Getting Started

This website is part of a project for my Master's degree program in Communications at Penn State University. It will consist of articles that discuss the evolution of social media; focusing on the shift toward visual social media (specifically Pinterest).

This project will look at the evolution of social media – from a text heavy way of communication to a visual means of communication. In the end, I’m going to bring it all back to Pinterest and discuss why the transition in important to our culture

First was the blog, a text heavy way for bloggers communicate their thoughts/lives/viewpoints. Whatever the purpose was, there was unlimited space. Next came sites like Facebook where posting updates had limits but a user had space to communicate their thoughts. Next came Twitter, where users were limited to posts of 140 characters or less. Eventually social media moved into a visual way to communicate, with sites like Instagram and Pinterest.

OK, so we have a new form of social media, so what?

–Scholarly: the evolution from words to pictures/signs/symbols has occurred elsewhere in human lives. The use of images is used all over to denote a word or phrase, without using written language, ensuring people from different cultures and different languages are able to interpret the message. With new technology that puts the world at our fingertips, our culture is becoming more immediate. Show me in a picture instead of with words; let me figure out the meaning at a glance

–Industry: in the marketing world, a shift in technology and how consumers use media has a direct impact on business practices

Project Execution:

The project articles start off being broadly about social media. Giving background details about the space and what occurred. The articles will begin to focus on Pinterest and how the visual social media is being used.The end result of this project will entail a blog with all of the articles that I wrote on the various topics I will cover. From that blog, those posts will be pinned to Pinterest on various boards: social media, trends/transitions, cultural changes, advertisers and consumers