Author: willimi6

In order to effectively do some projects, you must collaborate with your coworkers. Collaboration between coworkers is a very important aspect of the work environment. It allows for not only different ideas and viewpoints to be shared and explored, but also comes along with different experiences on certain tasks. In the past, coworkers and peers were able to somewhat effectively work on projects together, but due to new technologies and softwares, it’s become easier than ever to share ideas about a project.

In a few years by the time I am out of school, I believe that businesses will encourage more in-office workers, but at the same time support the jobs that can be done remotely being done remotely. Being in the same room as a client or coworker can be important in some settings, especially when information is needed to be confidential. On the other hand, there are many jobs that can be done just as effectively at home if not more than they would be in an office environment. Some good examples of these types of jobs would be a Transcriber, Typist, or Accountant. There are plenty of other jobs that can be done from home, some of which can actually be done more effectively outside of the workplace.

There are many tools and softwares out there that can be used to collaborate, but my favorite is remote access and cloud-based systems. The ability to take remote access gives many opportunities to collaborate. For instance, imagine you can’t figure out where something is on a project, or how to do a certain calculation. A co worker may be able to remote access in to your computer and help you out right away, even if they aren’t there. You can also show a presentation from a distance, which can be very useful when it comes to certain business needs. Imagine having to miss a meeting due to weather, but being able to go along with the meeting live from home? That is one of the main reasons I love both of these technologies. During IT projects, multiple people being able to work on one project all at the same time can be very useful and speed up the process significantly.

While tools and softwares tend to be very useful, when there are too many being used at the same time, it can be overwhelming. Google does a good job at this, because you are able to have text documents, presentation, spreadsheets, and other files all saved onto one cloud. Being able to do this makes it so you, or anyone else that needs it can access it from anywhere. This makes things incredibly easier, and it tends the be the most useful between peers in college. While working on a group paper for instance, all members of your group are able to read what you are typing in real time, which could potentially speed up not only their portion, but the overall paper as well. All in all, collaboration between coworkers is a very important aspect of the work environment. It allows for not only different ideas and viewpoints to be shared and explored, but also comes along with different experiences on certain tasks.

I use social media in the same aspect that mostly everyone in my age category does, but also in a few more ways. On the personable aspect, I use social media platforms to stay connected with friends and people that I don’t see as much as I used to, and to be able to stay relevant in their lives through seeing and interacting with key events in their lives that they chose to post about. On the professional side of social media, I have always been very interested in social media marketing and digital marketing. I actually tried to run my own e-commerce dropshipping store, using Instagram and Facebook Ad campaigns. I used basically no money (something along the lines of $2 for a domain per year on Cyber Monday) and then a little bit of money for ads. I did it purely just to gain knowledge about the systems that people have put in place to make a profit for themselves. Through my own personal research, I have seen some amazing individuals completely transform their lives using social media. Anything from becoming an influencer and following their dreams to starting a brand, to doing advertising for larger companies.

There are many positives and negatives when it comes to social media. For instance, on the negative side, cyber-bullying is now an issue that wasn’t previously as of 20 years ago. Each year, there are thousands of cases of cyber bullying that could lead to a child endangering his or her own life. Posting the wrong thing on a social media account could also cause damage to professional image in the future. When users are on Social Media for too long, there are also other negative effects on health. Social media has been linked to depression and anxiety with prolonged use, and has started the phenomenon that is FOMO, or, Fear Of Missing Out. This is the idea that if you are constantly checking your social medias, you’ll see someone in your life that is having more fun than you, and feel left out or feel like you’re falling behind. In reality most people post the best parts of their lives online, leading others to be jealous or feeling like they are not accomplishing enough.

I believe that each platform has its different uses and capabilities. For instance, Twitter is more of a forum type website, resulting in more text posts compared to some of its competitors, such as Instagram, where the main point is to show off your nicest pictures. Many believe that Facebook is on the downfall, and while it might not be gaining as many new members as it used to, it still has the largest population of any social media platform, and is a very useful tool in the advertising world. If I had to choose one to stay, it would be Facebook, due to the amount of money and time invested in Ad Campaigns alone on there. If I had to choose one to be on its way out, it would either be Pinterest or Twitter. All in all social media is constantly changing and adapting to the needs and uses of the people that use it, and i’m interested to see the route that it takes in the future.

In this episode of the podcast Nerdist by Chris Hardwick, he interviews and chats with actor/comedian Steve Carell. You may know Steve from the popular show “The Office” along with many other popular movies such as “40 Year Old Virgin”. He had come onto the show to give some insight into his life and discuss some topics about television with Chris.

Steve Carell was born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts. He is married, and has two children, one son and one daughter. He actually had met his wife while teaching an improv class, she was one of his students. Before becoming an actor, he was actually a mailman. His boss at the time had told him that he wasn’t fast enough, but he continued to work this job for almost 7 months until his career as an actor started to take off. He started acting in a theater in 1989, until eventually he was offered to work on his first television commercial for a food chain, known as Browns Chicken. One of Carell’s favorite stories was when shortly after shooting 40 Year Old Virgin, he went back to a high school reunion and when people asked him what he was up to and he told them, they all figured that the movie was going to be the end of his career, but the movie ended up being a hit. One of my favorite parts of the podcast is when Steve Carell talks about how some other actors react to being thrown out of the spotlight, and how some react positively and others react negatively. He strongly reinforces the fact that everything changes and everything must come to an end at some point. He goes a little in-depth about how Will Ferrell was doing small-brand beer commercials that only aired in the southwest, basically only for fun. After this, they then go into discussion about how there are comedians that genuinely care about comedy, and others that are only doing it for the fame or fortune.

When the topic of “The Office” being re-done in 2018 was brought up, Steve explains why he believes that the shows concept wouldn’t work in today’s times, compared to when it was originally released. There is a lot of humor that wouldn’t fly the same way if it was performed now. Some of this humor comes from soft racial, gender, and age-related jokes.

I really liked how Chris (the interviewer) was able to build such a personable relationship with Steve in such a short amount of time, overall increasing the smoothness of the podcast and making it flow much easier. They seemed to have a lot in common, not only common interests but also how they had similar “goofy” personalities. It made the podcast feel much more like you were hanging out with both of them, rather than listening through a computer. All in all it was a great podcast, and you should definitely check it out over on their website if you haven’t heard about it yet.