Technology- Apple Watch Series 3

Wouldn’t it be nice if you accidentally left you phone at home, but could still get calls and texts from say.. your watch?... Now you can! Apple Watch Series 8 has gone cellular. It has the capabilities of making and receiving calls, text messages, email notifications, app alerts, it can give you directions, streams 40 million songs from apple music and even has siri there in case you have any questions for her as well. The best part is that the watch is waterproof. No more worrying about dropping your phone in the toilet or the sink because you don’t even need to take it with you! Why is the apple watch series 3 important for professional communication? Isn’t having a phone enough?

 Research indicates that Americans work A LOT!! In fact, we work too much, and definitely more than neighboring countries.  In the U.S., 85.8 percent of males and 66.5 percent of females work more than 40 hours per week. Most of these adults have families and responsibilities at home to worry about in addition to their heavy workload as well. The United States is the only industrialized country that has no legally mandatory annual leave. In most countries workers get at least 20 paid vacation days. While in France and Finland, they get an entire month of paid vacation time every year. A whole month! Then there’s the U.S. with a measly 13 days of paid time off per year. The facts tell us that many Americans are constantly in business mode with not much time left for anything else.

From a communication standpoint the heavy workload and long hours of employees make the convenience of the apple watch series 3 ideal. Since the watch is waterproof and can essentially act as a phone even if they do not have their phone with them employees can be reached no matter where they are or what they are doing. If an employee is on call for work there is no stress about whether or not they will get the call in a timely manner because it will go right on their wrist. If an employer feels the need to reach out to an employee for any reason at any time of day the chances of reaching them increase dramatically when that employee has an apple watch series 3. If they go for a morning swim they can still get a message from their boss telling them to pick up donuts for the meeting that morning.

The apple watch increases the amount of communication an employer can have with their employee. For better or for worse the employee is going to start having less and less excuse for a slow response time, or ignorance about work related things. This is because employees will no longer be able to say they did not see the message as it is on their wrist. Though we talked about how American’s work too much and don’t get any time to rest, the fact is that a lot of Americans choose this lifestyle. They love their job and want to be connected at all times. The apple watch is a great way to do that. Additionally, for parents who are working over 40 hours per week the ability to keep in touch with their children, and receive updates even while in important meetings can be important. This can of course all be done via the apple watch series 3. In the near future I think we will see a lot more people talking into their wrists at their watch than their phone. More people will be seen walking the streets with their wrist to their face reading messages or noticing an alert, and less people with phones in their hand. The apple watch series 3 can really have an impact for helping to create an even more closely connected world even more so than with using phone technology on its own.

With all of that being said I do feel that though the amount of communication and the convenience of that is improved through the apple watch professional communication is lacking. I think if employers begin using the apple watch as a means of communicating more quickly and more often with an employee rather than having more formal face-to face discussions the number of people who actually know how to have an effective face-to-face conversation with another human will go down even more so than it undoubtedly has through the use of other technologies. 

https://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-3/

https://20somethingfinance.com/american-hours-worked-productivity-vacation/

Social Media Case

Today it is not unnatural for people to discuss various topics online via social media platforms. Donald Trump has chosen to bring up some important issues via twitter. A few NFL players have begun to kneel during the national anthem as a way to protest social injustice. The following tweet is what the president had to say about it.  

Based on comments about the tweet it seems that some people did not appreciate the president’s tweet. In fact, Trump’s twitter posts about both the NFL players who protest the national anthem and the NBA player Stephen Curry were denounced by many including the NFL itself.  Some feel the players are just practicing their 1^st amendment right of freedom of speech, and others feel he should be more worried about nuclear war, disaster struck areas, and other more prominent issues going on in our world. However, others seemed to agree with trump saying that it is disrespecting those who fought for and even died for our country to not stand for the flag.

I don’t think it was wrong of Trump to take a stand and acknowledge that it is disrespectful. However, I do think he was very unprofessional about the way he did it and even caused some people to misunderstand his intentions. His comment seems rude and extreme. Those who kneel for the national anthem should be fired? What about educated? Maybe they do not fully understand what implications that accompany kneeling for the flag. The truth is that the filed is not the place to bring up politics. In any job you do not really have freedom of speech there is still a time and a place for certain things. Off the field any player has the right to say anything about politics he would like to. That being said I believe if the president had come out with a more professional written statement about the issue it likely would be more understood and more widely accepted. Twitter was not the right place nor the correct approach to deal with an issue like this.  Using harsh language and disrespect is not the way the leader and president of the United States should act toward his followers.

            When the president heard that the warriors were discussing whether or not to go to the white house he tweeted, "Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!” This is immature of our president to un-invite the warriors to the white House. Instead he should make it clear he would be honored to have them come and is looking forward to it when he hears they are thinking about declining rather than uninviting on grounds that they were considering not going. Doing something like that on social media for the world to see makes the president seem unprofessional.

As a businessman it is surprising that Trump would approach something like this in that manner. He should be more diplomatic in the way he handles things. The president should treat everyone with respect regardless if they treat him the same because in the long run it would be better for him, and others would begin to treat him with more respect too. If the president continues to bring up issues in a harsh manner via twitter or other social media platforms I think people will begin to question his professional character. People could possibly begin losing respect for him as Americas’ leader if he continues to lash out via twitter.

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tweet-on-steph-curry-golden-state-warriors-cancels-

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2017/09/24/trump-nfl-should-fire-suspend-players-who-kneel-during-anthem/697680001/

Online Reputation Assignment

To: Sara Mozingo
From: Kaylee England
Date: Sept. 27, 2017
Subject: Online Reputation

Sara Mozingo is a great swimmer and a terrific diver. She has likely been practicing her diving for years and took swimming lessons as a young child.She realizes how important it is to be safe while swimming as it can be very dangerous if not done properly. Her love of swimming and understanding of safety helped her decide to be a lifeguard during the summer of 2014 while she was living in Meridian Idaho.  Pictured below is Sara demonstrating one of her favorite dives.

Sara has two brothers and one sister. She is pictured above with her parents and siblings. Of the few pictures the public can see on her Facebook profile her family is in many of them. This indicates she is close with her family and has a lot of love for them. She is fond of her sister in particular. This could be because there are no other young girls in the family and the bond with her only sister formed naturally as they grew up together. Her Facebook profile is not very accessible to outsiders. This could mean she values her privacy, but does not mind if a few pictures can be seen in order for others to know they found the right girl before sending a friend request. Another possibility is that Sara does not know any of her pictures are accessible to the public other than her profile picture. If she does not want any of her pictures to be seen by people who are not her friends on Facebook she may need to update her privacy settings on those.

If Sara has an Instagram account or a Pinterest she has very successfully kept those private as I could not find either one under her name. It was very difficult to find much more than what I have already written above about Sara while using popular social media outlets. However when I found her on LinkedIn I found that her profile is very informative. She is very smart and is a great writer. She assists other USU students with their writing assignments while tutoring at the USU writing center on campus. She has also worked to fix grammar and other errors while working as a Data Entry Specialist which she did this last Summer.

Sara has also worked in a couple of different medical settings for a total of about two and a half years. She worked first as Certified Nursing Assistant in Idaho and then at the Logan hospital as an Endoscopy Technician. In the last few years Sara has worked for and obtained a few useful certificates. She has a Certified Nursing Assistant certificate, Phlebotomy technician certificate as well as a certificate in Basic Life Skills. Though she will graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies and English in 2018 it seems possible that she would like to work in a healthcare type setting once she has her degree. However, she seems to be extremely good at writing and likes to help others be good writers too. This could lead to a possible career in writing, or a continued effort to help others write. The possibilities seem endless for Sara as she will also have a degree in communication that she can do a variety of things with. It is hard to tell exactly what her future career goals are, but with her varied experiences and skills it is likely she will be successful in the career path she chooses.

 Sara is a very dedicated and hardworking student. She recently made the Dean’s list at USU in May 2017. Not only is Sara smart, but she is also an extremely caring person volunteering with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah for the past two and a half years. Here she mentors and gives extra attention to a ten year old little girl. Sara is also a member of the USUSA elections committee as well as the National Society of Leadership and Success. She is very involved and committed to her education and learning.

https://www.facebook.com/sara.mozingo.35/about?lst=100000618488719%3A100004173755058%3A1506357021&section=overview&pnref=about

 https://writing.usu.edu/about/our-tutors

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-mozingo-08923113b/

Letter to Cousin Assignment

Dear Alexa,

It was so good to talk with you the other day! It has been too long since we have been able to get together, and I have resolved to make more of an effort to keep in better contact with you. As I was thinking about the concerns you shared with me as you begin college and start your new job I just wanted to share some thoughts with you.

            Effective communication is highly important in everyday life. It is especially important to learn how to communicate in a technical and professional manner as you will be communicating with professors as well as your new boss on a consistent basis. You are very young, but no doubt have the potential to impress your teachers and those you work with using effective communication skills. I am confident that as your talent to effectively communicate in a professional manner is used many people will be able take you seriously as an adult. Technical and professional communication (TPC) in a nutshell is being professional and using correct grammar while accomplishing a goal of communicating effectively. Examples of this can be as simple as addressing an email to your professor in a professional way using correct grammar and vocabulary while being respectful and courteous.  Being able to effectively communicate can help you be a better student as well as employee and can often help you to excel in any career or major.

In order to be an effective professional communicator the message you want others to receive is the exact message you communicate to them. The message can be sent via email, marketing tools including flyers, or any other way an audience can receive your message. Studies have found that among certain workplaces TPC is deemed unnecessary. However, their ideas of the unimportance of TPC were based on one of the misconceptions that TPC is secretarial. The fact is that being professional when writing and communicating is far from limited to secretaries. The sooner you are able to recognize the importance of TPC and apply it to your life the better off you will be as a student and employee. It may even put you a step ahead of many other people because getting others to understand the value of Technical and Professional communication is an ongoing process.  If you have any questions or need any clarification please let me know.

Love, Kaylee

Petersen, E. J. (2017). Articulating Value Amid Persistent Misconceptions about Technical and    Professional Communication in the Workplace. Technical Communication,64(3), 210- 222.

http://www.esf.edu/fnrm/documents/FNRM_Communications_Handbook2008.pdf