December 2016 – Kayleigh Falvey

What’s Going on with Youtube

eSome of your may have noticed the anger and frustration with Content Creators in the last few weeks due to the latest algorithm change for YouTube, its frustrating for not only for the creators but for viewers and subscribers who have been unsubscribed from some Vloggers that they follow. I, myself, have been affected and have been unsubscribed from some of my favourite YouTubers without my knowledge or constant.

And if people like me are getting annoyed, imagine what the people who make a living out of YouTube are feeling right now! Some have addressed the issue, Jacksepticeye, for example, has said, “This is people’s careers…..To completely switch how you do things and not tell anybody is a shitty thing to do.” And he’s right, especially for the smaller channels who are trying so hard to get noticed but are being pushed aside by videos in the trending menu.

One of the biggest YouTubers PewDiePie is so frustrated with the changes that he has vowed to delete his channel as soon as it hits 50 Million Subscribers. Which if you didn’t know is a feat not been done on YouTube before. Ironically his Vlog announcing his decision is no. 44 of the Trending list at the time of writing this! But this just goes to show the seriousness of this situation and if YouTube doesn’t address these changes then it could spell the end of the powerhouse that is YouTube.

At the end of PewDiePie’s video he did say that he was meeting with people from YouTube to try and figure out what has gone wrong so if there is any update from that going forward then this article will be updated accordingly but as of right now, December 3rd, there is no update on the situation. The question is if YouTube doesn’t make the changes that its audience and creators desperately want, where will people go to publish their videos?? YouTube has been at the forefront of this area for so long, is there any site that could take over from YouTube? Only time will tell how this will unfold.

The Arrival of Facebook Games

For the past two days, I have been introduced to the magical world of Facebook Games. Now gaming on Facebook is not a new concept, we have had games on Facebook for years, but in the last few days FB has upped its game (pardon the pun!) with the use of Facebook Messenger in order to challenge users and their friends to retro arcade games like Space Invaders and Pac-Man while having newer games like Endless Lake and Words with Friends: Frenzy. What I love about this is that there are no in-app purchases right now!! *CUE Applause* My Bank Balance thanks you Facebook.

The games load super quickly, are super addictive and are perfect for the casual gamers, like me, who don’t really want to spend a whole lot of money on consoles.

Because the games are available through the Facebook Messenger App, both IOS and Andriod users are able to get involved which is fantastic. And because it is the Messenger App, you don’t need to go away and try and download any extra apps in order to play, just head into the app and away you go adding to the already ‘stickiness’ of the Facebook Apps.

Screenshot of Instant Games on Messenger

At the moment Instant Gaming is only available in the following countries; Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Great Britain, Canada, United States, Japan, Netherlands, Australia, Austria, Latvia, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, New Zealand, France, Singapore, Finland, Hong Kong, Russian Federation, Estonia, Taiwan, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, Cyprus, Israel, Lithuania, Spain, and Italy. Seeing how popular it has become in the last few days I’m sure the update will come for all Facebook users around the world in due course. This innovation on Facebook’s part is very exciting and integrates one of the most popular activities with one of the world’s most popular messenger apps.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to beat my high score in Endless Lake!!

Relevant Source:

Facebook Messenger launches Instant Games

http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/29/13769768/facebook-instant-games-pac-man-galaga-words-with-friends

https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Facebook-Plays-Another-Round-with-Games/1014795

A Lookback over Semester One

*In this series, I plan to put content up on my blog throughout the month of December. I am challenging myself to do this in order to fully flesh out what kind of content I want to create on my blog and see what I can come up with.*

Today is the first day of December and it is my second last day of lectures before the semester ends and we begin preparing for our exams. I felt it was a good time to have a look back at how this semester has gone for me and what I have learnt. I’m not going to lie, going to a University was daunting, to say the least, I knew no own on campus and spent a lot of the first few weeks trying to find my way around campus. Now, I’m not saying that I am an expert getting around campus these days, I still need to concentrate really hard in order to remember the directions to the DH Space, but I have a fair idea of where certain rooms are.

Then came the whole academic part of university life. It’s fair to say that whatever I had imagined the course to be when I began was nowhere near as intense as it became. And I couldn’t be happier with how it unfolded. Yes, there were some minor issues and whatever but that would happen anywhere. I got so much more out of this semester than I thought I would, I was challenged to think outside the box in terms of the how our society is evolving along with the modern technology. This course has made me more aware of the updates in the technology world both in Ireland and around the world.

t has also made me think about the fields of study that I want to pursue in Digital Humanities which are Social Media and Virtual Reality. What drew me to these topics was the fact that although the ideals have stayed the same the software and technology has improved greatly over the years. I also love how both of these technologies are constantly changing and are so versatile so that they can be used in a variety of ways. As I mentioned in my presentation, the world of Pop Culture is coming to life through Virtual Reality experiences which I find so exciting as a fan of pop culture. The world of Social Media is also a huge field that I hope to see evolve in the next few years as we see the changing of sites such as Youtube and Instagram.

And it isn’t just the Digital Humanities Modules that I have been excited about, I adore the computer science modules, too, as I am interested in web design and using the internet for business. And these modules have given me an insight into that along with some other aspects of the internet which I think more people should be made aware of i.e. internet security and hacking.

So yes, I am very excited about semester 2 but just let me get through my exams in one piece!