Hallmark scheme or genuine gesture?

It seems like you either love or hate Valentine’s Day. Many people in my life seem to find this day as a hallmark scheme which maybe they are right about that. As a hopeless romantic in college with realistic expectations I never expect something for Valentine’s day. However, there is something about going to the store during Valentine’s Day weekend and seeing people buy flowers and chocolates for the person or people they love.

Everyone has a different love language. Mine happens to be giving gifts. Throughout the year I like giving little gifts to my boyfriend of 2 years. I’ll surprise him with his favorite drinks or if I see something that I think he’ll like I will get it for him. I never expect anything back, I love making the other person know you were thinking about them and how you care about them.

https://www.verywellmind.com/receiving-gifts-love-language-4783665

Valentine’s Day may be for businesses to gain money but when you go that little extra step to make your significant feel special, I feel the business aspect isn’t as important anymore. Everyone has their own feelings towards Valentine’s Day and those are completely valid. However, I feel when you are in a relationship with someone you love, you should acknowledge your appreciation towards them on Valentine’s Day even if it’s spending quality time with each other while watching their favorite movie.

Flowers I received this year 🙂

Valentine’s Day gift I gave my boyfriend last year. The budget for this gift idea can be whatever you want to make it out to be! The card says, “life with you makes perfect sense!” The gifts involving the 5 senses. Taste can be something as small as gum they like the most or their favorite candy bar. The candy balloon gift to the right of this picture cost about 5 dollars to make! I went to the dollar store to find the supplies. After the balloon, fake roses and candy bars I found a foam box to tape or glue the candy bars to and then stuck the stems of the fake roses into the foam! Super easy to make and he loved it!

At the end of the day we all want to feel appreciated. Yes, I believe gestures should be made no matter what day it is but especially on Valentines day they should feel maybe just a little bit more special than any other ‘normal’ day.

Where I get my news from

Growing up, when I was curious about news events I would ask my parents. When I was old enough to have social media accounts, around the age of 13, I would see what’s trending, click it and then read the articles that pop up. Now I still tend to get most of my news from social media platforms, mainly Twitter. I’ll see the topic that’s trending and then click on the articles that go with it. After lightly scanning the articles I will go to google and do more in depth research. 

I was a journalist for the news station at UW-Eau Claire before I transferred to UW-Whitewater, I was a bit of a news junky during that time. I was more focused on events happening in the community at the time but now I’m more focused with current events around the world.

The main way I get news from my hometown is through Facebook. Most of my Facebook friends are from Beloit, when something shocking happens they will share it and then I will click on it. Most of the news from Beloit is from the Beloit scanner Facebook page and the Beloit police department page. When it comes to news on Facebook I never share, comment or react to it. However, when I’m scrolling on Twitter I will like news posts that intrigue my interest and then later on I look back at the posts I liked and research more about the topic.

If I hear about a topic that’s trending, I will search it on google and go through the articles that pop up first. The Huffington Post, The New York Times and CNN are the news sites I directly will search by typing their news site addresses. I would say these news sites I like the most and get my news from primarily because of their history and credibility. 

https://www.nytimes.com/

https://www.cnn.com/

Like I said previously, most news I come across is when I’m scrolling on social media. That being said, I don’t believe everything I read. Those posts turn into links that lead to news sites and seem very convincing. There are a couple of articles I have read that seemed credible but when I would go into google and search the topic or the name to double check the facts different information would pop up. For example, this last week there was a photo on facebook stating a story that happened to a woman saying she was drugged by a man. When I looked up the story CNN declared it as an overdose, those are two very different sides of stories for the same case. 

My favorite way to receive news is either reading or watching news videos. If the news is something trending over the world and is very crucial to peoples lives I tend to watch different news videos to see more videos and pictures of the event to see how my feelings are towards it. If the news is just everyday non life threatening news I will read text, simply to get the information and facts. 

My main news intake is from scrolling on social media. My favorite thing about social media is being able to access information from around the world in minutes or even seconds. Once that information quickly surfaces to the internet I will browse the articles, knowing in the back of my mind every detail may not be real. Then I go more in depth by looking at sites such as the Huffington Post or The New York Times to see what information they have to say. Based on the interactions with articles that I first see and then the information I find from more scholarly news sites I will make an opinion on the topic and know what the news is about. I never would share or comment news on social media because I’m not very active on my accounts but I will be more knowledge on the topic.