Community Connections

Hello! Welcome to my ADL, community connections assignment. For this project I decided to interview a very nice man named Dylan, Dylan Morgan has been on Instagram running an account for around three years and has amassed around 20,000 followers, which is no small feat.

I chose Dylan’s account because he uses a lot with comedy and comedy and being funny is a big part of who I am. I think about being a comedian as I get older. I also think it is incredibly inspirational and interesting how he has been posting on this account daily even when he isn’t getting paid for all of his work. Its a sign of true determination and grit to never give up and pursue his dream of amassing 50,000 followers. Another reason I chose him is because I have had conversations with him in the past and I was pretty sure I could get in contact with him, and I thought it would make a better project if I interviewed someone with a big following.

Who is MetaKnight?

MetaKnight formally knows as Dylan Morgan is a 17 year old boy based in the USA who owns a successful comedy Instagram account. Dylan has been working on his account for around three years now and has around 20,000 followers. He usually posts funny comedy content to keep his followers engaged and posts upwards of three times every day! As well as dealing with his account, Dylan is also a senior in high school and can sometimes be seen posting stories of him in front of his desk working on big assignments. Above everything, Dylan is just a boy who lives his life slightly different than everyone else.

The Interview:

 

 

At first he seemed flattered and amazed as can be seen by the image above which was his response when I asked him for an interview; but he soon calmed down.

1st question: “Can you explain the  roles and responsibilities in your current position?”

“As an influencer, I see my job as helping society by volunteering to make people enjoy their day just that little bit more consistently. My current responsibilities are being careful what I post and making sure not to offend anyone, as that would result in mass unfollowing, getting reported, and worst case scenario, getting my account deleted. I enjoy getting the odd message saying thank you and telling me how I have made their day and how I’ve helped them get out of hard situations. It is a voluntary job in which I don’t get paid in money but in the odd good messages and that makes me happy.”

2nd question: “What obstacles have you faced to get where you are today?” 

“It’s taken a long time to get to where I am; it’s taken a lot of patience and frustration figuring out what makes people most interact with my posts and enjoy what I post. I can only thank my followers for where I am today as I would be nothing without them. Its been a long grind to get to where I am and I don’t plan on stopping at 20k.”

3rd question: “What advice would you pass onto someone interested in what you are doing?”

“Don’t give up; its worth it in the long run. the community adds to your mental health in a positive way daily.”

4th question: “Why are you passionate about your job or role?”

“I enjoy seeing my daily efforts affect people lives, its a little laugh or joke but it makes me feel like I contribute to the happiness of my followers and that makes me happy.”

I was instructed to make up the next two questions and my reason for the 5th question is because I always like learning about the backstory for someone successful starting what they are doing. I find it very interesting and sometime extremely motivational.

5th question: “Why did you start this channel and did you ever think you would have 20,000 followers?”

“I started it as a hobby as I enjoyed looking at funny things to post for my followers. I never really had a goal but I’m happy I have 20k and  all I can hope for next is 30k.”

Last question: “When do you think you will stop doing this and, when you do finally stop, how many followers would you like to have?”

“I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. I want to hit 50k, which would be amazing, but who know how long that will take.” 

What I learned from this interview: 

There are three main things I learned from this interview. First, I realized that success does not come from sitting around. You are not going to get anywhere meaningful from sitting on your chair playing video games. You need to get out there and work for it and do a good job at that. The second is that money isn’t everything and personal empowerment matters. This one I really needed to understand more. This man gets no money or anything and he gets rewarded by people messaging him about how they appreciate him. That is powerful. I am very money driven and as I grow up I need to learn that money is not everything and stuff like compliments and those few minutes of happiness after someone thanks you matters a lot. The last thing I took away from this is that no matter what happens, you must not stop doing what you love and you have to stay determined on what you enjoy. Dylan has been working on this Instagram account for years now and has been doing it daily for a long time as well. Throughout his life struggles, Dylan has always came back to the same Instagram account to work on what makes him happy which is making others laugh.

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What opportunities has this interview possibly opened for me:

Because of my deep conversation with Dylan, I think if I asked, he may give me a run down on how he runs his account and give me some tips. Some indirect opportunities are that I learned that working hard can get you anywhere on this planet. I can take his example to heart and become successful as well. I believe that I should be taking bits and pieces of things that can better me as a human and I will not treat this any different. I am going to remember the most important things Dylan taught me and keep it in a locked box for the rest of my life, ready to be opened and used at any moment.

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Digital Footprint

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Hello, my name is London and this is my Digital Footprint.

 

The first thing I was told to do is to look up my name on the internet and see what pops up! What popped up really surprised me.

 

Apparently there is an actor from Los Angeles with the same name as me! London is best known for his appearance on the HBO series “Ballers”. I scrolled down to see if i could find myself but because my first name is the meaning of many things such as the city in England, the actor London and the colour Brown. As of if I think I have a good or bad digital footprint though, that is a bit of a story. I believe my digital footprint used to be pretty bad but after I privated my Instagram and deleted all my posts it got a lot better. I really only share anything with people I know and I intend to keep it like that, my footprint may be the worst on a voice call app called Discord but to be honest no one really cares what you do on there, its like the wild west of the internet out there. Even though it is worse its really not bad its mostly me just sending funny stuff and all my private stuff I talk about on there is don’t securely on a private chat.

 

Question #1: will my digital footprint affect my future opportunities?

I’m sure that because I really have nothing the employer can find that will put me in a bad spot, no it will not affect me negatively. I do in fact, believe that if I made my footprint better instead of just making sure its not bad, by maybe posting some landscape pictures or something just to prove I am not lifeless, yea, that would probably help. Of course, I’m sure you don’t need to have over 10,000 followers on Instagram and have the nicest pictures ever to get the job at McDonald’s. And even if I did want to better it I have some time before I get a good job that might require that type of stuff.

The next question is as follows: Describe at least three strategies you use to keep your digital footprint appropriate and safe?

 

The first thing I do is quite simple, I do not put inappropriate and potentially unsafe things on the internet, which for some people I know is really hard but all you really have to do is have a mental note telling you to think before you post and hopefully that will work. Another thing I do is private all my accounts on Instagram, Discord and any other social media service I join. Lastly I don’t really post stuff, I don’t have any posts on Instagram and I rarely put stories on my Snapchat. This helped because I don’t get the over-arching inch to get more followers and likes and it keeps me safer! Of course, I wouldn’t say everybody could do this because I understand the appeal of posting on social medias. That is just more of a personal one. Growing on that is another thing that is good with keeping your footprint clean, you don’t get worried about likes and followers. I know some people that lets that stuff consume them and doing what I do really helps my mental health, but that is only if you don’t post. Now don’t think i am some super human that never feels insecure or anything, I do, but just at what i think is a lower level than others.

 

Last but definitely not least: What information did I learn that I would pass on to other students, and how would I go about telling them?

 

I would say I learned a lot about how fatal the digital footprint could be to your job and your job interviews. I also learned that most people have a bad digital footprints.

The best way I would tell a friend isn’t even me telling, I would show my friend by getting him to look up his name onto google and if his Instagram or something of the sorts comes up and his account is public, well, I believe he/she will either not care at all or fix the problem.

I didn’t get this project in in till the last day because of a simple fact, I was lazy. Some things are okay to be lazy with but your digital footprint is not one of them. A lot of unflattering things can and probably have happened to people who have horrible Digital footprints. After doing this project, I finally understand that and because I did this assignment I am taking newer and better steps to insure my footprint is clean. Thank you Riverside staff for giving me this assignment and I hope you enjoyed it!

 

– London Brown,

 

5/6 pictures were done from Pexels.com and I used no research sites except the Digital footprint video sent by Riverside

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=london+brown