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In many first world countries we are fortunate to have big box grocery stores where most people buy all of there food and if you are unable to get to one, there is usually a small local grocery store or gas station that carry food. In third world countries such as Africa those big box and local grocery stores are not available. People living in some parts of Africa like Nigeria rely on clean food and water to be delivered to them from organizations like Doctors Without Border. It is hard enough for this organization to get food to people in need being that the radical army in Nigerian steals this food but if these people do not get food they could possibly die. Donald McNeil, author of Malnutrition Wiping Out Children in Northern Nigeria, says that large number of children under the age of 5 have died due to starvation. McNeil also says that because of the recent attention on the Syrian refugees, little attention has been given to this growing epidemic. This article really puts into perspective how lucky we are to have these big box and local grocery stores at our disposal as well as eat three meals a day and in some peoples cases six times a day.

 

Full Article

McNeil, D. (2017, January 24). Northern Nigeria Losing Its Young Children. New York Times. Retrieved January 25, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/health/malnutrition-nigeria-children.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fglobal-health&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection&_r=0

 

Advertisements are beginning to show up on every website we visit regardless of what we are doing. Scrolling through Facebook and Twitter you see ads, watching videos on Youtube you see ads, even reading an article ads appear. However the ads that appear on Twitter or any article you read are not directed at you because of your demographic like Facebook. Ads that appear on your Facebook wall are specifically directed at you for being a certain age, gender, who you follow, and what you search for. Until recently YouTube ads were not specifically directed at you instead a random ad would play before the video you are trying to watch plays. However Lucy Handley, author of What You do on Google can now Determine the Ads You’re Served on YouTube, says that Google searches and demographic information can be used to influence what ads are shown to people on YouTube. Meaning that YouTube ads are now going to be like Facebook ads in the sense that they are specifically directed at you based on what you search on Google. Some Facebook users think that Facebook ads have to much data on their users because they can direct ads based on your personal information and searches so with YouTube doing similar advertisements people may become more upset and feel their privacy is violated. The full article is available at http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/24/what-you-do-on-google-can-now-determine-the-ads-you-see-on-youtube.html 

 

Sources:

Handley, L. (2017, January 24). What you do on Google can now determine the ads you’re served on YouTube. Retrieved January 24, 2017, from http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/24/what-you-do-on-google-can-now-determine-the-ads-you-see-on-youtube.html

As I mentioned in my first blog “Who am I and Where am I Going”, I am a finance major at SCSU however I plan on going into the real estate industry and flip houses. Being interested in the real estate industry I thought that the article Real Estate Buying Habits Linked to People’s Facebook Behavior, was very interesting and something I plan to look into for the semester project in my class. The main way a real estate agent interacts with potential buyers and sellers is through social media. With Facebook agents can share links to homes that they are selling. The article states that a person who sees home prices rise in their neighborhood are roughly 3% more likely to purchase a home in the next two years. This is no surprise because if someone is considering selling their home, if the housing market is up they will list their home and if the housing market is down they will not list their home. If you are interested in reading more about how Facebook and Real Estate are linked check out the full article at: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/29/real-estate-buying-habits-linked-to-peoples-facebook-behavior.html

Full article

Wells, N. (2016, July 29). What your friends do on Facebook could directly affect the house you live in. Retrieved January 23, 2017, from http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/29/real-estate-buying-habits-linked-to-peoples-facebook-behavior.html

The resources many of us take for granted like food and water are not everyone takes takes for granted. Roughly 842 million people world wide live on less than a couple dollars a day and in some cases less than $1 a day. To put that number into perspective roughly one in nine people in the world are malnourished (2016 World Hunger. n.d.). World hunger is the malnutrition or undernutrition in people who do not have enough food. According to the 2016 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics there are two types of malnutrition. The first is called protein-energy malnutrition which is a lack of calories and protein (2016 World Hunger. n.d.). The second type is micronutrient deficiency which is a deficiency in certain vitamins (2016 World Hunger. n.d.). Prior to social media the main way people could help was by being active in things like Kids Against Hunger which is an organization that packs and ships food to kids who are without food. With social media, people are able to donate money to sites like GoFundMe (if someone sets up a page for world hunger) and WorldHungerRelief.org. Many sites like Facebook and Twitter help bring awareness to the issue however how can we go beyond collecting “likes”?

Casper van Vark, author of World Hunger Day: Can Twitter end World Hunger, looks at how social media can be used to do more than collect likes to spread awareness. One foundation that she comments about is the Global Poverty Project which presents a challenge to users of Facebook and Twitter. The challenge consists of encouraging people to live below the poverty line of roughly $1.50 for five days. The challengers then post pictures of meals and recipes as well as describe how the challenge is going. Vark says that “this approach of working with something that people already talk about has enabled us to draw in people who had not previously supported a development campaign”. So can Twitter really end world hunger? No, however if combined with individual involvement as I mentioned before it will give people a different perspective on the difficulties living below the poverty line.

 

Sources:

2016 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved January 22, 2017, from http://www.worldhunger.org/2015-world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-and-statistics/

Vark, C. V. (2014, May 28). World Hunger Day: can Twitter end world hunger? Retrieved January 22, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/may/28/social-media-raising-awareness-world-hunger

 

Social Media sites such as Facebook and Twitter were bombarded with people sharing articles and news story’s about both Presidential candidates. These articles were praising a candidate or criticizing a candidate. However not all of these articles were from credible sources and some in fact were fake meaning someone wrote an article for the sole purpose of giving people information they want to hear. As we have all seen, when someone shares these fake articles they get many comments, many of them being rude and very vulgar because those people are standing up for their candidate. So how does a company stop fake articles from being posted? Mary Papenfuss, author of the article Germany Weighs Stiff Fines For Social Media Sites That Carry Fake News, says that Germany is considering fining social media company’s that do not remove the fake articles in 24 hours. She also says that the fines these company’s could face is up to $525 thousand dollars. Is there a better way to control this problem because a fine of $525,000 is a large amount of money for any company to pay? Are fake news articles truly becoming a problem (especially with elections) or is that part of social media we have to accept with?

Full Article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/german-fake-news-fines_us_585843d5e4b03904470a1dfb

 

I noticed on Facebook the issues with privacy and social media were brought up so I figured I would partake in the discussion. Before I jump into this I should inform everyone that I am not an active user of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Pinterest. I have those platforms however I use them to look at pictures and see what is happening in the sports world. When I first got Twitter I posted a few times but in the past 5 years I hardly ever post. The same goes for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

Some users think it is an invasion of privacy when you type in your name on Google and any social media site you use comes up with pictures. To me that is not an invasion of privacy because social media is part of the internet and when you search the internet it gives you things on the internet. For example, if I want to look up who the top high school basketball recruits are (ex, Tre Jones), well when I Google Tre Jones Google brings me to his ESPN profile. Why does it bring me there? Because ESPN is part of the internet and Google is simply doing what it’s told. Now if I Google myself (Zach Raeker) it brings up Facebook, Twitter, and Maxpreps, all of which I am affiliated. There are also pictures of me and I know I posted all of those pictures on something and when I click on those pictures and then click view page, Google brings you to whatever site I posted it on. So as I mentioned earlier, I don’t see an invasion of privacy when Google brings up any site you are affiliated with.

The one aspect of privacy that I see people do repeatedly and frankly, what I think is foolish, listing an email address, home town, cell phone number, or checking into places when traveling. When you do that you are basically giving all of your information away for free. You are also inviting burglars to your house by giving your address and the posting when you are on vacation or going somewhere a few hours away. The worst part, all of that information is 100% voluntary and those people do not consider the consequences that may occur. I am not saying something will happen but I would be cautious of voluntarily putting sensitive information on Facebook.

As I mentioned before I am not a truly active user of social media so my views on privacy may be a little skewed. However, I understand how the Internet and social media are immensely connected that without the Internet, social media would not exist. That’s not to say you should post information you don’t want others to see because a post on social media is a post to the world.

 

My name is Zachary Raeker but I prefer Zach. I am a senior attending St. Cloud State University and if everything goes well I will be graduating this May. I will graduate with a bachelors degree in Finance however looking back, I should have majored in Real Estate since that is the industry I plan to go into after graduation.  When I am not studying or in class, I love to do anything related to basketball. In a given week I attend 2-3 basketball games ranging from the high school level to junior college, division 3 (St. John’s), or division 2 (St. Cloud State) as well as watch any game on TV. I also play basketball 1-2 nights a week as well as spend 2 nights officiating junior high basketball. Other than basketball I exercise roughly 5-6 times a week.

As I mentioned, I plan to go into residential real estate after graduation however I do not plan on going the traditional route. Instead, I hope to be “flipping” houses. There are a vast amount of HGTV shows that illustrate the process of house flipping however these shows are the “Hollywood” way of flipping homes. Instead, people who are not on TV and flip homes are much more conservative with the improvements they do and they are not buying homes for $200,000. Instead they buy foreclosed homes. Then they invest just enough money to get the house up to date with a new aesthetic look and new appliances and then sell the home hoping to make at least $20,000 if not more. It will take a couple years before I get into this and in the mean time, I plan to be a traditional residential agent.

In the real estate business selling or buying homes is not an easy task. The agent needs to find the right buyer to match with the right seller and house. One way accomplish this task is by using social media to advertise a house that the agent is trying to sell. They can do this by posting on Facebook, Twitter, the company’s website, and many more. Agents still use the newspaper to advertise however with the growth of social media agents are able to get their ads to a vast amount of people with the click of a button.

In this blog I will keep everyone informed of what is going on in my life and how I plan on using social media to advance my real estate business. I will also post the required materials for my Social Media and Global Issues course.

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