Monthly Archives: March 2021

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NECC Knights getting back to competition this spring

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As the spring sports semester begins Northern Essex Community College intends to return to competition.

The first sports to get this underway will be the men’s basketball team and the women’s volleyball team along with the esports team.

After COVID had canceled sports during the fall semester the plan to follow the strict Massachusetts guidelines and have the athletes resume their time playing.

“The college will follow all Massachusetts COVID guidelines, which means spectators will not be permitted unless limitations are lifted by the state,” acording to the NECC Knights website.

With everything going on NECC is looking to make the sports return a safe environment and make sure no athlete or person is at risk of getting COVID.

“Competition schedules are also in development for men’s soccer, softball, golf, and track, and field,” according to the website.

The Knight’s baseball team started on March 7.  NECC could use the early sports of basketball and volleyball to use as a guide going forward with the later starting sports. How everything is going on NECC is looking to slowly incorporate more of the sports over time but since this is the first time for everyone, they are taking it slowly making sure athletes and coaches are not at risk of catching the virus. “

We have developed schedules for basketball, baseball, and volleyball. We are working on the other sports as well.” said Athletic director Dan Blair.

While the setting has changed for what is going with the sports world, NECC is stil recruiting athletes.

“Recruitment hasn’t changed, our coaches are still doing what they traditionally do, just in a different setting,” said Blair.

The new season is upon us as NECC looks to reopen the competition side of sports and get the athletes back out there.

If there are any questions about sports, in what will happen, or in need of anything alongside that you can contact the Director of Athletics, Dan Blair at (dblair@necc.mass.edu).

 

Home Page News Bytes, Sports

Baseball team opens season with doubleheader

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The Northern Essex Baseball team opened their season with a doubleheader on March 7 and 8.

After no season in 2020, the team was excited to get back onto the field again. Saturday’s games were played down in Quincy, MA against Eastern Nazarene, where they lost the first game 6-1 and then bounced back with a commanding 18-7 win in the second game.

On Sunday they made the trip all the way down to Connecticut, where they faced Mitchell college in another doubleheader.

The first game went to extra innings until they eventually ended up losing 6-4 on a walk off home run. Just like Saturday’s games, the team came back and took the second game with a 6-1 win to end the weekend.

It was a long first weekend for them with wind chills in the low 20s on both days, but they managed to pull out wins when they needed to on both days.

The team has a midweek game scheduled for Tuesday against Fisher College, before they get ready to go down to New Jersey this weekend.

They are scheduled to play 2 more double headers vs. Rowan Gloucster on Saturday and Sunday.

“Overall, I thought we had a good weekend as a team. We have some things to work on, but it was our first time playing outside and with the weather we got, mistakes are going to happen. I’m excited for what’s to come for sure.” said Captain Ronnie Luke, who also got his first win in Game 2 on Saturday night.

Features, Home Page News Bytes

Tips to start a fitness journey

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We are only a few weeks into this New Year, and if your New Years’ resolution to eat better, work out, and better your mental health is at a halt especially if you aren’t seeing results right away.

I have the tips and tricks for you to be successful. I got to sit down with Personal Trainer Brandon Amello and Jared Shepard from Cedardale Health and Fitness to get all the answers.

For someone who wants to start living a healthy lifestyle, Brandon Amello said “Baby steps! Developing a healthier lifestyle does not happen overnight. Personally, I recommend starting with making minor changes to your diet, such as eating less processed foods, adding lean healthy proteins, carbs and easing your way into exercise a few days per week over time it will become much easier.”

If you’re just starting out on your fitness journey and not seeing your results right away, Jared Shepard said “If you’re not seeing results right away don’t be concerned. The last person to see your results is you. What matters is consistency. There’s no magic way to get in shape fast, consistency and long-term dedication will get you where you want to be. Stick with it, stay positive and you’re guaranteed to see results over time.”

Amello said “ If you’re just starting out, practice patience. Developing a healthy active life takes time and is different for everyone. Enjoy the process, Benefits will come the more consistent you are. Find what works for you to improve upon it as you see fit.”

 

 

 

 

 

Opinion, Slider

State’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout not enough to quell disproportional number of positive cases in Lawrence

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Massachusetts vaccine distribution is categorized into three phases. Phase 1 is made up of front-line workers such as doctors, nurses, home health aides, long term care/assisted living facility residents and workers. Phase 2, which is where we are currently in the scheduled distribution, consists of groups who in numbered order will be eligible. In group 1, individuals aged 75 and older, then in group 2, individuals aged 65 and older, individuals with 2 or more known conditions, and residents and staff of low income and affordable senior housing. Group 3, who are not yet eligible for vaccination are all other workers, such as teachers, waitstaff, bus drivers, and state and city workers. Group 4 includes all other individuals with one certain medical condition. Phase 3 includes the general public and anyone else who did not qualify in earlier phases for vaccination.

According to The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the total positive case number of 17,822 as of February 27. 2021, puts Lawrence with the highest positive case rate in the State of Massachusetts, clocking in at just over 7%. With only one public vaccination site in the city, a Lawrence General clinic at South Lawrence East Elementary, the site is tasked with the duty of administering vaccines not to only Lawrence residents, but to people from all over the county.

Even the new mayor Kendrys Vasquez said to a reporter when asked about the South Lawrence East clinic, that more vaccine sites need to be opened, and they need staffing.

Vasquez also said that the city has already hired 100 student workers and plans on hiring 30-35 nurses to staff the new sites once the city receives the state and federal finds to open them.

Those who have gotten their vaccine(s) at the South Lawrence East clinic describe it as being orderly and efficient, with immediate disinfection of chairs, handrails, clipboards, and pens after every patient.

Currently, the people who are the main contributors to Lawrence’s high positive test rates are not being actively vaccinated, because according to the Lawrence Board of Health, more than 10,000 of the positive cases are people under 30.

Even though people under 30 are the demographic with highest positive case number, there has only been 1 reported death within that age group, while people aged 60-99 make up 203 of the 224 total reported deaths.

This is because people under 30 assume that because they have no underlying conditions, and because they are young, that the virus will not affect them. This mentality can very quickly turn people into super spreaders because they are not as diligent when it comes to social distancing, proper mask wearing, and avoiding risky activities. Socializing venues and private parties run rampant within the city. While the young people play, and pretend that the virus does not exist, parents and grandparents suffer and die because of their children and grandchildren’s foolish behavior.

News

GameStop vs Wall Street

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The video game retailer GameStop has been on a downward trend due in recent years to its poor sales horrible management and COVID-19 nearly tanking and bankrupting the company. This company would become part of one of the biggest stories that affected the pockets of Wall Street Bankers and Tycoons and it would last for multiple days. These crucial days were seen as a new type of fight between the Wall Street vs Main Street with surprising allies.

On Jan. 25 a Reddit forum called r/WallStreetBets and a user whose real name is Keith Gill gaind attention.  Gill is a 34 year old from Brockton, Massachusetts with a profession as a financial analyst. Gill also runs a YouTube channel called “RoaringKitty.” On his channel Gill posted a video titled “The Big Short Squeeze from $5 to $50? Could GameStop (GME) Explode Higher Value Investing.” In the video he said the following “It’s one of the most compelling opportunities asymmetric opportunities in the market today…. That is why it’s the top position in my portfolio.” The people on the forum started talking about on how to do a Short Squeeze.  A Short Squeeze is a massive increase in value of stock and it happens when no one is buying and there is too much demand for it, basically it’s a system anomaly.

They started to up the value of GameStop by over a thousand percent. These people were up against the major hedge-fund companies like Melvin Capital and Citron Research who were betting their own money against them. They shorted the stock of GME and every other company saw this did the exact same thing. The companies who shorten stocks are throwing away stocks that they see as worthless or made next to no money. These were the companies that were featured in the 2015 film “The Big Short” starring Christian Bale in where he plays Michael Murray. Murray was one of the key people who was involved with the 2008 Housing Crisis.

The Reddit traders used an app called RobinHood which sold people stock as it if were free money. GameStop’s stock started to grow since Jan. 12 when it reached its climax on the 21st when the market closed with astonishing value of $43 dollars which was more than double than the day before. The hedge-fund companies were not having it at all. Some went out of their way to express their anger on what everyday people were doing to them. One of the people involved with these companies was Andrew Left who is a Short Seller that worked with Citron Research. He posted a since deleted video on Citron’s Youtube page telling them “You are not going to change the story” and “You won’t see a squeeze here on in.” Others however were making fun of the people on Wall Street and encouraging the Redditor’s to continue the fight. One of these supporters was the Wolf of Wall Street himself, Jordan Belfort. Belfort re-enacted his famous speech from Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

There were also every day people like Northern Essex Community College student Finn Sparrow who said “I think it’s a great movement and that these hedge fund managers like shady tactics until it’s used against them.”

Someone even managed to put up an electronic billboard that said “Money Go Brrr” in New York City’s Time Square.

Memelord, Millionaire Playboy and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, saw this and got into it with him tweeting out “GAMESTONKS!” The media got on to the GameStop train with some people either defending the people on Reddit like the co-host of the Halftime Report, Jim Cramer on a Jan. 27 broadcast who said it was “a First Amendment issue.” Cramer days later said “At the end of the day I don’t think a Reddit forum can bring the house down. They are picking undervalue stock that are a Big Short Position and run with them. It can cause crazy moves in handful of stocks but it’s not big enough to move the entire market.”

This affected other stocks like AMC and GameStop was only getting bigger with the market opening on $88 dollars with the closing the day before being at $78 and at the end day GameStop closed with $148 per share.

People were trying to find any explanation on what is going on with the short squeeze and suffice to say they were panicking. On Jan. 27 the stock of AMC along with GameStock went up and it opened at $300 around the same time Melvin Capital were trying to say a float. They were hemorrhaging money which resulted in them closing everything and this turned out to be false. As for Citron Research, Andrew Left, posted another video which was an update to the deleted video. In the video Left stated the following “The reason I’m doing this video it’s because I can’t answer one more phone call.”

As the day went on it got crazier with GME peaking at $380 before it went into free fall. This happened when apps like RobinHood crashed partly because everyone was selling at the exact same time which caused the sever to overload.

However there were others who came out to defend the side of Wall Street like late night comedian and TV personality, Jimmy Kimmel, who quote retweet to a tweet made by former host of the Daily Show, Jon Stewart. Stewart tweeted out on Jan. 28  “…The Redditors aren’t cheating; they’re joining a party Wall Street insiders have been enjoying for years.” Kimmel replied with the following “RealDonaldTrump? Is this you?”

He went so far as to doubled down on his showing later that night saying it was “Russian Disruptors.”  The news corporations also defended Wall Street by using disinformation and smear tactics like CNBC and CNN who put out headlines saying that Redditors are moving onto silver but on the Reddit itself however they were telling everyone not to buy silver. Newsweek went so far to call the Redditors involved in the event as “Far Right Extremists.”

In the aftermath RobinHood had to restrict the trading of GME people saw this and were furious about it with most wanting a federal investigation into what happened. The White House put out a statement to the press corps saying “they were monitoring the situation.” Some took their anger and frustration to Twitter with people like Rep. Alexandria Occasio Cortez who tweeted out “This is unacceptable. We now need to know more about @Robinhood’s decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit. As a member of the Financial Service CMTE, I’d support a hearing if necessary.” Others all across the political spectrum condemned what RobinHood did.

The reaction to the entire event was both meme worthy and glorious mainly because it exposed the corruption of these hedge fund managers.

Jeremy Isabelle, another student at  Northern Essex Community College said “honestly, more power to r/WallStreetBets. Their main targets seem to be the people who have dominated the field since its conception….I would say that creating regulation to halt instances like this also discourages the average day trader from getting involved in the market to begin with. There’s no real possible way to prove that all of these traders were colluding together other than a Reddit thread exposing what the hedge funds were doing with the GameStop stock, which exposed the tremendous profit to be made for these traders.”

Overall the event itself showed Wall Street is not safe from the wrath of the everyday working class people. Congress as of now are currently investigating on what happened with hearings into the event itself. One of the key people brought into testify was Keith Gill, the man who started the whole trend. There is speculation on what happens next and raising questions like “is this going to happen again?” The answers ranged from “yes” to “no.” That answer came on Feb. 24 when GameStop’s stock jumped up again before that was halted multiple times before it closed with $91. On Feb. 25 it continued to surge with the stock doubling its value from the day before with $170. Only time will tell what happens next with the never ending battle between the common man and the brokers.

Arts and Entertainment, Home Page News Bytes

Students engage with Black History Month through African dance class

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On Feb. 24, students gathered through Zoom to meet with Bisi from Izizwe Dance Studio, stationed in Lawrence Massachusetts. The goal was to learn more about Black History Month and culture. Students learned different dance moves and routines while the cheerful and traditional music played.

Stephanie Haskell, the student life coordinator explains more about how the event came to be. With the help of Maria Hernandez, the international student coordinator, the plan became a reality. She says that things needed to be different from the normal lecture or a movie, and so she asked herself, “What can we do that is interactive?” She gained inspiration from other colleges and her Haitian friends.

Haskell  thought it was a great way to experience the culture, and students agree.

A student at NECC called Emma Atwood, age 20 who is studying criminal justice says, “The reason I joined this event is because I love getting involved in all virtual events that NECC has to offer.” She expressed that she feels as though she learned a lot about African culture.

Atwood said the same ideas Haskell shared about making events more interactive. She said, “All the events held are through zoom so there’s not many active activities that can be done.” She mentioned how in the past NECC held virtual yoga and zumba. “I definitely think we should have more events like this!”

To any students still hesitant to join events and that feel shy, Atwood said “Join as many events as you can! You’re gonna meet some of the best staff and classmates at NECC!”

Arts and Entertainment, Slider

NECC alumn, Gyani Wasp, discusses creative inspirations and pursuit of a career in filmmaking

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A photo of Gyani Wasp

Gyani Pradhan Wong Ah Sui (a.k.a. Gyani Wasp), 18, is an international student and NECC film major alumni who is currently majoring in screen studies at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. Originating from Mauritius, a country in East Africa where his father grew up, Wasp moved to Sikkim, India, where his mother is from when he was 9 years old.

By the eighth grade, Wasp had developed an affinity for reading and writing  — especially after devouring the entire “Percy Jackson” book series by Rick Riordan. This creative spark soon translated into an interest in storytelling, as he began to write his own stories and watch various genres of film. At age 15, Wasp moved to the United States as an exchange student after the principal from his high school in Sikkim suggested that he study abroad. “

He [the principal] was like a mentor to me—an encouraging and charismatic leader who motivated many students. A lot of my ambition comes from what he believed was possible for me,” said Wasp. “My new high school had a big focus on creativity and encouraged me to think outside the box. It made me begin to look at film as art because it blends so many different art forms together, and that really excited me.”

Soon enough, Wasp realized that he wanted to actually see the visions of the stories he had written come to life. “I begged my parents to get me a camera for Christmas and started working on small goofy projects with friends. Then throughout high school, I started making travel videos and vlogs with my family,” said Wasp.

When the COVID-19 pandemic initially began in 2020, Wasp decided to spend his free time watching at least one film a day for the duration of lockdown to learn more about the history of filmography. By using the app called Letterbox, Wasp participated in writing numerous critical reviews and journals to keep track of his movie recommendations and watching progress.

Photos by Gyani Wasp

Wasp is particularly drawn to international films, as he stated that only listening to American voices can feel limiting, as different cultures have alternative perspectives on film and the art of storytelling. Some of his favorite international directors include Alfonzo Cuaron, Edward Yang, and Gaspar Noe. “I watched a lot of Wes Anderson and Christopher Nolan movies, followed many major production houses, such as A26, and also watched many YouTube film essays from “The Criterion Collection”, which discusses a variety of films more in-depth,” said Wasp. His favorite actors include Ryan Gosling, Scarlett Johansson, and Ethan Hawke. Wasp also stated that despite Stanley Kubrick’s controversial personality, he would most like to work with him as a director because he appreciates his talent.

“I want to change the landscape of what people talk about, and I want my stories to be personal and authentic. The idea of ‘home’ is a super relevant theme to me, personally, because I’ve moved around all throughout my life,” said Wasp.

Wasp plans to stay in the United States and pursue a career in filmmaking. He is hoping to find a job or an internship at a film production company after graduation.

“I would love to work at Sundance, and I’m hoping to direct movies someday. That’s the plan,” said Wasp.

Wasp has also created a YouTube channel under the name of “Gyani Wasp” in which his films and videos are displayed and can be viewed by the public.

Arts and Entertainment

“The Ringer:” Lighthearted fun or deeply problematic?

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If someone told you that there was a comedic movie, about a normal man who lies to compete in The Special Olympics, you would be rightly outraged. This is the basic plot of the movie “The Ringer” but the movie is deeper than that in the way it depicts its characters.

Before we look at this movie, we must look at the history of The Special Olympics. The first Special Olympics was held on June 20th, 1968 and it was started by Eunice Kennedy Shriver who previously had a camp for kids with disabilities. According to The Special Olympics website “The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.”

The movie The Ringer was directed by the Farley brothers and stars Johnny Knoxville. On the surface this movie may seem like a problematic film. But it’s actually deeply heartwarming. Knoxville plays a man who goes into debt after causing an accident which injures his gardener. To get the cash to save him Knoxville and his uncle decide to put him in The Special Olympics as a athlete. Knoxville passes as an athlete to the event organizers. He goes in thinking it will be easy, but he is wrong. Also, all the athletes competing realize that he is not special needs. They do not tell any of the event organizers so they can make a fool out of him. Some of the athletes though try and help Knoxville after he explains his situation.

What makes this movie so good is the steps that the film makers went through to make sure they were not discriminating against special needs people. The first major step the film makers took was giving The Special Olympics organization full control over the script. This paid off because the input of The Special Olympics Organization helped make sure that the characters were realistically written and humanized. The next thing the film makers did was cast 150 actual special needs actors in the film. Even the main cast was made up of mostly special needs actors. These two major steps the film makers took worked because they received praise and endorsement from the organization.

The chairman of Special Olympics Tim Shriver said in a press release “Beyond improving the lives of our athletes on the playing field, a key goal of Special Olympics is to change attitudes of nondisabled young people about people with intellectual disabilities, dispelling negative stereotypes. Humor can be a very effective way to reach young people and the Farrellys are masters of both.”

One  of the actors from the film who is an actual Special Olympics athlete Eddie Barbanell also said in the press release “This movie does not mock people with intellectual disabilities. When you see this movie, laugh with us, not at us. See us as human beings and people just like you and watch us showcase our talents.”

I think most importantly though the movie leaves you with the message that you should not be condescending to people. Throughout the film the main volunteers for the event are overly condescending to the athletes and the athletes take advantage of it. When Knoxville talks to them, he just talks normally and because of that him and the athletes become better friends.

I can relate to that as I am a volunteer for my local chapter of special Olympics and my sister has autism. Throughout all her life I have seen people treat her like a child just because she has autism. But as her brother I know she is smarter than that and I can talk to her normally I just may have to explain a couple of things or word them differently. The same can be said about other special needs kids.

With comedy nothing is off limits, success in that field depends on how you spin it. With “The Ringer” it does an outstanding job of taking such a taboo subject such as people with disabilities and spins it into a positive movie. Instead of taking the easy way out and laughing at the people with disabilities we laugh with them.

Slider, Sports

A shift in sports at NECC

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Kids and teens in the United States always have at least one dream about what they want to do when they are older, some of these dreams are inspired overtime by what they do, what they watch, and what they grow up around. One of the most popular activities among youth is sports.

Young people from all over the country grow up in hopes of playing a particular sport when they are older, and some even look to work around the sports industry such as coaching, physio, management etc.

Throughout these past 12 months, however, we have faced a difficult situation that no one expected and out of our control, being the pandemic. From players whose developments have regressed, to coaches and management struggling to make a living, people in the sports industry have faced big setbacks due to this pandemic throughout the whole country.

What big effect has the pandemic had sports around the campus though?

Coaches from NECC in particular are hopeful about returning to their normal lives and believe the pandemic has been a major detriment to staff and students from all around NECC.

“It’s changed everything,” said Tim Foley, Cross Country Head Coach. “We had a fine team returning and half of the runners opted out so we didn’t have a team this past season.

“After this pandemic, I hope to see things return as close to what they were before but I envision a great deal of protocols being adjusted to keep any chance of something like this better controlled.”

It’s been a common theme for athletes around the school and also around the country to opt out of something they’ve desired to do for years.

Having a shortened team and limited options is one of the many changes that’s revolved around this pandemic life, and makes it harder for coaches, players, and staff to do their jobs.

“It has changed what we do, for several months it stopped us completely. Now we are back up and running but following a whole new set of guidelines and while safety has always been an important part of what we do, our COVID safety guidelines are regularly reviewed,” said Dan Blair, Head Director of Athletics at NECC .

“I think some of our coaches spend as much time or more preparing for COVID as they do preparing for a game or practice.”

Safety protocols is one of the many new features to the sports/COVID world.

It’s significant that preparations, stamina, and new set of rules all take time away from practices and build-up for important games.

“We’ve just begun a department wide testing program and are following guidelines of several national governing bodies and authorities to keep our students safe,” said Blaid. “We have a number of updated protocols that we began developing back in June and have been constantly tweaking them as we go and as new information is provided by the CDC and various sports governing bodies.”

In spite of following protocols being a distraction coaches like Blair, it’s a tool measured to ensure safety with everyone and with testings being widely provided to prevent COVID from worsening.

“I think some things many things will go back to normal, but I think a lot of how we are operating in the COVID environment will stick around. Some of it will be looked at sport by sport. Time will tell,” he said.

Features, Home Page News Bytes

The positives and negatives of social media

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I remember when I first got Facebook when I was 13 years old. It was my first social media account and I was so excited. I remember my father telling me, “pretend like I can read everything you write and only publish what you think is appropriate.” That has stuck with me ever since and my social media platforms have grown ever since that first Facebook account. The amount of accounts I have now is sometimes overwhelming since I am mostly active and on them almost daily. I would say the one that shocks me the most and takes up most of my screen time is Tik Tok. I can mindlessly scroll for hours and I can imagine people my age that are doing the same on their social media.

The amount of connection that we can feel with our social media accounts is mind opening as well. You can find so many communities related to your interests or hobbies through social media.

Andrew Venditti, a Journalism and Communications major at Northern Essex says that he “met his first girlfriend when I was 14 through Facebook.” This has become the ultimate trend with specific apps related to online dating. Especially with the pandemic as well, online dating through zoom or video chats has been more popular than ever.

Online bullying has also been more toxic and at a higher volume. More people or trolls online can write whatever they please to a person just to get a rise out of them. I also knew a few people that during the election had to delete their social media because of the amount of hate and arguments they were seeing online. Venditti says “it’s difficult to talk or debate about anything over social media without it becoming a fight” and I have to agree with that statement because it is so true.

Zachary Cutter, also a Journalism major says “those sites are creating internet addiction that is bad for mental health.” The amount of mindless scrolling that happens with adolescents and teenagers is going to grow into serious mental health issues for when they get older.”

Although social media may not be good for teenagers and mental health, there are some positives that go along with it. Social media can be a really great booster for businesses like restaurants and even small businesses. You can create your own platform using your greatest valued customers and have them review your products online so other new customers can see. Cutter says, “it can gain more money and name recognition.”

Having a social media platform is a must when you are trying to run a successful business. Venditti says, “I use Facebook to share information on my band and it gives me analytical feedback about how many people look at, share and click a link in my post.”

Starting a successful business or a band like Venditti with a social media platform can be really useful for who your audience is.

Social media can be used for anything your heart desires and it has helped many people and businesses thrive even during this pandemic. There are some drawbacks to social media in regards to it harming your metal health, but with the right strategies and time management, it is easier to use social media with a positive attitude. We can only hope with time that social media can be used for more positives and not negatives.