How I survived a heart break

There is no doubt that the world is becoming more connected. In a modern world the phrase "time heals all wounds" is no longer applicable.
Time from what, exactly?
How can you check out of a relationship when you are connected by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, you know their mobile number off by heart, you remember their username on forums and you have mutual friends uploading photos with your ex in them. It has become almost impossible to move on from a relationship without having to have the gut wrenching "what if..." moments and relive the break up every time their cyber presence pops up into your online newsfeed. 
Over a month ago now, what I thought was the inconceivable happened to me. My partner and best friend of almost 5 years woke up one day and decided he did not love me anymore. He had dealt with the end of the relationship before I even knew their were issues, and my attempts to analyse and understand the situation proved futile. I lost my home, my heart and my self for the 2 weeks that followed. I went through a constant battle with myself, feeling helpless, insecure, alone and worthless. Getting through each day in initial 2 weeks was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life.
A friend of mine explained one especially dark day, that "it is not time that heals us, it's great friends". He was, as my friends usually are, right.
By surrounding myself with people who loved me for who I was, I discovered some things about myself I had forgotten, or maybe never even learned. The most important of which, why would I long for someone who does not appreciate me for who I am, who resented me for my passions and successes, and who left me feeling so emotionally drained and vulnerable for nothing? In a one sided relationship I lost sight of who I was and who I wanted to become. I sacrificed so much for someone who did not want to sacrifice any, and left people who genuinely cared about me as a second consideration when they were and have always been the supporting, loving foundation of my life. My friends are my lifeblood, they challenge me, encourage me, entertain me and wonder me. They are loves of mine that will last a lifetime.
A different friend of mine quoted something I had said to her many years ago back to me. Sometimes things need to fall completely apart in order to make room for something even more amazing.
And I have found something amazing. I have found myself.
I'm not writing this in order to blame or argue. I am writing this for my own clarity and closure. I loved the time I spent in love with the boy who captured my heart when I was 16. He is, however, no longer that boy. And I am no longer 16. The more time that passes, the more it is obvious that we will never be the same again. That is something that used to terrify me. Today, it excites and thrills me.
I love me. I am happy. I am loved.

The Highly Sensitive People Network

This morning I decided to check the Highly Sensitive People Network Facebook group. A few days ago I shared my video to the admin of the page, hoping that if even one person watches it, I will have succeeded with what I set out to do, and that is help people who identify with H.S.P. traits.

To my absolute surprise, not only had the pages shared it on the wall (with then other people sharing the page from that post) but there were some really heart warming and wonderful comments left by people who had watched the interview.


I went to the YouTube channel to see how many people had watched it, and for something I thought maybe a dozen people would watch, it's almost sitting on 200!!


It made it even more special that my dad found the link and has become someone people can identify with, and relate to. And, I honestly can't believe there are people who are sharing my video with their doctors! I am absolutely overwhelmed. 


For a first time interview, and telling someone's story - even if for the assignment I may have lost marks because of the length, I do not regret leaving in a single second of this YouTube video after seeing this result.


And this is why I want to be a journalist!


What a wonderful way to start a morning!

The Sour Side of Online Marketing

Why just the other day I bought some lemons. They were just your average, typical lemons.
Except for one big difference...

Yes, my lemons now are a part of social networking.
And here I thought social media couldn't get any more niche...

Of course, me being the inquisitive being that I am, I had to save the sticker and investigate.
Finding the page took a little bit longer than I first anticipated - better get your online marketing consultant onto that, Abbotsleigh!
But, alas,  the result was dismal...I bought my lemon at Woolworths. Now, I think of the hundreds of thousands of lemons in Australia that are sold to thousands of customers each week, and how many hundreds of those people like myself, notice the sticker.

Your eyes are not mistaken, only a mere 219 people including myself have actually liked Abbotsleigh Citrus's Facebook Page. Considering they joined Facebook on March 3 2011, and I could get 219 people to read my blog in 1 day if I wanted to buy using social media - I'm calling this an Online Marketing FAIL.

This only reinforces how IMPORTANT online marketing can be in making or breaking a company's success. For one, the used of not including "citrus" on their sticker has lost potentially hundreds of page likes,  and all that could have been avoided with adding a single word. Considering their stickers have been this way for over a year, it's more than a simple mistake...

Businesses need to constantly be cautious of the marketing they pursue, make sure you utilise a company or individuals that are trained in online marketing strategies to avoid simple mistakes as these, and even more importantly, make sure social media is actually RIGHT for your business. I am still stumped as to why these guys need a page.

By all means, if you love your citrus and you're a Facebook user, you can always help them out like I did by liking their page: https://www.facebook.com/AbbotsleighCitrus

3 Cheers for QPS...

If you've managed to find yourself under a rock, and missed what happened this Easter long weekend in Brisbane, let me fill you in.

• Sunday night in Zillmere 4 men fled in a stolen vehicle and were followed by police
• The driver charged through a police road block and towards an officer causing shots to be fired with 1 man injured with a shot to the leg
• All 4 were arrested
• Monday morning a Brisbane task force named "Taskforce Kilo Perpetual" was launched as the 4 men were part of a wanted 30 for over 190 offenses in the past 4 months
• Approx 2 hours later, 2 stolen cars became part of an over 2 hour long car chase across Brisbane City, tracked by Seven, Nine and Ten news helicopters to assist police
• After successful use of road spikes, the cars came to a stop at a Shopping center, leading 7 young men ages 13 to 19 to be arrested.
• The man who drove towards the police on Sunday night has since been charged with attempted murder and the other men face a variety of punishable offences ranging from 14 years to life if found guilty in the coming days.

Police arresting a suspect at Mt Ommaney shopping center Monday afternoon.
Picture: Glen Barnes. Source: Courier Mail

I have had a few thoughts racing through my head since this has unfolded and I sat in front of my television, while constantly refreshing twitter to learn the news as it happen. The first, of course, is how absolutely AMAZING it is that we have the news literally as it happens. If you have read any of my other blog posts, you're probably aware by now that I have a love-hate relationship with the media...

Well, today my friend, is one of love. And for many reasons...

For one, QLD Police only recently received their first helicopter, based on the Gold Coast. In moments like these (no matter how rare they are) this does seem like a minor oversight. Without the commercial media's use of helicopters tracking the separate cars and relaying the information to the police, catching the cars would have been, lets just say - much more tedious
MEDIA - 1
EMILY - 0

The news was literally instantaneous. I was able to receive a tweet from someone at ABC, and next thing I know, the information is being relayed over my television set with images to match. The power of social media, web 3.0 and the media making use of such powerful tools created a huge awareness of what was going on, to further assist in bringing justice.
MEDIA - 2
EMILY - 0

As for Zillmere, I did notice over the past few nights odd police behavior along Zillmere Road (which happens to be where I live, with lovely windows looking right over onto the street). My partner and I had had conversations about 'what are they up to?' and 'who are they going to catch?' only to be out maneuvered by clever police tactics and precautions. Heck, I felt safe in my own suburb when literally meters away road blocks were being set up, of which we knew nothing about until reported on the media. The Queensland Police have again reinforced why I feel safe somewhere where others might be quick to judge for a suburb that is currently in the news for some very serious crimes. Not a single person was injured, other than those committing crimes and resisting arrest, and in the end, the bad guys got caught. Not one alarm bell in my head went off...but I still like to think I am savvy and noticing their odd driving behaviors makes me in the loop ;) who knows, I could be a crime reporter yet!
MEDIA - 1
EMILY - 0
QUEENSLAND POLICE - 9999999999999999999....

Well done, QPS! For now I know I am safe, and my faith in Australian Media (at the very least) has been restored.
Plus, I like to imagine some 'The Raid'-esk moves going down in some apartment building near by....you never know!

Media Use and Production Diary

Click-y click.

Whenever I sit in Central Station, I notice the people surrounding me absolutely enthralled with their smart phones. Judging by these behaviours, I imagine that they too would be surprised with their amount of media usage...

So, what was it that surprised me?

The interesting perception I made was as I used media I was usually multitasking. Most frequently I found myself on Facebook and “studying” at the same time.
Surprisingly, I was so interested in my own habits that I started the assessment again (I know, crazy right?!).
 I divided my media use and production diary into whole hours spent using media platforms (whole hours out of my entire day) and underneath I recorded the amount of time I was spending using particular media on those platforms (including hours multitasking).

Media usage measured in hours over 10 days

Media Used	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	TOTAL
Desktop Computer  Study  Online Newspaper  Facebook  Tumblr  Emails  General Web Browsing  Blogger  Twitter	2 1 0.25 1.5 1 0.25 0.5 0 0	1 0.25 0 0.5 0.5 0.25 0.5 1 0.5	3 1 0.5 2 1 0 1 1 0.25	3 1.5 0 2 0.5 0.5 1 0 0.25	1 0 0 0.5 0 0 1 0 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	2 1 0.5 1.5 0.5 0.25 1 0.5 0.25	1 0.5 0 1 0.5 0 0 0 0	13 5.25 1.25 9 4 1.25 5 2.5 1.25
Laptop Computer  Study  Online Newspaper  Facebook  Tumblr  Emails  General Web Browsing  Twitter	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	3 2 0.5 2 1 0.5 1 0.25	4 2.5 0.5 3 2 1 1.5 0.25	4 3 1 3 1 0 2 0.5	5 3 1 3 2 1 2 0	2 1 0 1 0.5 0.25 0.5 0	1 0 0.25 0.5 0.25 0.25 1 0	19 11.5 3.25 12.5 6.75 3 8 1
Smart Phone  Calls  Texting  Games  Facebook	2 0.5 0.75 0.5 0.25	3 1 1 0 1	1 0 0.5 0 0.5	4 2 1 0.5 0.5	2 0 0.5 0.5 1	1 0.5 0.25 0 0.25	2 1 0.5 0.25 0.25	1 0 0.5 0 0.5	2 1 0.5 0.5 0	1.5 0 0.5 0.5 0.5	19.5 6 6 2.75 4.75
Television  News Broadcasts  Leisure Shows	2 1.5 0.5	2 1 1	1.5 1 0.5	2 1 1	3 1 2	3 1 2	1 0.5 0.5	2 1 1	3 1 2	2 1 1	21.5 10 11.5
Radio  News Broadcasts  Leisure shows	0 0 0	0 0 0	1 0.5 0.5	0 0 0	0.5 0.5 0	0 0 0	0 0 0	0 0 0	0.5 0.25 0.25	0 0 0	2 1.25 0.75
Newspaper  Local  State	0 0 0	0 0 0	0 0 0	1 1 0	0 0 0	0 0 0	0.5 0 0.5	0 0 0	0 0 0	1 1 0	2.5 2 0.5

Basically, I use a lot of media on a daily basis. I use my desktop computer, laptop and smart phone more than radio and newspaper. While the television is in use for the most amount of hours, I never used it as a primary media source. I found from the total time on certain platforms, I am a true procrastinator.


Separately I recorded hours spent producing content. 

My total media use compared to media production in units of hours

On these websites that allow for production elements, my graph demonstrates I am active in my internet usage.


The most prominent conclusions I came to from my own and the cohort's media habits were:

•  New Media of the internet and smart phones is in, while old media of newspapers are fading out
• Facebook really is taking over our lives
• The immediate accessibility of the internet had both negative and positives

The shift to New Media

Breakfast and dinner with my partner is spent in front of the TV watching news. My results emphasise the amount of time I spent on the internet across various platforms. 79% of JOUR1111 students, including myself, watch less than 2 hours of television a day. Since an average newscast is 1 hour, we can assume, television is in most cases used where we can leave the TV playing in the background, until an important story comes on. The lack of use of radio suggests the same, with 82.9% listening in the car. These old media platforms are now used when convenient whilst we’re engaging in other primary activities. 

The television is still powerful for Journalism, being the main source of News (however, closely followed by Facebook with 48.4% of students) but no longer regarded by a majority as a strong ‘leisure activity’.

Power of social networking

When comparing my results to the rest of the class, I am average in most areas. I have a few different types of social networking sites and blogs, making my internet usage across platforms somewhat excessive. However, what the survey failed to find out was the frequency in which the class happened to log in and check their Facebook accounts. And this was where I must call myself, an ‘addict’. I found interesting statistics that sum up my own usage as a 19 year old pretty accurately:

http://www.flowtown.com/blog/are-we-addicted-to-social-media

I am an avid Facebook consumer, but even more as shown in my graph, I am a Facebook producer. I am engaged in many “Groups” and “Pages” which I am constantly updating and creating comments, photos and messages.
I had no idea I relied so heavily on Facebook, for sharing personal news as well as world news.
Facebook is rapidly growing to be a huge part of Journalism and Communication, whether we like it or not.

Wonders of accessibility

With 77.3% of students using an internet enabled smart phone, we have the ability to constantly be on the internet. Since I bought a smart phone, my media use has at least doubled. Just like the people at Central, we never want to do nothing, because we have the ability to do almost anything.
The positives, however, of the media I could interact with, over 50% overall of my time was spent producing, not just consuming. With new media I am an active member of the online community, something I would never do if it was limited to Newspaper.

What does this mean for journalism?

I asked myself why this was happening and came to the conclusion that these 3 trends are entirely related.

• The rise in technology has created a surge in ‘citizen journalists’ and the immediate availability of news and entertainment on the internet has decreased the need for old media.
• Wifi has enabled the use of smart phones or laptops virtually anywhere meaning an increase in use, and subsequent increase in online media use and production.
• Social Media has penetrated the traditional media types for journalism and communication. Alushka Rajaram of socialmedianews.com says “turn your Television on to any given News channel during a breaking news story and you’ll be greeted with information from Facebook and Twitter at least every hour”. 
• Not only is the frequency in which these platforms are updated far more impressive than old media, but being able engage in discussion and create content on your own, certainly has a strong appeal, adding to the great appeal of social networking for news.

The Guardian article “Mobile and the news media's imploding business model” suggests there is a “bleak or non-existent future for news professionals in a mobile-dominated world” as the shift to online media has subsequently lead to the loss of profit in Journalism industry, and looking at my results alone, I can completely see why.


Let’s just say after this investigation to my own Media habits, I’ll be putting my computers down for longer, and buying newspapers more frequently…

(Even more fun statistics about social media's impact on the world here.)