Reflection

After completing Project #2, I feel like I have learned a lot about social media and the impact it can have on real life situations. Our topic on homelessness was a great example of an issue occurring not only in our local community but also world wide. Homelessness is an issue thats not normally addressed in conversations on reform and change. In fact, the issue of homelessness is almost completely ignored, like most of the homeless population. It was our goal from the beginning to break down the invisible wall of ignorance and start a conversation. Change can start with something as simple as saying “hello” and thats what we focused on. By starting conversation our group aimed to educate the general public and do away with pre constructed stereotypes. Reflecting back on the experience, as a group we promoted participatory engagement by sharing multiple forms of media and asking thought provoking questions. This allowed our followers to become informed and generate personal opinions on the issue. Over the years there has been a lot of effort put into informing the public on the issue of homelessness, yet most people do not get involved. By spreading the word using different forms of media, we successfully engaged our audience while also promoting participation. For example: one of our posts alone was shared by 2 people outside of our group and ultimately reached 458 people. Something as simple as sharing a post (clicktivism) can educate the public and evoke participation from a greater audience. Working as a group really helped spread social awareness. Each group member brought their own respective opinions to the web page and helped communicate the message to a variety of different audiences. Audience feedback was the most rewarding part of the entire experience. Hearing from friends and family that the media and articles we shared were interesting and thought provoking proved to us that we can create change on social media and in real life. In the beginning our group didn’t really know what to expect, response wise, from our viewers or if there would be any response at all. By working together and sharing multiple forms of media we were able to connect to our audience and open up the discussion on homelessness. Our goal was never to end homelessness, but rather to open up conversation about an epidemic that is occurring in our country as we speak.