FSU EME-6414 Course Blog JNSU26

I did some Gemini queries about trends with social media internationally, and two stood out to me.  First, the use of AI to create marketing and other types of content is leading to people now actually wanting less polished, more authentic experiences.  Real, perfectly imperfect people in marketing and other posts are now seen as a sign of quality over AI slop.  I've seen some really cute, very polished AI-created video stories marketing certain products.   I'm amazed at just how polished they are, but it definitely just seems like fiction.  It is also interesting to me that the "long form" medical testimonial has now become its own genre for social media marketing.  Also easy to create through AI.   I was also surprised and a little concerned to learn that people are now doing a lot of searching and researching all within social media platforms.  That just seems like such an unfortunate vote for the echo chamber of our social media algo...

 Going back to last week's readings about assessment on Social Media, one key constraint about using assessment in this way is just the sheer workload involved for a single teacher (or if a large lecture, a handful of TAs and the lead instructor).  I can envision one reason to assess student progress on social media--that it is a place where students are comfortable spending a lot of time.  I know there is this sweeping tide, if you spend much time online, for all of us to have one single access point from which we run our lives online, and that having a life online is the preferred way of living in the 21st century.  And we are bombarded with so much information about how our online lives can make our lives overall better, all while social media companies are selling our data for big profits. I have had times when I was more online and visible in my activity, for a variety of reasons--sharing photos of the kids with distant relatives or engaging in civic activities....

I enjoyed looking at several of the information-sharing project videos.  I was impressed with the work people put in and the creative ways they used to drive usage.  I did not do this version of the assignment, largely because I couldn't think of something to create that would have been interesting enough for others to engage with and potentially share.  I was also worried that I wouldn't be able to drive anyone to my site in such a short amount of time for any sort of meaningful analytics.  So, I wrote a paper where I had far more to say than I expected!  It was interesting to compare two information-sharing sites/experiences and to see how very different they were.  

 I've been working on a project using vibe-coding, which I took a brief break from early in the course.  And I'm glad I did.  After working through the assignments in the course and after each of the team members on the project had some time to think about it, we all had some good ideas for how to improve the project.  For me, it was to add several elements to the project to build a community on the site.  Given the nature of the project, it's a natural addition to the site and should make it more valuable to users.  I've had a few ideas and am eager to learn from our site testers what they think of those elements and what suggestions they have for improvement.  I'm excited that the site is at a place where it is ready for use.  I've never done anything like this, so I plan to ask each tester to respond to a set of questions about its functionality, especially around the community building aspects.   I wonder what experience others have ...