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The YouTube star I chose is Jenna Marbles. I used to follow her a long time ago, but don't keep up with her (or any YouTube stars) much nowadays. Jenna Marbles does weekly YouTube videos on any range of topics (usually comedic), from Things Guys Lie About, to Drunk Makeup Tutorials, to Reading Mean Comments About My Dogs. On Instagram, she posts selfies, dog photos, photos with her boyfriend, and photos with other YouTube people. Jenna often asks for ideas for videos on Facebook, and people will give her ideas. On YouTube, people will also comment ideas for future videos. On Instagram, most comments are related to how pretty Jenna looks in her photos. Jenna is relatable to her viewers because of the type of videos she makes, like What Girls Do In The Car or How To Avoid Talking To People You Don't Want To Talk To. The topics are topics everyone faces, then Jenna puts her own comedic twist on it for a video.

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When signing up for social media sites, we give up our basic information. This information includes our name, number, email address, and family members. All of these correspond with advertisers being able to find us more easily. These ads help social media corporations maintain an exponential growth in revenue. The greater the reach by advertisers, the more money the social media corporation makes.

Personally, I have not contemplated giving up a social media platform. This is because I use these platforms to give myself a name in terms of sports blogging/writing. All of my social media is primarily dedicated to such.

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The app we know as Snapchat generates its revenue relatively simply: filters. Movie companies pay Snapchat to put their filters on the app as an advertisement for the movie. The first movie to do so was X-Men: Apocalypse. Following soon after was Hunger Games. Snapchat also makes revenue from the filters consumers can buy, some of which are region specific. Snapchat expects to reach a revenue of $1 billion in 2017.

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Jenkins’ definition of spreadability is relatively simple: the ability to spread content to various groups of individuals both technically and culturally. The only stipulation is being granted permission by the original content holder to share such content. We call this copyright. Now, we all know that most content posted on the internet stays forever. Spreadability of memes and other content alike become trending topics for an extended period of time.

Above is an image and a gif: up top is a poster reading “Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals”. The gif shows Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James trash talking Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors after blocking Curry’s shot in the NBA Finals. 

The Warriors possessed a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals, winning three games to Cleveland’s one game. The Cavaliers then made a miraculous comeback, winning three straight games to win the series, 4-3. These memes have become an internet sensation because the Warriors earned a 73-9 regular season record, making NBA history for the best record of any team. A team in the NBA Finals has never lost while holding a 3-1 lead, making the Warriors first to do so.

The point is this: after the finals, memes began to spread notoriously over the internet. As of today, these memes still continue to stand strong on the internet simply because it is something to laugh at. On sports blogs and social media websites/apps, there is always that one comment of “the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead” no matter where you are. This is spreadability at its finest. 

- Malik Fourte

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I am basically a real life Leslie Knope-I'm super dedicated to the things I do and the people I love, my favorite type of food is breakfast food, and I am never chill 100% of the time. I'm like Squidward because when people first meet me they think I'm mean, but like Squidward is actually a good guy, I'm a lot nicer than people think....most of the time. I've been told I look like Kimmy Gibbler, and I like to show up places unannounced and surprise people, like she does to the Tanner family. -Jill

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On Twitter, ESPN tweeted about the NFL Draft taking place the following day. The problem was this was posted on the same day ESPN was in the process of laying off up to 100 on-air and digital personalities for “budget cuts”. The trolls came out full force.

The bottom left picture shows someone parodying the NBA Playoffs with “ESPN Layoffs”. The playoffs slogan is “Where Amazing Happens”. The troll posted “Where ESPN executives close their eyes, randomly pick 100 people to fire”.

The tweeter on the bottom right shows his disgust by basically saying ESPN fired 100 people who have families to support, all while bragging about college prospects entering the NFL Draft to make millions of dollars.

People responded by bringing up the liberal vs. conservative narrative. They hinted that ESPN doesn’t want to support such “liberal garbage”, so these personalities were fired.

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I chose a more "friendly" version of trolling. Nicki Minaj promised a new album in 2017, and since it's almost already May, people are getting anxious and replying to her tweets asking where the album is. Nicki Minaj has tweeted in response (like in the above picture) but has yet to release details. Therefore, the trolls have been replying things like "where's the album?" or "drop the album." It's all in good fun and the trolls are nice enough about it, and it's just a fun interaction between her and her fans.

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I chose a social media post from Twitter that focused on trolling and body shaming. Trolls have the intent to hurt people’s feelings, but Lady Gaga was not bothered by it. There were several trolls that thought it was okay to make comments about her body. Some of the trolls wanted to draw attention to her body rather than her talent.

I noticed that some trolls would tag their intended target (Lady Gaga) in their posts, so they know she would see it. The funny thing is that individuals like that have anonymous profile pics, so they can’t be identified, whereas other trolls would just make offensive comments with their profile pic and really not care. I also noticed that there were a lot more men than women who were making some of the comments that I came across. Some women were coming to Lady Gaga’s defense and saying that she looked great and that she is a real women who is not afraid to show her body. I feel that more women need to be confident and not compare themselves to society’s standards. These standards are not realistic for everyone nor should they be used to body shame anyone that doesn’t fit the standard. Lady Gaga spoke out about body shaming by saying that she is proud of her body and other people should be proud of theirs too.

After reading the comments, I realized that there are always going to be haters and people that want to break you down. If you have a strong mind and are confident and comfortable in your own skin, then no one can break you. People that troll or body shame others are people that are obviously unhappy with their own lives, that they feel the need to break someone else down in order to feel better about their own less than perfect lives.