How Do You Facebook Live? – Millenial Influx

Facebook’s Live feature has been out for just shy of a year, April 16 to be exact.

At first, people were skeptical about this feature, but now it has become a very popular addition to social media. Instagram added this feature once the popularity of it was noticed.

What makes this so popular? Why does everyone want to document what they’re currently doing?

First, let’s talk about its uses.

One popular use that I have seen it used for is business. You know those companies that people join in on the side that tell you-you can make a living off of? Lularoe, Mary Kay, ItWorks, Advocate, and so on. Well, a new way to sell these products to your friends, family, and acquaintances is to demonstrate it live to all your followers.

It’s a definitely and new, innovative way to sell these products, and it seems to be effective.

Another popular use I have seen is for news. I get notifications at least once a day from Buzzfeed News if Sean Spicer or President Trump is doing something interesting. They cover all the rallies and protests. It seems to be a pretty great way to keep citizens in the know of what is going on around the world and be notified right away as well. Pretty cool, right?

The news isn’t just at 5 o’clock before dinner anymore.

So the third use I have noticed the Live feature is used for is personal. People are eager to let others know what’s happening in their lives, daily routines or something exciting.

I have watched my share of concerts, beach waves, travels, and snow storms through Facebook Live. For some reason I find the exciting things happening in other people’s lives entertaining. When people are doing new and interesting things, they want to document it, because it is pretty cool.

On top of exciting things, people also just want to show what is happening in their daily lives. Is your cat being nice to you today? Is your baby doing something funny? The dog learned a new trick? Prank happening at work? Document it. It has become almost an instinct to want people to know what is happening with us, so Facebook Live is a good outlet for that.

There are a lot of different uses for the trending use of Facebook Live. It is intriguing to see the different things that people want others to see.

Will the uses of it alter in the future? How much can they vary?

I definitely think that is is an interesting trend that we’ll all be following, mainly because we get notifications when someone goes live.

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.