Clar.me

Deforestation and Facebook

At school now, it’s just projects, projects and more projects. I hate projects, actually, but I’m not complaining – at least there hasn’t been that much homework because of all these projects.

I’m currently working on this really weird social studies project; we were asked to create a Facebook group about a certain environmental issue (my group was assigned to make one about deforestation). For the project, we need to keep it really updated all the time, and it should contain, links, videos and podcasts (by the group members), photos, opinions, discussions and more. We also need to, somehow, get at least 1000 members.

Though a lot of people hate this project, I’m generally okay with it. One thing that does annoy me though is the member count requirement. 1000 is a pretty big number. Our teacher thinks that it shouldn’t be a problem, considering the amount of people on Facebook, but there are so many factors that can make this task extremely difficult:

1. Lack of interest – How many people on Facebook join groups about deforestation? Oil spills? Global warming? Not a lot. I just searched for “oil spills” groups on Facebook, and none of them even reached 200 members. It’s pathetic.
2. People are lazy to do the extra clicking – Groups require you to click 2 things to join, while pages only require one. That tiny thing just makes all the difference. The groups for global warming don’t even reach 100 members (with the exception of groups made by my batchmates), but pages can easily get 1000 likes in a day. I even saw one page with 200,000.
3. It’s hard to get the word out – Our teacher makes it sound so easy to get different people to join our groups. He immediately assumes that if we tell our relatives and friends outside of school, they’d go ahead and tell all their other friends as well. It doesn’t work like that. Almost everything online that goes viral these days are those really stupid things that are just too hilarious not to tell others about . Some obvious examples are The Annoying Orange, Fred and, of course, Justin Bieber.

The only reason our groups are even reaching 100 is because the whole batch just joined all the other groups’ Facebook groups. My group reached 100 pretty easily (it’s actually really close to 200 now), but I’m worried about what’ll happen after the sudden burst of schoolmates joining stops. I doubt that my group’ll reach 1000, but that would be nice if we actually do!

awesome, your the same age as my oldest nephew :P I was 5 when he was born haha! (1990 for me)
lol yeah, its annoying at times. My mom talks to me non stop sometimes, and I just feel like telling her to shut up, but after a whie I just drown her out :P
Oh, well then that explains a lot.. cant tell if someone is prego or not if they have a bigger stomach, but still! thats so mean.. i dont know how she could live with herself knowin she did that… to her own kids!

that sounds like an ok project, i mean a lot of the time people are on facebook and stuff, so its very accessable, but you’re right; 1000 members is a lot, even if it might seem like it isnt to the teacher.. hopefully you guys get enough people though! I hope you guys dont lose marks for not getting that many people.. that would be stupid!

Comment by Kayt • August 6, 2010 • 3:53 am

I really dislike blogs that are just recaps of someone’s day as well…especially when they’re really long and simple written. If you’re going to tell the story of your day, tell it like a story. Make it interesting or funny. Nobody cares that you had hamburgers for dinner and then went to your friend Betty’s (who we don’t know) house.

That’s a really silly project…well, at least the member part is. It’s hard to gain that much interest in any group, really. I made a fan page for my resource site, which receives 600 uniques on the better days, and I still can’t even gather 100 fans. Unless it’s a marketing class, how can he expect you guys to do that? Hopefully he’ll let up on that when he realizes everyone is having a tough time. Good luck. :D

Comment by Gabi • August 6, 2010 • 7:20 am

If I had Facebook I’d probably join your group! I did do an assignment on deforestation when I was younger and I’d be a part of that, really. :)

It’s a shame that other things like the oil spill – 200 members or less. That’s really crazy in my opinion. You do get millions and billions of members for some of the silliest things. I know this and I don’t have Facebook!

1000 is quite a lot. I don’t know how you’re going to manage it but I suppose if you advertise around you could get lucky. It’s just a huge number. My school alone did not have 1000 people. I guess it depends on your audience. Good luck though!

I don’t drink coffee that much. If I do, I drink it mostly at home. I’m trying to kick the habit though. I haven’t drunk it in about a week. :P

I don’t think I’m going to like having control over my own money. I won’t be strict enough haha! Even now with my job it’s hard to keep control of my earnings when I buy food so much. Dx

Comment by Georgina • August 7, 2010 • 10:19 pm

That’s silly… but I agree with that one click makes a difference when you join. Your teacher should try doing it based on likes instead of actually joining the group.

250 is a good start – you’re a quarter of the way there. :) I do hope more people join though, otherwise your teacher’s going to have to rethink it. xD

I got excited when I first got my job. I was excited when I got paid as well, because I could just spend it and go to the shops. I save now though. :P

Comment by Georgina • August 8, 2010 • 9:41 am

Wow, that’s a really cool project. Trust me, my holiday homework consists of serious projects that don’t involve any social networking site at all. In my school, the teachers think Facebook is some inappropriate site. -.-

The 1000 members thing is ridiculous. I mean, it’s not really easy to convince 1000 people to join a group about Oil Spills! I’ll try to join your group, if you could tell me the name or something I’ll join.

Comment by Ash • August 9, 2010 • 2:49 am

Ew, projects Are evil. I hate homework, projects and anything to do with school!

Your teacher is insane if he thinks that you can do it easily~ I hardly join any Facebook groups only if they are relevant or I love them. Ha. Good luck though.

Comment by Pauline • August 9, 2010 • 3:13 am

Ahaha yeah, that happens to my friend too, who wakes up and thinks she’s cut herself in her sleep or something. D:

I’ve liked photography since 2007, if my memory serves me well. I guess I’ve liked taking photographs even when I had a disposable camera. I take pictures of anything and everything but I like when I get a good quality picture because it makes me feel good. :P I had an ordinary digital one and my photos were pretty good. The DSLR makes them just that bit better haha. :)

Comment by Georgina • August 9, 2010 • 10:23 pm

I hate projects most of the time too. We had to do one last spring and our topic was SO BORING that pretty much no one wanted to work on it. We ended up having to do pretty much EVERYTHING the week before our project was due. And even that “working” didn’t always go too well.

I wish you & your group members the best of luck with this project!

Comment by Swetlana • August 11, 2010 • 4:45 am

Copyright © 2010-2012 Clarisse unless stated otherwise