Irate Pizza Man

Recently a video showing an interaction between a pizza delivery man and a group of employees from a car dealership has gone viral (watch here-http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.boston.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fmassachusetts%2F2015%2F01%2F14%2Fwestport-car-dealership-messes-with-pizza-delivery-guy-feels-internet-wrath%2FzXO7rV6jreriD63xG0bj5L%2Fstory.html&h=6AQH4ynPs&s=1 ). In this video the pizza delivery man returns to the car dealership to give them back about $7, that he had previously assumed was a tip. When he had originally delivered the pizza he was given two twenty dollar bills and two five dollar bills to cover the just over $42 dollar bill. He explained the price of the pizza and asked if they were sure that they wanted to give him all fifty dollars, then assumed that the change was what they intended to leave him as a tip, only to be forced to return to the dealership after his manager was contacted and told that he had stolen their money. Upon returning all the employees present treat the delivery man very rudely and unkindly, though he handles the situation very calmly and professionally. Since this video has been posted on the internet fundraisers have been put together to raise over $11,000 for this pizza delivery man, employees from the dealership that were involved in the interaction have been fired, and the manager and delivery man from the pizza place have been publicly apologized to. My mind is blown. 

When I watched this video for the first time, I was angry. The delivery man didn’t do a single thing to purposefully antagonize or offend the employees, yet they verbally attacked him and didn’t give him any sort of tip. To add to that, they forced him to use more of his gas (which costs money) to return to their dealership. This man works a minimum wage job, in addition to a second job, to support his family and these people were so petty and unkind that they made him waste his time and money to give them back a few dollars, that should have belonged to him in the first place. I really relate to this delivery man. I am a student in college, working three jobs in an attempt to support myself, and any and all money that I have is a precious resource that I don’t want to waste. I can’t imagine the added pressure there would be if I was also trying to support a family. It blows my mind that there are people in this world- like the employees of that car dealership- that go out of their way to be unkind to others. I understand being frustrated with receiving less than ideal service (which wasn’t actually the case here…), but regardless of how frustrated you are the people you are dealing with still deserve kindness and respect. This interaction would have been completely different, and wouldn’t have received nearly this much attention, if the employees of the dealership had just accepted the money from the delivery man in a gracious manner and spoken to him kindly.  Additionally, the delivery man had every right to assume that the money left over from the transaction was intended to be a tip. They handed him an EXTRA five dollar bill. Their bill would have been covered with just the two twenties and one of the fives, so what was the point in handing the man another five dollar bill? Granted, I can understand that the extra money could have been a mistake, but the delivery man clarified that they meant to give him the second five dollar bill. Why? It doesn’t make any sense, in my opinion. Had I been in the delivery man’s shoes, I also would have assumed that they were giving me the second five dollar bill as a tip, it’s the only idea that really makes any sense. 

After I watched the video a few times I started researching the situation, which is when I discovered how much money had been raised for the delivery man. I became less angry and my hope for humanity returned. While the employees of the car dealership were incredibly rude and disrespectful, there have been exponentially more people who have reached out in kindness to this man. There is good in the world, and that brings me so much joy. While I was reading various articles I was reminded of the fact that more often that not, the good outweighs the bad in this world. No one had to donate any money to this man; No one had to start a fundraiser for him, no one had to pay any attention to his experience, but people did. People went out of their way to spread goodness and kindness because they related with this man, they connected to him and wanted him to feel their support; What a beautiful thing. 

I’m inspired by this whole situation. I want to make more of an effort to be kind to all people that I come in contact with, regardless of how frustrated I am with a situation or their actions. I want to support people in any way I can, especially those who have been treated poorly. I want to be the good in the world. 

Sources: (click to link)

CNN- http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/15/us/car-dealership-pizza-guy/

Mass Live- http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/01/westport_car_dealership_worker.html

Social Media Platforms

Twitter. Instagram. Facebook. Pinterest. MySpace. All different social media platforms, all with different goals and purposes, and many different pros and cons. My personal favorite form of social media is Twitter. I love the concept of microblogging, the way information spreads so quickly, how useful hashtags can be, and the networking opportunities it provides.In my opinion twitter is becoming more relevant; people are more willing to read what you have to say in 140 characters (or less!) than they are to read the long political rant that you put on Facebook and aren’t as annoyed afterwards either. Just because Twitter is my favorite platform does not mean that it is everyone’s favorite platform so, what is the most commonly used social media platform? Interestingly enough, it is still Facebook though Twitter takes a close second. Twitter and Facebook are the most popular forms of social media, but what are there differences and similarities? Lets look at the following links:

www.diffen.com/difference/Facebook_vs_Twitter

www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2014/10/14/facebook-versus-twitter-infographic/

The first link points out that Facebook tends to be a lot more personal; the people you’re friends with are typically people that you have at least met in real life, while that is not always the case with Twitter. Facebook also allows you to customize your privacy settings to the point that you can share posts with just a specific few people, while Twitter simply has the option of being public or private. Facebook also have a variety of uses and allows for sharing of longer messages and larger media such as videos, while Twitter is more restricted.

The second link points out that Facebook has more users than Twitter and makes more money annually. The most popular users are completely different, which I found very interesting. I also found it really interesting that 86 percent of twitter usage is on mobile devices, compared to only 68 percent of Facebook usage. 

Social media is a huge part of our world and I honestly think that it’s only going to increase in prevalence. While Twitter and Facebook are only two platforms of the many that are available they are clearly the most popular and therefore the most important as of right now. 

Why Blog?

 I’ve been thinking about blogging a lot. What’s the purpose of it? Why do some people find it to be a valuable use of their time? Why has it become such a popular part of the internet? 

There are many different purposes of blogging; some people use their blogs to let the world know what is going on in their everyday lives, others to give themselves a voice concerning their views on the world. The fantastic part about blogs is that they are exactly what the author designs them to be. I have read blogs that are an expression of religious beliefs, others discussing their unique experience regarding a loved ones experience with cancer, and some sharing recipes and crafts that they have tried and enjoyed. The one common theme of all of these blogs is that they share information with others; beyond that the purpose of each individual blog is essentially whatever the author designs it to be. People find this to be a valuable use of their time because they value that trade of information and want to be able to share their unique insight with others.

I spent some time researching the purpose of blogs and their impact on the internet and found the following two links:

blogs.lse.ac.uk/help/2011/02/22/7-uses-for-blogs-in-higher-education/

www.leadsleap.com/blog/why-blog-the-purpose-of-blogging/

The first offers a great insight as to how blogs can help in an academic setting. A few of the points discussed included using blogs as an avenue for sharing research, somewhere to share commentary and analysis on a specific subject, or the location to post news and announcements. Before reading this article, I hadn’t really thought of blogs being used in this educational way. In my mind blogs were a place where one person posted their views on a particular subject matter, but this article opened my eyes to the idea that blogs can be a collaborative effort that is beneficial for education. 

The second link discusses blogging in a business sense and why it is so useful. I honestly had no idea how useful blogging could be to businesses, but they can really make a difference. A good blog can be a huge asset in advertising and creating more traffic on your businesses website. This article also discusses the fact that blogging allows you to get your creative juices flowing, which in and of itself can be of a huge benefit to your business. 

Blogging is such a multi-faceted thing and I truly love the way that it can become anything you want it to be. Blogs are a huge resource in the way that they offer everyone a voice and allow everyone to share their unique perspective. No one goes through the same experiences in life, thus no one has the exact same information or knowledge as others. Our knowledge is so much greater as a whole than it is as individuals, so we should share whatever we have in whatever area it pertains to because we never know who we could help. 

Social Media in our World

How has social media changed communication?

Social media has become a major part of communication in recent years, which has been both a negative and positive thing. Social media allows for people to let the entire world know exactly what they are doing at any given point in the day and view what others are doing too. This means that there is a greater amount of knowledge that is more readily available and accessible to us. 

One of the things that social media has done for our world is allowed everyone to have a voice. If you have an opinion about any topic at all you can express that opinion on a variety of platforms and make it available to anyone. The good part of this is that people have been discovered and made very successful careers off of social media platforms. People have expressed that everyone speaking  their opinion on social media platforms like Facebook can be rather frustrating. Arguments and debates start, people choose to post political rants, or call people out personally, which many people find inappropriate. 

With the increase of social media we have also seen more and more people choosing to socialize over the internet instead of in person. This means that we are allowed to communicate with and meet more people, including people that we may not have met if we weren’t using the internet, but also affects people’s social skills. Many young adults are uncomfortable having a face to face, or even over the phone, conversations but have no qualms talking for hours over Facebook. Social media makes it easier for people to communicate and stay in touch, regardless of how far apart they may live. Thanks to services such as Skype, Facebook, or snapchat I can talk to my Aunt that lives in Hong Kong, free of charge and with relative ease. If I had to just rely on phone calls we wouldn’t be able to talk very often and it would be easy to not stay in touch with each other. 

Social media has become such a huge part of our society that I really feel like it’s necessary at this point. While it does affect us negatively, I think that it has been a positive influence in our world.