What is “Damn Daniel”? – Millenial Influx

All trends have to start from somewhere. The first viral video was Numa Numa, a big guy with glasses and headphones singing “Dragostea din tei”. It all starts with the person who is the trendsetter, making the trend. Ever since the rise of social media happened, we have seen a lot of trends come and go. Some of them stay. The trend I am going to be talking about today is viral video trends. There is a bunch of ways these are possible.

You can make a dance or a song. People recently have made challenges like the “Cinnamon challenge, Salt and Ice challenge, Coke and Mentos Challenge, etc. That would get people to do it and sometimes it would end up in a tragic result. Trends are nice to have and to look at, but they can either get you killed or make you want to start you own trend. These are started for a reason. It’s probably people are bored and don’t have anything to do or they want to get famous. Trends can be anything from what a celebrity is wearing like jeans to designer shoes.

According to research, there are certain qualities that go into making a viral video. The first one is it must contain emotion. The second one is It should promote your brand. The third one is you need a marketing plan. The fourth one is you need results. A viral video trend is video that becomes viral that it gets the attention of a lot of people and becomes a trend. A great example of a viral video trend is “Damn Daniel”.

Now many people don’t know what “Damn Daniel” is. Those who do either think it’s funny or think it’s stupid. It all started this year with two students Daniel Lara and Josh Holz at Riverside Polytech High School. They were at school one day and friend Josh Holz started to record his friend Daniel Lara on Snapchat. He would look at Daniel while he was recording and say, “Damn Daniel”! Or he would say “Damn Daniel”! Back at it again with the white Vans”!

Daniel thought it was weird at first but grew into it. Over time, they started doing it more and more everyday. They wanted to go the mall one day and as soon as they went there people recognized them. They knew who they were and took pictures with them. That gave them a good feeling because they knew that they were getting famous, but they didn’t know how that happened so fast. Then it got to the point where they were guests on the Ellen show and she interviewed them about how it got started and how it feels to be famous.

They said that they love it and have gotten a lot of support for it. Daniel has received marriage proposals from girls, which has left him speechless. Ellen gave Josh Holz a surfboard because he likes to surf and gave Daniel a lifetime supply of Vans because he loves Vans. The dynamic duo also made an appearance in the Weezer video, “California Kids”. Now this shows that these teenagers were just making a video, without the expectation of becoming viral. They didn’t know they were going to become famous, but they did it with the help of some friends and their fans. They made it possible for them to achieve this success.

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing/4-rules-for-a-video-to-go-viral/

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.