZUTZ.
Considered to be one of Barcelona’s TOP 10 CLUBS LOCO LUNES is celebrated at OTTO ZUTZ @ Lincoln 15. When you first walk into the OTTO ZUTZ, there is a wall decorated with the OTTO ZUTZ logo to take pictures in front of. One of my childhood friends Alex, came to visit Barcelona during Michigan’s Spring Break.
Alex and I at the entrance of Otto Zutz
Then you make your way into the club itself! If you want to take a virtual tour outside of the one I shakingly recorded myself look at the OTTO ZUTZ website here. It is a dancing club, bar and a music hall.
OTTO ZUTZ looks very different from when it is PACKED FULL of AMERICANS on Mondays versus empty. Here are pictures of OTTO ZUTZ‘s dance floor.
WARNING: this video may make you nauseated because I couldn’t be on the dance floor and not be dancing. I understand if you can’t make it through the entire minute of the video. 17 seconds in you can see the upstairs VIP section. 30 secs the DJ booth. 50 seconds- my friend showing that LOCO LUNES is a fun time!
The dance floor is so crowded because OTTO ZUTZ plays HOUSE/TECHNO music,a beat that get’s everyone’s feet and body’s moving asap! The jams are always blasting at a high volume- EAR PLUGS RECOMMENDED. I LOVE to dance! That is why I have such a great time at OTTO ZUTZ. There is an enormous dance floor, and a few additional levels where you can dance with less chaos.
Loco Lunes dance floor PACKED with people!
Each LOCO LUNES has a little something special about it. Whether its someone’s 21st BIRTHDAY celebration or a special DJ is spinning on the 1’s and 2’s that night. Before deciding what college I would attend I traveled around to many universities to see which I would like best. One of my favorite colleges that I visited outside of the University of Michigan was The University of Wisconsin – Madison. Those Badgers sure to love to have a good time at the club! I met a freshman boy there, Jack, who is from New York City. It’s funny how your social networks expand so quickly as soon as you attend college! Jack lived down the hall from my cousin Michael in the dorms. Although I did not end up attending The University of Wisconsin – Madison, Jack and I still talked every now and then. He was one of the first people to introduce me to HOUSE /TECHNO music. He created a BLOG website called Big10HouseMafia – where a group of passionate Dj’s and HOUSE/TECHNO lover’s share their hottest beats. A few weeks ago I got a Facebook wall post from my long lost friend, Jack saying that he was going to be Dj’ing at LOCO LUNES the following week! Not only was I so excited for LOCO LUNES but that my friend would be Dj’ing at OTTO ZUTZ. Below is a YoutTube Video of Jack aka DJ 2percentmulq rockin’ it out
As I said, each LOCO LUNES has a special vibe to it, one of favorites was that on March 14th. March 14th’s LOCO LUNEShappened to be one of my best friend’s 21st birthday! His nickname is Laker so we jokingly called it LAKER LUNES.
View from up top in VIP
Boys at Laker Lunes in VIP
For your birthday, you can have the option of partying at a private VIP table with a group of your close friends! For Laker’s birthday this is what he wanted to do, and how could I possibly reject an invite to be in the VIP section. Our other close friend from home Joe got to visit for Laker’s birthday and a LOCO LUNES!
Vip video showing LOCO LUNES from March 14th.
WOW what an amazing experience to be in VIP for a LOCO LUNES. In the video you can see my friend Joe LOVING it! Here is the transcription of the video: (music playing) this is Otto Zutz, LOCO LUNES March 14th. This is what the Americans students do on a typical Monday night, it’s a little bit absurd and we live it up. This is for my homework, this is VIP.
DJ booth at Loco Lunes @ Otto Zutz
With only a few LOCO LUNES’ left, I want to recall my first LOCO LUNES. The “familia” thought what is a better way to start off a fiesta than with some MEXICAN FOOD. One of the BEST Mexican restaurants in Barcelona is ROSA NEGRA located at 46 Via Laietana.They have AMAZING burritos and Mojitos for very cheap. As well as tons of funky decorations like flip flops, sombreros, and Mexican dolls. Rosa Negra has 2 locations, both worth checking out 😀
Familia at Rosa Negra
Inside Rosa Negra, the bar
From the Left: Geoff, Chris, Liza, Logan, Amanda, Maddy,Wes, Me, Rebecca. We all attend the University of Michigan, but are from different cities. Geoff,Chris,Amanda and Wes are all from Chicago. Liza is from Maryland, Logan is from Arizona, Rebecca is from New Jersey and Maddy and I are from Michigan. The boys are all in the Fraternity Theta Chi and all of us girls are in Kappa Kappa Gamma. As you can tell we are deep in the social networking.
The menu consists of a variety of nachos, Chips and Guacamole ( MUST HAVE **!), burritos, quesadillas, fijiatas, and tacos. You really cannot go wrong.
One of my other favorite things about the first LOCO LUNES was that my friends from school were going to be able to meet my friends from home out in social setting.
Some people are not as outgoing in a school setting situation like myself, so I knew it would be a great opportunity to meet new friends as well. I felt like it was the night of “o, you know my best friend.. blah blah blah”. I noticed that there was a TON of kids from Indiana University. My best friend from home, Jaclyn, goes to Indiana. At the club I met TONS of people who knew her! It was so nice to put a face to a name of the kids I hear her talk about.
LOCO LUNES with Colleen and Joey
At first we spent time at the back bar of OTTO ZUTZ because it was a little less chaotic, and you could converse with people under the bar lights. The dance floor gets a bit dark and messy if you are trying to hold a conversation. Because the University of Michigan attracts so many out of state kids, I have been fortunate enough to meet kids from ALL over the United States. Without FACEBOOK I would never be able to keep track of what high school’s belong to what city and connect with mutual friends. Every minute, the geography game is played of who knows who from where and how you know them. That first LOCO LUNES shocked me, realizing WOW my social network is about to expand RAPIDLY.
Laker and I at the first LOCO LUNES
This is one of my favorite pictures from all of abroad so far! It is of me and Laker at the very first LOCO LUNES. It’s a night that is treasured in the hearts of all Barcelona students forever. I’m looking forward to the HOUSE/TECHNO music extraordinaire DJ AVICII who is playing one of the FINAL LOCO LUNES’ on APRIL 4th. It will be at a new LOCO Location at Up&Down.
Microblogging – it can be characterized as a brief posts typically under 140 characteristics of what is happening. According to WIKIPEDIA – Microblogs “allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links.
Typically blogs are seen as long dragged out posts with many hyperlinks, images, videos and other forms of multi-media. Microblogging does share these forms of multi media but maybe just not as extensive. Microblogging may show you one direct link, or one image vs many. An advantage to Microblogging is that it is short , efficient and straight to the point. I find that microblogging is more convient to my upbeat lifestyle.
The top microblogging website today would be Twitter! Twitter is a social networking and microblogging website where users can connect, share, and inform( in addition to many other things). Twitter gives you the option to protect your tweets( the message that you post in 140 characters or less) or show them publicly. Many business companies and celebrities use twitter as a way to gain a following. The average joe is also commonly found on twitter. People use Twitter as a way to stay in touch with friends or share information with them about anything and everything. Twitter took off in 2006 and was created by Jack Dorsey. Today Twitter is estimated to have 190 million users, generating 65 million tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries per day. You can join today at TWITTER.COM
If you still don´t really understand what TWITTER is all about, please watch this video :
I love using Twitter to get news and keep up with my friends lives. I also created a public twitter account for Journalism 2.0 @barshawlona
A few issues arise with microblogging such as PRIVACY and SECURITY. although TWITTER has protected tweets some people still feel like their information can be easily distributed. People feel nervous about their information being so public, but in my opinion thats just what you have to deal with while posting things on the internet.
I would be more concerned about having someone stalk you. If you are posting where you are and what you are doing at all points of the day someone could easily follow you literally!! It is important to share your information wisely.
Before I could even begin to write this blog post, I spent an hour on Facebook- one of the most widely used online SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES. Facebook allows you to connect, converse, and meet a multitude of people or keep in touch with ones you already know. SOCIAL NETWORKING has been brought to a whole new level with the invention of WEB 2.0 and the INTERNET. Opportunities can become available by a CONNECTION of a friend of a friend. A resulting issue of “Facebook Friends” is who do you accept? and who do you not? Do you really know this person? or is it just to have another connection?
Friend or Foe? I personally do not accept people who I have not physically met before. It is just too DANGEROUS and that person could end up using your information against you. The SOCIAL NETWORK that you have worked so hard to create could quickly crumble by ACCEPTING one “friend”.
SOCIAL NETWORKS can be seen as a web of connections, bridging one person to another to another. You can be led to greater success by telling a CEO or a DOCTER that you know someone that they are close with. In the video we watched in class about SOCIAL NETWORKS in plain english – we observed how some people can find love or a job through their FRIENDS networks. It is not just your own network but those of the people you are connected to.
Example of a Facebook Page
I have used SOCIAL NETWORKING websites to gain an audience for an organization I worked for last summer. We would ADD friends and send them messages and information. ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS are great for publicity and raising awareness. We were able to advertise our EVENTS to a mass audience at the ease of a button click. By using TWITTER we could give short updates all day long. Our organizations name and brand grew to a whole new level within just 2 months. From only being recognized by local community members to now people who live out of state. Its fascinating how quickly the information can be shared and traveled on the internet – especially by the help of SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES.
“I’m BACKKKKKKK” tweet tweet tweet via @LSHAWTAYY detroit Legend.
Over 54 
barshawlona 