Dantes Voyage Through Hell - 1490 Words

The Inferno was written by Dante Alighieri around 1314 and depicts the poet’s imaginary journey through Hell. Dante spent his life traveling from court to court both lecturing and writing down his experiences. His Divine Comedy – the three-part epic poem consisting of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso (Hell, Purgatory and Heaven)– is generally regarded as one of the greatest poetic feats ever accomplished. All three parts are incredible literary feats with symbolism so complex and beautiful that scholars are still unraveling all the details today. However, this essay will focus on the first part of Dante’s work, Inferno, which consists of 34 cantos. Dante’s Inferno is a masterpiece of allegorical imagery where Virgil represents human†¦show more content†¦Dante derived much of his writing inspirations from the Roman poet, Virgil. Virgil wrote many poetics, but is probably most well known for writing the Aeneid, whose main character Dante pro bably used as the basis for Virgil in his Inferno. Aeneas is a strong, brave man who also serves as a source of comfort and familiarity to those around him. Virgil thus serves as both guide and the representation of human reason throughout Dante’s journey in Hell. His influence cannot be understated as he is a mentor not only to Dante’s character on his journey, but also to Dante the human being. Virgil is the embodiment of reason and logic in the Inferno. He achieves this quality through his meticulous and often graphic descriptions of the geography and meaning of each and every circle of Hell, and of the tortures that the sinners must endure. Although his descriptions contribute greatly to the allegorical meaning of the epic, Virgil himself is limited in his journey throughout the Inferno due to his lack of religious affiliation by age as he was born before Christ came to save the sins of man. In Canto IV Virgil says, â€Å"I wish you to know before you travel on that these were sinless. And still their merits fail, for they lacked Baptism’s grace, which is the door of the true faith you were born to† (33-36). Virgil knows he isShow MoreRelatedDante And The Nature Of Sin967 Words   |  4 Pagesthe start of The Inferno. Though he sees a safe path out of the wood towards an alluring light, he is forced to take an alternate route through an even darker place . As the ending of the pilgrim Dante’s voyage is bright and hopeful, Alighieri the poet aims to encourage even the most sinful Christians to hope for a successful end. Thus, Dante the pilgrim goes to hell in The Inferno to better understand the nature of sin and its consequences in order to move closer to salvation; his journey an allegoryRead MoreDante s Divine Comedy : An Allegory Representative Of The Christian Soul974 Words   |  4 Pagespath to the light and out of the wood, he is forced to take an alternate route through an even darker place. The Divine Comedy is an allegory representative of the Christian soul. As the ending is bright and hopeful for Dante, Aghileri spreads that the ending for even the most sinful Christians can be as hopeful as dante’s, provided that they take the steps needed to achieve salvation. Thus, Dante the pilgrim goes to hell to better understand the nature of sin and its consequences in order to moveRead MoreOdysseus and Dante1517 W ords   |  7 PagesBeatrice. Both men are very much love the woman in their lives, go to their own hell and back and can think of nothing other than finding their way back to them. Beatrice even after death has a spirit that is very much in love with Dante. She has faith in him, and asks Virgil to guide him through hell to bring him back to her. As written by a professor in psychoanalysis, Dante the voyager through this arduous voyage, a voyage that initially descends into ever deeper, ever more terrifying levels, isRead MoreComparing Dante s Inferno And Virgil s The Aeneid1016 Words   |  5 PagesThere are many similarities between Dante’s The Inferno and Virgil’s The Aeneid, be it their characterizations or descriptive imagery, but foremost in their ideas of what the afterlife consisted of. Each each epic hero in the works here have descended in to the depths of hell, with The Inferno depicting Dante’s descent into the depths of hell and with Virgil in Book VI of The Aeneid depicting Aeneas’s decent into hell. It can be argued that although different, the knowledge acquired by each character’sRead MoreThe Divine Comedy An d Dantes Inferno1079 Words   |  5 Pagesancient Romans. In The Inferno, the main character Dante meets with the Roman poet Virgil who was one of Dante’s biggest influences. Virgil guides Dante deep into the circles of hell and throughout the journey, they encounter many Greek heroes that Dante had disdain for. There are a total of nine circles of hell and the deeper they journeyed, the worse the punishment the people staying in hell received. When Dante and Virgil reach the eighth ring that is reserved for frauds, false prophets, and thieves;Read MoreThe Inferno : Warning Or Threat?1385 Words   |  6 PagesInferno incompasses the story of Dante’s journey through Hell to reach the path of righteousness going toward Heaven’s Gate. Across the immeasurable and extensive journey of Dante and Virgil, both together observe the punishments brought upon oneself, as a result of the sins committed by the hopeless residents of Hell. Within the novel, the severity of pu nishment and the discipline itself whilst in Hell, is a direct correlation to the sins that the souls of Hell are bound to from before their individualRead MoreThe Power Of Everyman s Journey Through Hell1249 Words   |  5 PagesThe Power of Everyman’s Journey Through Hell In religious contexts, sin is the act of violating God s will. Sin can also be viewed as â€Å"anything that violates the ideal relationship between an individual and God, leading to a period of estrangement between the two†. This is not necessarily a permanent separation, but if one dies without correcting such problem, then the separation does become permanent. In order to atone for one’s transgressions, salvation –deliverance by redemption from the powerRead MoreThe Structure and Content of Dantes Inferno Essay1096 Words   |  5 PagesIn his first article of The Inferno, Dante Alighieri starts to present a vivid view of Hell by taking a journey through many levels of it with his master Virgil. This voyage constitutes the main plot of the poem. The opening Canto mainly shows that, on halfway through his life, the poet Dante finds himself lost in a dark forest by wandering into a tangled valley. Being totally scared and disoriented, Dante sees the sunshine co ming down from a hilltop, so he attempts to climb toward the light. HoweverRead MoreLewis And The Silent Planet1326 Words   |  6 PagesOut of the Silent Planet and Dante’s Inferno. The literary tradition left behind by Dante is both one able to influence the thoughts of others and to teach the value of Christianity through within a fictional environment. This is similar to Lewis’ Space Trilogy in more ways than one, some of which include Ransom journey in place of the pilgrim as he travels through strange, new, territory in order to reach his goal, and the use of Malacandra to represent the levels of Hell. Each book in the Space TrilogyRead MoreEssay about Inferno882 Words   |  4 Pagesstory of a mans voyages through the treacherous depths of hell. Dante is a man who has strayed from the path of a catholic way of life. Now he needs to travel through hell to reach the virtuous path that will take him to heaven. He is guided through hell by a man who is in limbo, the first circle of hell, named Virgil. Virgil takes him through hell and shows him people suffering for the sins that they have committed. Together they travel through the nine different stages of hell observing who is

You Suck A Love Story Chapter 8 Free Essays

Chapter Eight She Walks in Beauty Jody moved down Columbus Avenue with long, runway-model strides, feeling the windblown fog brush by her like the chill ghosts of rejected suitors. What she could never teach Tommy, what she could never really share with him, was what it felt like to move from being a victim – afraid of attack, the shadow around the corner, the footsteps behind – to being the hunter. It wasn’t the stalking or the rush of taking down prey – Tommy would understand that. We will write a custom essay sample on You Suck: A Love Story Chapter 8 or any similar topic only for you Order Now It was walking down a dark street, late at night, knowing that you were the most powerful creature there, that there was absolutely nothing, no one, that could fuck with you. Until she had been changed and had stalked the city as a vampire, she never realized that virtually every moment she had been there as a woman, she had been a little bit afraid. A man would never understand. That was the reason for the dress and the shoes – not to attract a minion, but to throw her sexuality out there on display, dare some underevolved male to make the mistake of seeing her as a victim. Truth be told, although it had come down to confrontation only once, and then she’d been wearing a baggy sweatshirt and jeans, Jody enjoyed kicking ass. She also enjoyed – every bit as much – just knowing that she could. It was her secret. Without fear, the City was a great sensual carnival. There was no danger in anything she experienced, no anxiety. Red was red, yellow didn’t mean caution, smoke didn’t mean fire, and the mumbling of the four Chinese guys standing by their car just around the corner was just the click and twang of empty swinging dick talk. She could hear their hearts speed up when they saw her, could smell sweat and garlic and gun oil coming off them. She’d learned the smell of fear and imminent violence, too, of sexual arousal and surrender, although she’d have been hard-pressed to describe any of that. It was just there. Like color. You know†¦ Try to describe blue. Without mentioning blue. See? There weren’t a lot of people out on the street at this time of night, but there were a few, spread up the length of Columbus: barhoppers, late diners just wrapping it up, college boys heading down to the strip clubs on Broadway, the exodus from Cobb’s Comedy Club up the street, people giddy and so into the rhythm of laughing that they found one another and everything they saw hilarious – all of them vibrant, wearing auras of healthy pink life, trailing heat and perfume and cigarette smoke and gas held through long dinners. Witnesses. The Chinese guys weren’t harmless, by any means, but she didn’t think they’d attack her, and she felt a twinge of regret. One of them, the one with the gun, yelled something at her in Cantonese – something sleazy and insulting, she could tell by the tone. She spun as she walked, smiled her biggest red carpet smile, and without breaking stride, said, â€Å"Hey, nano-dick, go fuck yourself!† There was a lot of bluster and shuffle, the smart one, the one with fear coming off him, held his friend Nano-dick back, thus saving his life. She must be a cop, or just crazy. Something’s wrong. They clustered around their tricked-out Honda and huffed out great breaths of testosterone and frustration. Jody grinned, and detoured up a side street, away from traffic. â€Å"My night,† she said to herself. â€Å"Mine.† Now off the main drag, she saw only a single old man shuffling ahead of her. His life aura looked like a burned-out bulb, a spot of dark gray around him. He walked stooped over, with a dogged determination, as if he knew that if he stopped, he would never start again. From what she could tell, he never would. He wore baggy, wide-wale corduroys that made the sound of rodents nesting when he walked. A wisp of breeze off the Bay brought Jody the acrid smell of failing organs, of stale tobacco, of despair, of a deep, rotting sickness, and she felt the elation leave her. She slipped comfortably into the new slot the night had made for her, like tumblers of a lock slipping into place. She made sure that she made enough noise so that he could hear her approaching, and when she was beside him, he paused, his feet still moving in tiny steps that turned him to the side, as if his motor was idling. â€Å"Hi,† she said. He smiled. â€Å"My, you are a lovely girl. Would you walk with me?† â€Å"Sure.† They walked a few steps together before he said, â€Å"I’m dying, you know.† â€Å"Yeah, I kind of figured,† Jody said. â€Å"I’m just walking. Thinking, and walking. Mostly walking.† â€Å"Nice night for it.† â€Å"A little cold, but I don’t feel it. I got a whole pocketful of painkillers. You want one?† â€Å"No, I’m good. Thanks.† â€Å"I ran out of things to think about.† â€Å"Just in time.† â€Å"I wondered if I’d get to kiss a pretty girl once before the end. I think that would be all I’d want.† â€Å"What’s your name?† â€Å"James. James O’Mally.† â€Å"James. My name is Jody. I’m pleased to meet you.† She stopped and offered her hand to shake. â€Å"The pleasure is all mine, I assure you,† said James, bowing as best he could. She took his face in her hands, and steadied him, then kissed him on the lips, softly and for a long time, and when she pulled away they were both smiling. â€Å"That was lovely,† James O’Mally said. â€Å"Yes it was,† Jody said. â€Å"I suppose I’m finished now,† James said. â€Å"Thank you.† â€Å"The pleasure was all mine,† Jody said. â€Å"I assure you.† Then she put her arms around his slight frame, and held him, one hand cradling the back of his head like an infant, and he only trembled a little when she drank. A little later, she bundled his clothes together under her arm, and hooked his old wing tips on two fingers. The dust that had been James O’Mally was spread in a powdery-gray pile on the sidewalk, like a negative shadow, a bleached spot. She brushed it flat with her palm, and wrote, Nice kiss, James, with her fingernail. As she walked away, an hourglass trickle of James trailed out of his clothes behind her and was carried off on the chill bay breeze. The guy working the door of the Glas Kat looked like a raven had exploded on his head, his hair plastered out in a chaos of black spikes. The music coming from inside sounded like robots fucking. And complaining about it. In rhythmic monotone. European robots. Tommy was a little intimidated. ‘Sploded raven-head guy had better fangs than he did, was paler, and had seventeen silver rings in his lips. (Tommy had counted.) â€Å"Bet it’s hard to whistle with those in, huh?† Tommy asked. â€Å"Ten dollars,† said ‘Sploded. Tommy gave him the money. He checked Tommy’s ID and stamped his wrist with a red slash. Just then a group of Japanese girls dressed like tragic Victorian baby dolls breezed by behind Tommy, waving their wrist slashes like they’d just returned from a joyful suicide party instead of smoking cloves on the street. They, too, looked more like vampires than Tommy did. He shrugged and entered the club. Everyone, it appeared, looked more like a vampire than he did. He’d bought some black jeans and a black leather jacket at the Levi’s store while Jody was off finding something hideous for her mother for Christmas, but evidently he should have been looking for some black lipstick and something cobalt- or fuchsia-colored to weave into his hair. And in retrospect, the flannel shirt may have been a mistake. He looked like he’d shown up at the sacrificial mass of the damned ready to fix the dishwasher. The music changed to an ethereal female chorus of Celtic nonsense. With a techno beat. And robots complaining. Grumpy robots. He tried to listen around it, the way Jody had taught him. With all the black light, strobes, and black clothing, his newly heightened senses were overloading. He tried to focus on people’s faces, their life auras, look through the haze of heat, hairspray, and patchouli for the girl he’d met at Walgreens. Tommy had felt alone in a crowd before, even inferior to everyone in a crowd, but now he felt, well, different. It wasn’t just the clothes and the makeup, it was the humanity. He wasn’t part of it. Heightened senses or not, he felt like he had his nose pressed against the window, looking in. The problem was, it was the window of a donut shop. â€Å"Hey!† Someone grabbed his arm and he wheeled around so quickly that the girl nearly tumbled over backwards, startled. â€Å"Fuck! Dude.† â€Å"Hi,† Tommy said. â€Å"Wow.† Thinking, Ah, jelly donut. It was the girl from Walgreens. She was nearly a foot shorter than he, and a little skinny. Tonight she’d gone with the waifish look, wearing striped stockings with holes ripped in them and a shiny red PVC miniskirt. She’d traded in her Lord Byron shirt for a tank top, black, of course, with dripping red letters that read got blood? and fishnet gloves that went halfway up her biceps. Her makeup was sad-clown marionette: black tears drawn streaming down either side of her face. She crooked her finger to get him to bend down so she could shout into his ear over the music. â€Å"My name’s Abby Normal.† Tommy spoke into her ear; she smelled of hairspray and what was that? Raspberry? â€Å"My name is Flood,† he said. â€Å"C. Thomas Flood.† It was his pen name. The C didn’t really stand for anything, he just liked the sound of it. â€Å"Call me Flood,† he added. Tommy was a stupid name for a vampire, but Flood – ah, Flood – there was disaster and power there, and a hint of mystery, he thought. Abby smiled like a cat in a tuna cannery. â€Å"Flood,† she said. â€Å"Flood.† She was trying it on, it seemed to Tommy. He imagined that she’d have a black vinyl binder at school and she’d soon be writing Mrs. Flood surrounded by a heart with an arrow through it on the cover in her own blood. He’d never seen a girl so obviously attracted to him, and he realized that he had no experience in dealing with it. For a moment he flashed on the three vampire brides of Dracula who try to seduce Jonathan Harker in Stoker’s classic novel. (He’d been studying all the vampire fiction he could get his hands on since meeting Jody, since it didn’t appear that anyone had written a good how-to book on vampirism.) Could he really deal with three luscious vampire brides? Would he have to bring them a kid in a sack the way Dracula does in the book? How many kids a week would it take to keep them happy? And where did you get kid sacks? And although he hadn’t discussed it with Jody, he was pretty sure she was not going to be happy sha ring him with two other luscious vampire brides, even if he brought her sacks and sacks full of kids. They’d need a bigger apartment. One with a washer and dryer in the building, because there’d be a lot of bloodstained lingerie to be washed. Vampire logistics were a nightmare. You should get a castle and a staff when you got your fangs. How was he going to do all of this? â€Å"This sucks,† Tommy finally said, overwhelmed by the enormity of his responsibilities. Abby looked startled, then a little hurt. â€Å"Sorry,† she said. â€Å"You want to get out of here?† â€Å"Oh, no, I didn’t mean – I mean, uh, yes. Let us go.† â€Å"Do you still need to get your heroin?† â€Å"What? No, that matter is taken care of.† â€Å"You know, Byron and Shelley did opiates,† Abby said. â€Å"Laudanum. It was like cough syrup.† Then, for no reason that he could think of, Tommy said, â€Å"Those scamps, they loved to get wrecked and read ghost stories from the German.† â€Å"That is so fucking cool,† Abby said, grabbing his arm and hugging his biceps like it was her newest, bestest friend. She started pulling him toward the door. â€Å"What about your friend?† Tommy said. â€Å"Oh, someone made a comment about his cape being gray when we first got here, so he went home to redye all of his blacks.† â€Å"Of course,† Tommy said, thinking, What the fuck? Out on the sidewalk, Abby said, â€Å"I suppose we need to find somewhere private.† â€Å"We do?† â€Å"So you can take me,† Abby said, stretching her neck to the side, looking more like a stringless marionette than ever. Tommy had no idea what to do. How did she know? Everyone in that club would have scored higher on the â€Å"are you a vampire?† test than he would. There needed to be a book, and this sort of thing needed to be in it. Should he deny it? Should he just get on with it? What was he going to tell Jody when she woke up next to the skinny marionette girl? He hadn’t really understood women when he was a normal, human guy, when it seemed that all you had to do was pretend that you didn’t want to have sex with them until they would have sex with you, but being a vampire added a whole new aspect to things. Was he supposed to conceal that he was a vampire and a dork! He used to read the articles in Cosmo to get some clue to the female psyche, and so he deferred to advice he’d read in an article entitled â€Å"Think He’s Just Pretending to Like You So You’ll Have Sex with Him? Try a Coffee Date.† â€Å"How ’bout I buy you a cup of coffee instead,† he said. â€Å"We can talk.† â€Å"It’s because I have small boobs, isn’t it?† Abby said, going into a very practiced pout. â€Å"Of course not.† Tommy smiled in a way he thought would be charming, mature, and reassuring. â€Å"Coffee won’t help that.† As Jody pushed the bundle of clothes into the storm sewer, a silver cigarette case slid out of the jacket pocket onto the pavement. She reached for it and felt a light shock – no, that wasn’t it. It was a warmth that moved up her arm. She kicked the clothes into the opening and stood under the streetlight, turning the silver case in her hands. It had his name engraved on it. She couldn’t keep it, like she had the folding money from his pockets, but she couldn’t throw it away either. Something wouldn’t let her. She heard a buzz, like an angry insect, and looked up to see a neon  «Open » sign flickering above a shop called Asher’s Secondhand. That was it. That’s where the cigarette case had to go. She owed it to James. After all, he’d given her everything, or at least everything he’d had left. She quick-stepped across the street and into the shop. The owner was working the counter at the back by himself. A thin guy in his early thirties, with a look of pleasant confusion not unlike the one she’d first noticed on Tommy’s face. Normally, this guy would be prime minion material, or at least based on her minion recruitment of the past he would, except apparently, he was dead. Or at least not alive like most people. He had no life aura around him. No healthy pink glow, no crusty brown or gray corona of illness. Nothing. The only time she’d ever seen this before was with Elijah, the old vampire. The shopkeeper looked up and she smiled. He smiled back. She moved to the counter. While he tried not to stare at her cleavage, she looked more closely for some life aura. There was heat, or at least there appeared to be some heat coming off him. â€Å"Hi,† said the shopkeeper. â€Å"Can I help you?† â€Å"I found this,† she said, holding up the cigarette case. â€Å"I was in the neighborhood and something made me think that this belonged here.† She set the case down on the counter. How could he have no life aura? What the hell was he? â€Å"Touch me,† she said. She held out her hand to him. â€Å"Huh?† He seemed a little frightened at first, but he took her hand, then quickly let go. He was warm. â€Å"Then you’re not one of us?† But he wasn’t one of them either. â€Å"Us? What do you mean us?† He touched the cigarette case and she could tell that this was exactly why she had brought it here. It was supposed to be here. Whatever part of James O’Mally had been left in that cigarette case had led her here. And this thin, confused-looking guy was supposed to have it. He took what was left of people all the time. It’s what he did. Jody felt some of the confidence she’d felt earlier draining away. Maybe the night wasn’t hers after all. Jody backed away a step. â€Å"No. You don’t just take the weak and the sick, do you? You take anyone.† â€Å"Take? What do you mean, take?† He was furiously trying to push the cigarette case back to her across the counter. He didn’t know. He was like she was when she’d awakened that first night as a vampire and had no idea what she had become. â€Å"You don’t even know, do you?† â€Å"Know what?† He picked up the cigarette case again. â€Å"Wait a second, can you see this thing glowing?† â€Å"No glow. It just felt like it belonged here.† This poor guy, he didn’t even know. â€Å"What’s your name?† She asked. â€Å"Charlie Asher. This is Asher’s.† â€Å"Well Charlie, you seem like a nice guy, and I don’t know exactly what you are, and it doesn’t seem like you know. You don’t, do you?† He blushed. Jody could see his face flush with heat. â€Å"I’ve been going through some changes lately.† Jody nodded. He really would have been perfect as a minion – if he hadn’t been some bizarre supernatural creature. She’d just gotten used to the idea of vampires being real, and it took some serious blood drinking to drive that reality home, and now there were other – other – things? Still, Jody felt bad for him, â€Å"Okay,† she said. â€Å"I know what it’s like, uh, to find yourself thrown into a situation where forces beyond your control are changing you into someone, something you don’t have an owner’s manual for. I understand what it is to not know. But someone, somewhere, does know. Someone can tell you what’s going on.† And hopefully they aren’t just fucking with you, she wanted to add, but thought better of it. â€Å"What are you talking about?† he asked. â€Å"You make people die, don’t you Charlie?† She didn’t know why she said it, but as soon as she said it, she knew it was true. Like when all her other senses had been dialed to eleven, she could sense something new, like noise on the line, and it was telling her this. â€Å"But how do you – ?† â€Å"Because it’s what I do,† Jody said. â€Å"Not like you, but it’s what I do. Find them, Charlie. Backtrack and find whoever was there when your world changed.† She shouldn’t have said that, she knew it as she was saying it. She’d just handed him an item that had been owned by someone she’d taken not twenty minutes ago. But even as regret for passing out incriminating evidence hit her, she also realized that she had left Tommy out there to wave in the wind just like this guy. Even if it was only for a few hours, Tommy had no idea how to go about being a vampire – truth be told, he hadn’t really been that good at being a human. He was just a doofy guy from Indiana and she’d abandoned him to the merciless city. She turned and ran out of the shop. â€Å"Cocoa?† Tommy said. â€Å"You look cold.† He’d given her his jacket out on the street. He’s so gallant, Abby thought. He probably wants me to drink cocoa to get my blood sugar up before he sucks the life from my veins. Abby had lived much of her life waiting for something extraordinary to happen. No matter where she had been, there was a world somewhere that was more interesting. She’d progressed from wanting to live in a fantastic, kawaii-cute plastic world of Hello Kitty, to being a Day-Glo, Manga lollipop space girl in platform sneakers, and then just a couple of years ago she had moved into the dark gothic world of pseudo vampires, suicidal poets, and romantic disappointment. It was a dark, seductive world where you got to sleep really late on the weekends. She’d been true to her dark nature, too, trying to maintain an aspect of exhausted mopeyness while channeling any enthusiasm she felt into a vehicle for imminent disappointment, and above all, suppressing the deep-seated perkiness that her friend Lily said she’d never shed when she’d refused to throw away her Hello Kitty backpack or let go of her Nintendog virtual beagle puppy. â€Å"He has virtual parvo,† Lily had said. â€Å"You have to put him down.† â€Å"He doesn’t have parvo,† Abby had insisted. â€Å"He’s just tired.† â€Å"He’s doomed, and you’re cute, and hopelessly perky,† Lily taunted. â€Å"I am not. I’m complex and I’m dark.† â€Å"You’re perky and your e-dog has i-parvo.† â€Å"As Azrael is my witness, I will never be perky again,† said Abby, her wrist set tragically to her forehead. Lily stood with her as she threw her Nintendog cartridge under the tire of the 91 midnight express bus. And now she had been chosen by a real creature of the night, and she would be true to her word: she had shed her perkiness. She sipped her hot chocolate, and studied the vampire Flood across the table. How clever, that he could appear as just a simple, clueless guy – but then, he could probably take many shapes. â€Å"I could be a slave to your darkest desires,† Abby said. â€Å"I can do things. Anything you want.† The vampire Flood commenced a coughing fit. When he had control again, he said, â€Å"Well, that’s terrific, because we have a lot of laundry piled up and the apartment is a wreck.† He was testing her. Seeing if she was worthy before bringing her into his world. â€Å"Anything you desire, my lord. I can do laundry, clean, bring you small creatures to quench your thirst until I am worthy.† The vampire Flood snickered. â€Å"This is so cool,† he said. â€Å"You’ll do my laundry, just like that?† Abby knew she had to tread carefully here, not fall for his trap. â€Å"Anything,† she said. â€Å"Have you ever gone apartment hunting?† â€Å"Sure,† she lied. â€Å"Okay, you can start tomorrow first thing. You need to find us an apartment.† Abby was horrified. She hadn’t really tried on the idea of leaving her old life so quickly. But all that would mean nothing when she became immortal, and ran with the children of the night. But her mom was going to be pissed. â€Å"I can’t move in right away, my lord. I have affairs to put in order before I make the change.† The vampire Flood smiled, his fangs barely visible now. â€Å"Oh, it’s not for you. There’s another.† He paused and leaned across the table. â€Å"An elder,† he whispered. There was another? Was she to become the sacrifice to a whole coven of the undead? Well, whatever. Lily would be so jealous. â€Å"As you please, my lord,† she said. â€Å"You might want to chill with the ‘my lord’ stuff,† Flood said. â€Å"Sorry.† â€Å"It’s okay. You know this all has to be completely secret, right?† â€Å"Right. Secret.† â€Å"I mean, I’m okay with it, but the other, the elder, she has a terrible temper.† â€Å"She?† â€Å"Yeah, you know, an Irish redhead.† â€Å"A Celtic countess, then? The one who was with you at Walgreens?† â€Å"Exactly.† â€Å"Sweet!† Abby blurted out. She couldn’t help it. She immediately tried to hide her latent perkiness by biting the edge of her cocoa cup. â€Å"You’ve got chocolate, here.† The vampire Flood gestured to her lip. â€Å"Kind of a marshmallow mustache.† â€Å"Sorry,† Abby said, wiping her mouth furiously with the back of her fishnet glove, smearing her black lipstick across the side of her face. â€Å"It’s okay,† said the vampire Flood. â€Å"It’s cute.† â€Å"Fuck!† Abby said. How to cite You Suck: A Love Story Chapter 8, Essay examples

Social Media and Business free essay sample

At the same time, every minute, 10 hours of content were uploaded to the video sharing platform YouTube. And, the image hosting site Flickr provided access to over 3 billion photographs, making the world-famous Louvre * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [emailprotected] eu (A. M. Kaplan), [emailprotected] eu (M. Haenlein). Museum’s collection of 300,000 objects seem tiny in comparison. According to Forrester Research, 75% of Internet surfers used ‘‘Social Media’’ in the second quarter of 2008 by joining social networks, reading blogs, or contributing reviews to shopping sites; this represents a signi? ant rise from 56% in 2007. The growth is not limited to teenagers, either; members of Generation X, now 35—44 years old, increasingly populate the ranks of joiners, spectators, and critics. It is therefore reasonable to say that Social Media represent a revolutionary new trend that should be of interest to companies operating in online space –—or any space, for that matter. Yet, not overly many ? rms seem to act comfortably in a world where consumers can speak so freely 0007-6813/$ — see front matter # 2009 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved. doi:10. 1016/j. bushor. 2009. 09. 003 60 with each other and businesses have increasingly less control over the information available about them in cyberspace. Today, if an Internet user types the name of any leading brand into the Google search, what comes up among the top ? ve results typically includes not only the corporate webpage, but also the corresponding entry in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Here, for example, customers can read that the 2007 model of Hasbro’s Easy-Bake Oven may lead to serious burns on children’s hands and ? gers due to a poorly-designed oven door, and that the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company has been accused of using child labor in its Liberian rubber factory. Historically, companies were able to control the information available about them through strategically placed press announcements and good public relations managers. Today, however, ? rms have been increasingly relegated to the sidelines as mere observers, having neither the knowledge nor the chance–—or, sometimes, even the right–—to alter publicly posted comments provided by their customers. Wikipedia, for example, expressly forbids the participation of ? ms in its online community. Such an evolution may not be surprising. After all, the Internet started out as nothing more than a giant Bulletin Board System (BBS) that allowed users to exchange software, data, messages, and news with each other. The late 1990s saw a popularity surge in homepages, whereby the Average Joe could share information about his private life; today’s equivalent would be the weblog, or blog. The era of corporate web pages and e-commerce started relatively recently with the launch of Amazon and eBay in 1995, and got a right ticking-off only 6 years later when the dot-com bubble burst in 2001. The current trend toward Social Media can therefore be seen as an evolution back to the Internet’s roots, since it retransforms the World Wide Web to what it was initially created for: a platform to facilitate information exchange between users. But does that mean that Social Media is just old wine in new bottles? Probably not! As we will delve into further, the technical advances that have been made over the past 20 years now enable a form of virtual content sharing that is fundamentally different from, and more powerful than, the BBS of the late 1970s. This article discusses the challenges and opportunities that emerge from this evolution for ? rms, and provides structure to better understand the rapidly evolving ? eld of Social Media. We begin by providing a de? nition and classi? cation of Social Media by looking at their historical roots, technical speci? cities, and differences from other entities such as Web 2. 0 and User Generated Content. We then focus on six types of Social Media–—collaborative projects, blogs, A. M. Kaplan, M. Haenlein content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds–—and present ways in which companies can ef? iently make use of these applications. Based on this analysis, we then derive a set of 10 recommendations companies should follow when thinking about developing their own Social Media strategy, be it with respect to these aforementioned types or other applications which might emerge in the future. 2. What is Social Media– —And what is it not? As highlighted, the idea behind Social Media is far from groundbreaking. Nevertheless, there seems to be confusion among managers and academic researchers alike as to what exactly should be included under this term, and how Social Media differ from the seemingly-interchangeable related concepts of Web 2. and User Generated Content. It therefore makes sense to take a step back and provide insight regarding where Social Media come from and what they include. By 1979, Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis from Duke University had created the Usenet, a worldwide discussion system that allowed Internet users to post public messages. Yet, the era of Social Media as we understand it today probably started about 20 years earlier, when Bruce and Susan Abelson founded ‘‘Open Diary,’’ an early social networking site that brought together online diary writers into one community. The term ‘‘weblog’’ was ? st used at the same ti me, and truncated as ‘‘blog’’ a year later when one blogger jokingly transformed the noun ‘‘weblog’’ into the sentence ‘‘we blog. ’’ The growing availability of high-speed Internet access further added to the popularity of the concept, leading to the creation of social networking sites such as MySpace (in 2003) and Facebook (in 2004). This, in turn, coined the term ‘‘Social Media,’’ and contributed to the prominence it has today. The most recent addition to this glamorous grouping has been so-called ‘‘virtual worlds’’: computerbased simulated environments inhabited by threedimensional avatars. Perhaps the best known virtual world is that of Linden Lab’s Second Life (Kaplan Haenlein, 2009c). Although the list of the aforementioned applications may give some idea about what is meant by Social Media, a formal de? nition of the term ? rst requires drawing a line to two related concepts that are frequently named in conjunction with it: Web 2. 0 and User Generated Content. Web 2. 0 is a term that was ? rst used in 2004 to describe a new way in which software developers and end-users started to Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media utilize the World Wide Web; that is, as a platform whereby content and applications are no longer created and published by individuals, but instead are continuously modi? ed by all users in a participatory and collaborative fashion. While applications such as personal web pages, Encyclopedia Britannica Online, and the idea of content publishing belong to the era of Web 1. 0, they are replaced by blogs, wikis, and collaborative projects in Web 2. 0. Although Web 2. 0 does not refer to any speci? technical update of the World Wide Web, there is a set of basic functionalities that are necessary for its functioning. Among them are Adobe Flash (a popular method for adding animation, interactivity, and audio/video streams to web pages), RSS (Really Simple Syndication, a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content, such as blog entries or news headlines, in a standardized format), and AJAX (Asynchronous Java Script, a technique to retrieve data from web servers asynchronously, allowing the update of web content without interfering with the display and behavior of the whole page). For the purpose of our article, we consider Web 2. 0 as the platform for the evolution of Social Media. When Web 2. 0 represents the ideological and technological foundation, User Generated Content (UGC) can be seen as the sum of all ways in which people make use of Social Media. The term, which achieved broad popularity in 2005, is usually applied to describe the various forms of media content that are publicly available and created by end-users. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2007), UGC needs to ful? l three basic requirements in order to be considered as such: ? rst, it needs to be published either on a publicly accessible website or on a social networking site accessible to a selected group of people; second, it needs to show a certain amount of creative effort; and ? nally, it needs to have been created outside of professional routines and practices. The ? rst condition excludes content exchanged in e-mails or instant messages; the second, mere replications of already existing content (e. g. , posting a copy of an existing newspaper article on a personal blog without any modi? ations or commenting); and the third, all content that has been created with a commercial market context in mind. While UGC has already been available prior to Web 2. 0, as discussed above, the combination of technological drivers (e. g. , increased broadband availability and hardware capacity), economic drivers (e. g. , increased availability of tools for the creation of UGC), and social drivers (e. g. , rise of a generation of ‘‘digital natives’’ and ‘‘screenagers’’: younger age groups with substantial technical knowledge and 1 willingness to engage online) make UGC nowadays fundamentally different from what was observed in the early 1980s. Based on these clari? cations of Web 2. 0 and UGC, it is now straightforward to give a more detailed de? nition of what we mean by Social Media. I n our view–—and as used herein–—Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2. 0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content. Within this general de? ition, there are various types of Social Media that need to be distinguished further. However, although most people would probably agree that Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, and Second Life are all part of this large group, there is no systematic way in which different Social Media applications can be categorized. Also, new sites appear in cyberspace every day, so it is important that any classi? cation scheme takes into account applications which may be forthcoming. To create such a classi? cation scheme, and to do so in a systematic manner, we rely on a set of theories in the ? ld of media research (social presence, media richness) and social processes (self-presentation, self-disclosure), the two key elemen ts of Social Media. Regarding the media-related component of Social Media, social presence theory (Short, Williams, Christie, 1976) states that media differ in the degree of ‘‘social presence’’–—de? ned as the acoustic, visual, and physical contact that can be achieved–—they allow to emerge between two communication partners. Social presence is in? uenced by the intimacy (interpersonal vs. mediated) and immediacy (asynchronous vs. ynchronous) of the medium, and can be expected to be lower for mediated (e. g. , telephone conversation) than interpersonal (e. g. , face-to-face discussion) and for asynchronous (e. g. , e-mail) than synchronous (e. g. , live chat) communications. The higher the social presence, the larger the social in? uence that the communication partners have on each other’s behavior. Closely related to the idea of social presence is the concept of media richness. Media richness theory (Daft Lengel, 1986) is based on the assumption that the goal of any communication is the resolution of ambiguity and the reduction of uncertainty. It states that media differ in the degree of richness they possess–—that is, the amount of information they allow to be transmitted in a given time interval–—and that therefore some media are more effective than others in resolving ambiguity and uncertainty. Applied to the context of Social Media, we assume that a ? rst classi? cation can be made based on the richness of the medium and the degree of social presence it allows. With respect to the social dimension of Social Media, the concept of self-presentation states that 2 in any type of social interaction people have the desire to control the impressions other people form of them (Goffman, 1959). On the one hand, this is done with the objective of in? uencing others to gain rewards (e. g. , make a positive impression on your future in-laws); on the other hand, it is driven by a wish to create an image that is consistent with one’s personal identity (e. g. , wearing a fashionable out? t in order t o be perceived as young and trendy). The key reason why people decide to create a personal webpage is, for example, the wish to present themselves in cyberspace (Schau Gilly, 2003). Usually, such a presentation is done through self-disclosure; that is, the conscious or unconscious revelation of personal information (e. g. , thoughts, feelings, likes, dislikes) that is consistent with the image one would like to give. Self-disclosure is a critical step in the development of close relationships (e. g. , during dating) but can also occur between complete strangers; for example, when speaking about personal problems with the person seated next to you on an airplane. Applied to the context of Social Media, we assume that a second classi? ation can be made based on the degree of self-disclosure it requires and the type of self-presentation it allows. Combining both dimensions leads to a classi? cation of Social Media which we have visualized in Table 1. With respect to social presence and media richness, applications such as collaborative projects (e. g. , Wikipedia) and blogs score lowest, as they are often text-based and hence only allow for a relatively simple exch ange. On the next level are content communities (e. g. , YouTube) and social networking sites (e. g. Facebook) which, in addition to text-based communication, enable the sharing of pictures, videos, and other forms of media. On the highest level are virtual game and social worlds (e. g. , World of Warcraft, Second Life), which try to replicate all dimensions of face-to-face interactions in a virtual environment. Regarding self-presentation and self-disclosure, blogs usually score higher than collaborative projects, as the latter tend to be focused on speci? c content domains. Table 1. A. M. Kaplan, M. Haenlein In a similar spirit, social networking sites allow for more self-disclosure than content communities. Finally, virtual social worlds require a higher level of self-disclosure than virtual game worlds, as the latter are ruled by strict guidelines that force users to behave in a certain way (e. g. , as warriors in an imaginary fantasy land). We will now provide more detail on each of these six different types of Social Media, and discuss the challenges and opportunities they offer companies. 3. The challenges and opportunities of Social Media 3. 1. Collaborative projects Collaborative projects enable the joint and simultaneous creation of content by many end-users and are, in this sense, probably the most democratic manifestation of UGC. Within collaborative projects, one differentiates between wikis–—that is, websites which allow users to add, remove, and change text-based content–—and social bookmarking applications–—which enable the group-based collection and rating of Internet links or media content. Exemplary applications within this category include the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, a wiki currently available in more than 230 different languages, and the social bookmarking web service Delicious, which allows the storage and sharing of web bookmarks. The main idea underlying collaborative projects is that the joint effort of many actors leads to a better outcome than any actor could achieve individually; this is similar to the ef? cient-market hypothesis in behavioral ? nance (Fama, 1970). From a corporate perspective, ? rms must be aware that collaborative projects are trending toward becoming the main source of information for many consumers. As such, although not everything written on Wikipedia may actually be true, it is believed to be true by more and more Internet users. This may be particularly crucial as regards corporate crises. For example, Classi? ation of Social Media by social presence/media richness and self-presentation/self-disclosure Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media when online book retailer Amazon started to test the idea of dynamic pricing, comments declaring such a practice as unfair showed up instantaneously under the Wikipedia entry on ‘‘time-based prici ng. ’’ Yet, collaborative projects also provide some unique opportunities for ? rms. Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia, for instance, uses internal wikis to update employees on project status and to trade ideas, which are used by about 20% of its 68,000 staff members. Likewise, American computer software company Adobe Systems maintains a list of bookmarks to company-related websites and conversations on Delicious. 63 3. 3. Content communities The main objective of content communities is the sharing of media content between users. Content communities exist for a wide range of different media types, including text (e. g. , BookCrossing, via which 750,000+ people from over 130 countries share books), photos (e. g. , Flickr), videos (e. g. , YouTube), and PowerPoint presentations (e. g. , Slideshare). Users on content communities are not required to create a personal pro? e page; if they do, these pages usually only contain basic information, such as the date they joined the community and the number of videos shared. From a corporate viewpoint, content communities carry the risk of being used as platforms for the sharing of copyright-protected materials. While major content communities have rules in place to ban and remove such illegal content, it is dif? cult to avoid popular videos–—such as recent episodes of comedy dramas–—being uploaded to YouTube only hours after they have been aired on television. On the positive side, the high popularity of content communities makes them a very attractive contact channel for many ? rms; this is easy to believe when one considers that YouTube serves over 100 million videos per day. In 2007, Procter Gamble organized a contest for its over-the-counter drug Pepto-Bismol, whereby users were encouraged to upload to YouTube 1-minute videos of themselves singing about the ailments Pepto-Bismol counteracts, including heartburn and nausea. In a similar spirit, kitchen appliances manufacturer Blendtec became popular for its bevy of inexpensive ‘‘Will it blend? ’ videos, which have been watched by millions of people. Other ? rms, such as Cisco and Google, rely on content communities to share recruiting videos, as well as keynote speeches and press announcements, with their employees and investors. 3. 2. Blogs Blogs, which represent the earliest form of Social Media, are special types of websites that usually display date-stamped entri es in reverse chronological order (OECD, 2007). They are the Social Media equivalent of personal web pages and can come in a multitude of different variations, from personal diaries describing the author’s life to summaries of all relevant information in one speci? content area. Blogs are usually managed by one person only, but provide the possibility of interaction with others through the addition of comments. Due to their historical roots, text-based blogs are still by far the most common. Nevertheless, blogs have also begun to take different media formats. For example, San Francisco-based Justin. tv allows users to create personalized television channels via which they can broadcast images from their webcam in real time to other users. Many companies are already using blogs to update employees, customers, and shareholders on developments they consider to be important. Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, maintains a personal blog to improve the transparency of his company; so does automotive giant General Motors. Yet, as is the case with collaborative projects, blogs do not come without risks. These generally present in two fashions. First, customers who–—for one reason or another–—turn out to be dissatis? ed with or disappointed by the company’s offerings may decide to engage in virtual complaints in the form of protest websites or blogs (Ward Ostrom, 2006), which results in the availability of potentially damaging information in online space. Second, once ? rms encourage employees to be active on blogs, they may need to live with the consequences of staff members writing negatively about the ? rm. Microsoft’s former ‘‘technical evangelist’’ Robert Scoble, for example, had a tendency to ? ercely criticize the products of his employer–— before he decided to leave the Redmond-based software company in 2006. 3. 4. Social networking sites Social networking sites are applications that enable users to connect by creating personal information pro? les, inviting friends and colleagues to have access to those pro? es, and sending e-mails and instant messages between each other. These personal pro? les can include any type of information, including photos, video, audio ? les, and blogs. According to Wikipedia, the largest social networking sites are U. S. -based Facebook (initially founded by Mark Zuckerberg to stay in touch with his fellow students from Harvard University) and MySpace (with 1,500 employees and more than 250 million registered users). Social networking sites are of such high popularity, speci? cally among younger Internet 4 users, that the term ‘‘Facebook addict’’ has been included in the Urban Dictionary, a collaborative project focused on developing a slang dictionary for the English language. Several companies are already using social networking sites to support the creation of brand communities (Muniz O’Guinn, 2001) or for marketing research in the context of netnography (Kozinets, 2002). To promote the movie ‘‘Fred Claus,’’ a 2007 Christmas comedy ? lm, Warner Brothers created a Facebook pro? le via which visitors could watch trailers, download graphics, and play games. Likewise, the Adidas custom soccer community on MySpace allows visitors to associate themselves with one of two brands of elite soccer cleats produced by the German sports apparel manufacturer, and to access product reviews and information on professional soccer players who play using ‘‘their’’ shoes. Some ? rms even go one step further and use Facebook as a distribution channel. Consider U. S. -based ? orist 1-800-Flowers. com, which offers a widget on Facebook called ‘‘Gimme Love’’ whereby users can send ‘‘virtual bouquets’’ to friends or, with a click of the mouse, be directly transferred to the company’s website to send real ? wers. A. M. Kaplan, M. Haenlein hunter–—starts to more and more closely resemble their real life personality. Besides their use for ingame advertising (similar in idea to product placement in blockbuster movies), the high popularity of virtual game worlds can also be leveraged in more traditional communication campaigns. Japanese automotive giant Toyota, for example, used pictures and mechanics from the World of Warcraft application in its latest Tundra commercial to reach the 2. 5 million players in the U. S. lone. 3. 6. Virtual social worlds The second group of virtual worlds, often referred to as virtual social worlds, allows inhabitants to choose their behavior more freely and essentially live a virtual life similar to their real life. As in virtual game worlds, virtual social world users appear in the form of avatars and interact in a three-dimensional virtual environment; however, in this realm, there are no rules restricting the range of possible interactions, except for basic physical laws such as gravity. This allows for an unlimited range of self presentation strategies, and it has been shown that with increasing usage intensity and consumption experience, users of virtual social worlds–—or ‘‘residents,’’ as they prefer to be called–—show behavior that more and more closely mirrors the one observed in real life settings (Haenlein Kaplan, 2009; Kaplan Haenlein, 2009a, 2009b). Arguably, the most prominent example of virtual social worlds is the Second Life application, founded and managed by the San Francisco-based company Linden Research Inc. Besides doing everything that is possible in real life (e. g. , speaking to other avatars, taking a walk, enjoying the virtual sunshine), Second Life also allows users to create content (e. g. , to design virtual clothing or furniture items) and to sell this content to others in exchange for Linden Dollars, a virtual currency traded against the U. S. Dollar on the Second Life Exchange. Some residents are so successful in this task that the virtual money earned that way complements their real life income. Virtual social worlds offer a multitude of opportunities for companies in marketing (advertising/communication, virtual product sales/v-Commerce, marketing research), and human resource and internal process management; for a more detailed discussion, see Kaplan and Haenlein (2009c). 3. 5. Virtual game worlds Virtual worlds are platforms that replicate a threedimensional environment in which users can appear in the form of personalized avatars and interact with each other as they would in real life. In this sense, virtual worlds are probably the ultimate manifestation of Social Media, as they provide the highest level of social presence and media richness of all applications discussed thus far. Virtual worlds come in two forms. The ? rst, virtual game worlds, require their users to behave according to strict rules in the context of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). These applications have gained popularity in recent years, as standard game consoles–—such as Microsoft’s X-Box and Sony’s PlayStation–—now allow simultaneous play among a multitude of users around the globe. Examples of virtual game worlds include the cod-medieval ‘‘World of Warcraft,’’ which counts around 8. 5 million subscribers who explore the virtual planet of Azeroth in the form of humans, dwarves, orcs, or night elves, to ? ght monsters or to search for treasure; and Sony’s EverQuest, in which 16 different races of players (e. g. , wizards, clerics) travel the fantasy world of Norrath. The rules of such games usually limit the degree of self-presentation and self-disclosure possible, although some users spend so much time with these applications that their character–—be it a warrior, a wizard, or a dragon . Ten pieces of advice for companies deciding to use Social Media Social Media is a very active and fast-moving domain. What may be up-to-date today could have Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media disappeared from the virtual landscape tomorrow. It is therefore crucial for ? rms to have a set of guidelines that can be applied to any form of Social Media, whether they are part of the aforementioned list or not. Next, we provide such a set of recommendations. Given that Social Media have both a social- and a media-component, we split our advice into two sections: ? e points about using media and ? ve points about being social. 65 4. 1. Five points about using media 4. 1. 1. Choose carefully There are dozens–—if not hundreds–—of Social Media applications, and new ones are appearing on the horizon every day. If you still need time to run your core business, you simply cannot participate in them all, especially since ‘‘being active’’ is one key requirement of success (see below). Choosing the right medium for any given purpose depends on the target group to be reached and the message to be communicated. On the one hand, each Social Media application usually attracts a certain group of people and ? rms should be active wherever their customers are present. For example, if your main target audience is book lovers, a content community via which users share self-written novels or poems is likely better suited to your purpose than a virtual world which centers on ? ghting dragons and ? nding treasures. On the other hand, there may be situations whereby certain features are necessary to ensure effective communication, and these features are only offered by one speci? c application. For example, when the U. S. Army undertook an initiative in 2007 to reach the Hispanic community, it decided to utilize the social networking site Univision rather than the more popular Facebook. This choice was driven in part by the fact that Univision–—a Spanish-language television network in the U. S. and Puerto Rico–—is the social networking application with the largest Latin American audience, due to an extensive range of telenovelas and Mexican programs produced by Grupo Televisa. However, another reason Univision was chosen is because it offers a moderating service which checks comments from users for appropriateness before posting them on the site. In contrast, other applications, including Facebook, allow users to post messages without supervision. 4. 1. 2. Pick the application, or make your own Once you know which game you’re playing, the next decision involves whether to make or buy. In some cases, it might just be best to join an existing Social Media application and bene? t from its popularity and user base. After all, there is no need to reinvent the wheel if somebody has already done it, especially given that Social Media show positive network externalities in the sense that they get more attractive to join the more participants they already have. But in some cases, the right application might just not be available yet. Japan’s Fuji? lm, for example, recently launched its own social network to build a community of photo enthusiasts. In a similar spirit, U. S. -based department store ? rm Sears collaborated with MTV music television to create a social network around back-to-school shopping. Yet, whatever the ultimate decision–—to buy, make, or both–— it is vital that there is an understanding of the basic idea behind Social Media. It’s all about participation, sharing, and collaboration, rather than straightforward advertising and selling. 4. 1. 3. Ensure activity alignment Sometimes you may decide to rely on various Social Media, or a set of different applications within the same group, in order to have the largest possible reach. In this case, it is crucial to ensure that your Social Media activities are all aligned with each other. A prime example in this context is computer manufacturer Dell and its ‘‘Digital Nomads’’ campaign. Dell uses a combination of social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn), blogs, and content communities (YouTube videos) to show how its range of laptop computers enable individuals to become a nomadic mobile workforce. In a similar spirit, Chrysler’s Jeep brand connects with its customers by combining photos shared on the content community Flickr, with groups on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Using different contact channels can be a worthwhile and pro? table strategy. But remember: one goal of communication is the resolution of ambiguity and reduction of uncertainty, and nothing is more confusing than contradicting messages across different channels. 4. 1. 4. Media plan integration What is true for different types of Social Media also holds for the relationship between Social Media and traditional media: Integration is key! While you may consider these two arenas to be completely different, in customers’ eyes they are both part of the same: your corporate image. Consider the actions of soft drink giant Coca-Cola. In June 2006, a pair of performance artists shot a video featuring a series of geysers they created by dropping Mentos brand mints into 2-liter bottles of Coke; the clip became a major hit on YouTube. Realizing customers’ enthusiasm for this performance, Coca-Cola fostered the sensation by airing the video on late-night television and ensuring broad digital distribution across different content communities. Besides the advantage of 66 high impact/low cost media coverage, the campaign also resulted in a measurable sales uplift. 4. 1. 5. Access for all Although this might sound elementary, once the ? rm has decided to utilize Social Media applications, it is worth checking that all employees may actually access them. Commonly, ? rms block Facebook, YouTube, and Second Life on corporate PCs for fear that staff might spend too much time networking instead of working. While this is certainly a consideration, it cannot imply that employees must have special permission to be able to access the company blog. At the same time, there is a need to curtail the possibility of the entire organization spending all its time producing funny videos and uploading them to YouTube. One possible approach involves de? ning groups of employees whose primary objective is the management of corporate Social Media; all other staff members are treated as occasional participants. Under this scenario, the ? rst group is given administrator rights–—which allows the opening of new discussion threads and deletion of inappropriate posts–—while the second group is not. Also, at some point, it will be necessary to develop certain guidelines for Social Media usage; as done, for instance, by ‘‘Big Blue’’ IBM, which has a corporate charta for appropriate behavior within Second Life. For example, it is important to highlight that every employee needs to identify himself or herself as such when posting a comment on the corporate blog. Otherwise, end-consumers could get the impression that anonymous accounts are used to enable employees to post fake messages and overly-positive feedback, which could severely damage the credibility of your whole Social Media campaign. A. M. Kaplan, M. Haenlein else’s than it is about engaging others in open and active conversation. Participants on Social Media applications have the desire to actively engage and to become both producers and consumers of information, so-called ‘‘prosumers’’ (Tof? er, 1980). Be considerate of this need and act accordingly. 4. 2. 2. Be interesting Let’s face it: nobody is interested in speaking to a boring person. As such, if you would like your customers to engage with you, you need to give them a reason for doing so–—one which extends beyond saying you are the best airline in town, or manufacture the most robust kitchen blender. The ? st step is to listen to your customers. Find out what they would like to hear; what they would like to talk about; what they might ? nd interesting, enjoyable, and valuable. Then, develop and post content that ? ts those expectations. Coffee powerhouse Starbucks, for example, created the ‘‘My Starbucks I dea’’ platform, via which customers can submit new ideas for the company. These ideas are subsequently voted on by other users, with the winners being considered for implementation by Starbucks top management. As stated by Oscar Wilde in his novel, The Picture of Dorian Grey: The one sin for which there is no forgiveness is ennui. . 2. 3. Be humble Never forget that Social Media existed before you decided to engage in them; indeed, in many cases, even before you knew about their existence. In this light, do not expect that you know better how to use them than others who have spent countless hours on Facebook or Second Life, for example. Before you enter any application, ? rst take some time to discover it and to learn about its history and basic rules. Only once you have gained the necessary understanding, start to participate. When aerospace and defense ? rm Boeing decided to launch its ? st corporate blog, the site was designed such that users were not allowed to com ment on what they saw. Yet, interaction and feedback are critical elements of all Social Media, blogs included. Hence, many readers perceived the Boeing blog as a fake, and simply corporate advertising in disguise. If there is one certain path to failure, it involves thinking that Social Media is just about posting existing TV spots on YouTube or putting prefabricated press announcements on corporate blogs. 4. 2. 4. Be unprofessional Have you ever noticed that in Hollywood blockbuster ? ms, it’s not usually the handsome guy who ends up with the girl, but rather the clumsy, charming one? The same goes for Social Media, and ? rms 4. 2. Five points about being social 4. 2. 1. Be active If you want to develop a relationship with someone, it is always advisable to take the lead and to be active. Social Media are all about sharing and interaction, so ensure that your content is always fresh and that you engage in discussions with your customers. Consider the aforementioned blog kep t by Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz. Via this outlet, the ? urehead discusses–—on an ongoing basis–—his corporate strategy, new product development projects, and company values, and replies directly to correspondence received. In considering your Social Media efforts, be aware that ? rm involvement must extend beyond responding to negative comments and defending product offerings. Social Media is less about explaining why your baking mix, detergent, or shampoo is better than anyone Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media would be wise to avoid overly-professional content offerings. There’s no need to spend $100,000 to design the perfect MySpace presence, or hire a professional writer to manage your corporate blog. Instead, try to blend in with other users and don’t be afraid to make mistakes! Bill Marriott, Chairman and CEO of the Marriott International Hotel chain, uses his blog, for example, to post regular updates and stories from his travels to Marriott properties around the world–—very much in the same way as would a work colleague when describing her last vacation. Social Media users are people like you, who understand that things do not always go smoothly. And, if you’re nice to them, they may even give you free advice on how to do it better the next time. 4. 2. 5. Be honest Last but not least, be honest and respect the rules of the game. Some Social Media–—such as Wikipedia–— may not allow companies to be involved, so do not try to force your way in. Consider Anheuser-Busch, owner of SeaWorld marine mammal parks. Anheuser-Busch tried to ‘‘rectify’’ misleading information on Wikipedia through the use of PR ? rms, and failed miserably at it. Never expect that other participants may not ? d out who stands behind some anonymous user account; after all, you’re dealing with some of the most technologically sophisticated people on the planet. 67 5. Nothing to lose but their chains Today, everything is about Social Media. Some industry gurus claim that if you do not participate in Facebook, YouTube, and Second Life, you are not part of cyberspace anymore. Social Media allow ? rms to engage in timely and direct end-consumer contact at relatively low cost and higher levels of ef? ciency than can be achieved with more traditional communication tools. This makes Social Media not only relevant for large multinational ? rms, but also for small and medium sized companies, and even nonpro? t and governmental agencies. Using Social Media is not an easy task and may require new ways of thinking, but the potential gains are far from being negligible. Dell, for example, states that its use of Twitter–—a micro blogging application that allows sending out short, text-based posts of 140 characters or less–—has generated $1 million in incremental revenue due to sales alerts. Some ? ms may even be too successful for their own good, as illustrated by Burger King’s ‘‘Whopper Sacri? ce’’ campaign: In December 2008, the fast food giant developed a Facebook application which gave users a free Whopper sandwich for every 10 friends they deleted from their Facebook network. The campaign was adopted by over 20,000 users, resulting in the sacri? cing of 233,906 friends in exchange for free bur gers. Only one month later, in January 2009, Facebook shut down Whopper Sacri? ce, citing privacy concerns. Who would have thought that the price of a friendship is less than $2 a dozen? A new trend is on the horizon, though; Watch out for Mobile Social Media! Mobile Web 2. 0 is very similar to Web 2. 0, as discussed earlier. In contrast to its predecessor Mobile Web 1. 0, which relied on proprietary protocols (e. g. , WAP) and use-based pricing, Mobile Web 2. 0 is characterized by open standards (e. g. , a transition to the TCP/IP protocol, the technical foundation of the World Wide Web) and ? at-rate systems. Even the manual entry of web addresses using small and dif? cult-to-handle keyboards is becoming history. Soon, all items around you will be equipped with Radio Frequency Identi? cation (RFID) tags that will be able to automatically connect to your mobile phone and send URLs to them, similar to today’s text messages. This technical evolution is laying the groundwork for moving Social Media applications away from desktop PCs and laptops, toward mobile devices. Why log into Facebook if you can easily update all your friends using Twitter? Why wait until you return home to watch the new YouTube video if you can do so conveniently on your iPhone? According to Jupiter Research, the market for Mobile Web 2. evolutions will grow from a mere $5. 5 billion today to an impressive $22. 4 billion by 2013. Mobile Social Media applications are expected to be the main driver of this evolution, soon accounting for over 50% of the market. In one way, this surge toward Mobile Social Media can even be seen as another step toward Internet democratization and closing the digital divide between develop ed and emerging countries. In India, for example, mobile phones outnumber PCs by 10 to 1. In Thailand, only 13% of the population owns a computer, versus 82% who have access to a mobile phone. It is therefore not surprising that the Pew Research Center–—a Washington-based think tank–—estimates that by 2020, a mobile device will be the primary Internet connection tool for most people in the world. Making Social Media applications mobile is likely to tap a currently unexploited base of new users. Even if percapita spending in these countries may still be low, vast population numbers make them relevant for virtually any ? rm. Obviously, Mobile Social Media does not come without a price. Some would argue that while it enables the detailed following of friends half-way across the world, it can foster a society where we don’t now the names of our own next-door neighbors. Be that as it may, and independent of 68 whether or not one approves of such an evolution, it seems undisputable that (Mobile) Social Media will be the locomotive via which the World Wide Web evolves. Businesses, take note–—and don’t miss this train! A. M. Kaplan, M. Haenlein Kaplan, A. M. , Haenlein, M. (2009b). Consumers, companies, and virtual social worlds: A qualitative analysis of Second Life. Advances in Consumer Research, 36(1), 873—874. Kaplan, A. M. , Haenlein, M. (2009c). The fairyland of Second Life: About virtual social worlds and how to use them. Business Horizons, 52(6), 563—572. Kozinets, R. V. 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Organizational information requirements, media richness, and structural design. Management Science, 32(5), 554—571. Fama, E. F. (1970). Ef? cient capital markets: A review of theory and empirical work. Journal of Finance, 25(2), 383—417. Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books. Haenlein, M. , Kaplan, A. M. (2009). Flagship brand stores within virtual worlds: The impact of virtual store exposure on real life brand attitudes and purchase intent. Recherche et Applications en Marketing 24(3). Kaplan, A. M. , Haenlein, M. (2009a). Consumer use and business potential of virtual worlds: The case of Second Life. The International Journal on Media Management 11(3).

Soldiers Home Essay Example

Soldiers Home Paper Soldier’s Home By Ernest Hemingway In the battlefield soldiers are experiencing war, death, loss – they kill and watch fellow soldiers getting killed. Being a soldier is in no way an easy life, and it is hard for people, who have not experienced war to understand. When these soldiers returns from war they need to adjust themselves to their old lives – adjust themselves to live in a place that has not change a tiny bit, even though they are in no way the same person as they were when they left. The main character in Hemingway’s short story â€Å"Soldier’s home† experiences the conflicts connected with returning from war. What strikes me the most when reading Ernest Hemingway is his style of writing. This short story is characteristic due to the few adjectives, adverbs and Hemingway does not tell us about the characters’ feelings and thoughts and one must interpret these from actions and conversations. His style is simple, direct and his grammar is almost grade school-like. When first reading the short story one might find the short story in lack of substance due to the missing direct statements and descriptions of emotions. The reader needs to be active to understand Hemingway’s stories. Harold Krebs went to take part in World War 1 immediately after finishing college. Although World War 1 ended in 1918 Krebs did not return to his hometown before 1919. After his arrival he is not greeted as a war hero like his fellow students. The hysteria was rampant in the area, but at the time he arrives the hysteria has passed. People find it difficult to understand why he returned as late as he did ( people seemed to think it was rather ridiculous for Krebs to be getting back so late, years after the war was over. † (ll. 8-9)). We will write a custom essay sample on Soldiers Home specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Soldiers Home specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Soldiers Home specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer It seems as though Krebs has returned so late, because he has a hard time interacting with â€Å"ordinary people† – people who has not experienced the war as he has. At first he does not want to talk about his experiences in the war, but when he feels the need to do it, people do not listen. Due to his desire to talk about it he starts lying to make his stories more interesting. I believe talking is an important part of the â€Å"healing process† when someone has experienced war – Krebs does not like talking to people due to the fact that they do not understand him. He would like to have a girlfriend, but the talking makes him change his mind, â€Å"now he would have liked a girl if she had some to him and not wanted to talk,† (l. 40). His mother pressurizes Krebs to find a girlfriend and she calls attention to the fact that the boys from his old school has settled down and â€Å"on their way to being really a credit to the community† (ll. 85-86). To Krebs this is a â€Å"hard slap in the face† – a veiled critic. The mother is very religious and she does not believe that going to war is the solution to anything – she does instead believe that a good job, a nice wife and children are the real â€Å"credit to the community†. Furthermore, the mother does not understand that Krebs is no longer like the boys he used to hang out with – he has seen death and death changes people. Death has made him incapable of loving something we are shown when the mother asks him â€Å"don’t you love your mother, dear boy? † (l. 97) and Krebs truthfully answers â€Å"no†. It was not his intention to hurt his mother, and he ends up promising her that he in fact loves her. This is yet another lie, and he realises that he has to move on. Krebs was once religious (â€Å"†¦ from a Methodist college in Kansas,† (l. 1)) but he has now lost his faith to God and he is no longer â€Å"in His Kingdom† (l. 4). His faith in religion has faltered due to his experiences in the war. Although he wants to break with the family’s religious values, but he cannot break with the authority he still feels religion is. Krebs feels sorry for his mother because she (and her religion) has made him lie – and made him feel guilty as well (â€Å"He had felt sorry for his mother she had made him lie. He would go to Kansas City and get a job and she would feel all right about it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (ll. 23-24)). I believe that isolation from society is an important theme in this short story due to the fact that it has such an impact on the main character. During the war Krebs felt important and useful but now no one even wants to listen to his story unless he lies. He has turned into a passive observer – he observes the girls walking by, but he does not want to interact with them – he just sits on the porch reading. Hemingway wanted the reader to believe that his short stories’ and novels’ reflected himself as person. In Soldier’s Home it is obvious that Krebs does not like his mother – Hemingway did as well detest his mother. Hemingway was raised in a very religious way but as he grew older he became more rebellious and wanted to break with his former religious believes, just like Krebs.