Twitter - Whaddup!? #ChristmasEve

Video of the Week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtATI9R-qA

Life Update: So, probably like you, I've spent the day with family and had an amazing time. We did our traditional gingerbread houses (accompanied with the annual coconut battles), played some Guitar Hero, made sugar cookies (equipped with sprinkles and plenty of flour), went to the Christmas Eve service at Steven's Creek, and went around to look at Christmas lights (while singing along to Christmas tunes). We also discovered the song "Santa Claus and Popcorn;" look it up - I'm not kidding.

Over the past week, I've been doing pretty much the same things as I have been since I got home. Some of my friends from high school got together and we had a bonfire with a gift exchange one night last week. I've been doing a good bit of reading and sleeping too - no shame. 

Yesterday, I took my sister to finish up her Christmas shopping in the midst of the mad dash of everyone else in Augusta trying to do the same thing. But we also went to the midday screening of "Saving Mr. Banks" which was good but ended up being a little longer than it probably needed to be.

As usual, here are some pics from this past week (mostly from today):

Bonfire

Scavenger Hunt Across Augusta

"Saving Mr. Banks"

Looking at Lights

Gingerbread Houses

Making Sugar Cookies

Looking at Lights

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The following is the typed-up version of a speech I gave this past year for one of my classes. Hope you enjoy! Since it is Christmas Eve, I'm kind of giving myself a bit of a break.

So you know that little symbol right above the number 3 on your keyboard? Now, if I were to ask anyone 10 years ago what this symbol was, they would have simply shrugged their shoulders and responded with “the pound sign,” or they might have just not known. But today, these symbols have exploded all over the web. If I were to ask a second or third grader that same question now, they’d probably look at me like I was stupid and say something like “Duh! It’s a hashtag.”

Look, I’m not about to be that person to stand up here and tell you that we need to change, or that we should start a movement to save the English language so that our children aren’t walking around speaking in 140 characters followed by sayings like #solegit, #butforreal, #thestruggleisreal and #lololololololol. No, that’s not at all what I’m going to talk about. I’m actually here to do just the opposite.

To me, it’s amazing how people gain a sense of purpose and unity just by putting a symbol and a few words either beside a picture or after a status update. These crafty little pound signs are taking over the internet. They’ve spread from Twitter and can now be found on sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Google +. And when we use them, they make us feel like we’re part of something. And who doesn’t want to be a part of something? Let’s take #ThrowbackThursday for example. When a weekly trend like this takes over social media, it’s hard for people to not want to be a part of something fun that a lot of their friends are participating in. And it's not just #ThrowbackThursday; we've also got things like #MCM and #WCW.

But not only do these symbols serve as ego-boosters; they also serve a very practical purpose. No one said it better than Mark Robison when he quoted, “I think hashtags are going to become the new dot-com. They’re like the new www because it can connect everything on a particular topic.” Hashtags have become the new way to find out what’s going on in the world. Osama bin Laden’s death was already trending on Twitter before President Obama even had a chance to announce it. So as far as effective goes, I think hashtags are pretty good at quickly getting the word out about a certain event to the public. Even businesses and grassroots movements have caught on. Marketing expert Amy Kean exclaims that “the theory is that the hashtag can build a bit of intrigue.” So groups take advantage of the hashtag with hopes that the saying will grab the attention of the public or the consumer, whoever their audience may be.

I hope next time you see or use that little symbol above the 3 that you don’t take for granted the purpose that it serves in society today. There are millions of people using it for a reason, whether that reason be psychological or to get the word out about something important.


Happy Christmas!
Megan

Fun Fact: The Germans made the first artificial Christmas trees out of died goose feathers.