Stories by David Samson on Medium

MY INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

David Samson — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 13:01:21 GMT

Going into the interview, I felt that I wouldn’t really learn much since I already knew the person I interviewed and also since I also already heard her talks about vlogging. After a while of listening to her, I actually was reminded of how hard she worked and how much videos she posted before she got a certain amount of subscribers. From that point, I became inspired and actually started to become more proud of her and of her accomplishments. Going back to listening her talk about vlogging, I could really see how much she’s grown as a person and how much it actually made her a better person. One thing that stuck to me from it was working hard and not giving up is one of, if not the most important mindset you have to have once you start creating and posting videos. A few points I learned from this interview was that first, you shouldn’t take anything for granted. Whether posting videos or in life, you shouldn’t take anything for granted since you never know when a big break or a really great opportunity will pop up. Secondly, working hard and never giving up is really, really important. An example from the interview with Janina was that she told me after the first year of posting videos two times a week, she earned a few subscribers and she didn’t expect to get that much. After gaining a little bit of traction, she didn’t give up and kept on posting and creating more and more videos for her audience. Now, she’s one of the top “YouTube-ers” in the Philippines. Lastly, the most important thing I learned was how we should always do what we love. This is the most important for me out of the three because I really believe that it’s very important. Because you’re doing what you love, it really won’t feel like work. For example, Janina loved watching other beauty and lifestyle “YouTube-era” that she really wanted to be one. She had that passion inside of her that became a reality because she put it into action. This all happened because she did what she loved and until now, because of the drive that she has, she just keeps excelling and she just keeps growing as a creator and as a person all because she started to do what she loved doing.

Did a Live on Facebook

David Samson — Fri, 30 Mar 2018 16:15:34 GMT

So today was actually Good Friday, nothing much happened as the day started. I did the usual routine, wake up, do my devotions, check my phone, eat breakfast, etc. It was a typical no school day, where I didn’t really have to worry about anything. While I was scrolling through my feed, I got this notification on Facebook from a class group page, and as it led me to the group page I got reminded of a project that we had to do that was due soon. After that happened, I was pretty much in cramming, tense, stressed-out mode looking for something or someone to do that project with. This project though was not any ordinary project but it was about basically doing a Facebook live that lasts for at least 30 minutes. I was actually not nervous to do a live, since it wouldn’t be the first time I would do it. I was really scared about the fact that I still didn’t have a person to do a live with. After a couple of messages sent to friends though, I finally found some people to do it with. A short backstory, it was a Good Friday and most of my friends were out of town or busy with their families so it was pretty hard looking for people to do the live with. Going back though, as we met up, I initially wanted to do an interview with them but then and there one of my friends said why we was actually at the place that we met up was because he was trying out his drone that he bought a couple days back. This became very exciting and I decided to make the live totally about that, since its a pretty exciting event for me to see live and to show other people that drones are actually pretty cool. Of course, the live, like typical lives, there are no scripts or prepared things, so you really had to be fast to think of things to say or things to comment on whatever you are doing. For my case, the first couple of minutes was still okay but as time went on, it became harder since I ran out of things to say. Thanks to my friends though, I got to say more things on the live. Also another thing to add is that it is very important to interact with the viewers since they are the ones watching and if you want them to stay, you would do what they want you to do. To conclude, I would’ve changed a lot of things since I did not really plan any of the things I could’ve planned, like the people I would interview/be with during the live, but that’s what I love about lives, it is very raw. It shows the imperfections you wouldn’t really see on a normal vlog(not saying vlogs aren’t natural) but lives are really something else. One thing to get out of this activity though is the respect that I have for live news reporters just got bigger since they always have to think fast and on the spot. So that is basically it, I made mistakes but I believe we won’t learn if we don’t make mistakes.

Reaction on using Twitter in Class

David Samson — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 09:29:15 GMT

The first thing that came into my mind was; wow, we’re going to be using Twitter in class. This was a first for me since I usually use Twitter and other social media sites during other classes when it is actually not needed, but this class was different. The class started out the normal way, we did attendance and then we went on to the lesson and after a while we had a break. During the break the usual thing I do is buy food, so I did and when I came back to the classroom, I expected to be sitting down and listening to the lecture. This time was different though, our professor told us to bring out our phones or computers and tweet whatever we leaned in class in the span of 15 minutes. I was actually excited to do this even if I am not the best tweet-er/writer. As we were tweeting I started posting about the three things I thought that was the most important thing that I have learned. The first one was about how content is really important, especially since literally almost everything is posted online now; videos, blogs, vlogs, pictures, etc.

The second thing I learned was how creators nowadays don’t get as much credit as before. Comparing now to before where people were praised for creating such beautiful artworks, sculptures, etc. to now where people want everything for free; it really is a difficult time to be a creator.

Lastly, I learned that millenials are always on the internet (which is kind of a given) and they post literally everywhere, not just on one site but multiple social media sites.

So basically these are all of the things I learned in class during that day, and these were also the things that I tweeted.

How I Get News

David Samson — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 07:54:39 GMT

News, it is something people listen to, read, watch, follow, etc. Also, there has been a lot of changes in how people view it, from radio to newspapers to now our own phones. Basically, news has been more accessible to more and more people from the older people to the youth. I, in the other hand am not the best at getting news or even reading in general. I am really not the best person to ask for what is happening now in our country and even in the world, but as I said earlier news is becoming more accessible to more and more people including me. Over the years, it has become easier for me to see news and read shorter versions of it posted online.

This is a chart wherein people used social media apps instead of going to the actual news site

Social media, that is I think my go to for everything social related, since here I can talk to my friends, watch funny videos and more importantly see the current happenings in our country or even the world. Nowadays though, it is getting harder and harder to trust posts since there are a lot of fake news and a lot of scams happening in the online space, but I really think it is also our jobs as students enrolled in a university or even just students in general, to look for credible and believable sources so that we can know what is right and what is wrong. I really do believe this so that we can also do our part in sharing the real news and we also can inform people to watch our for the many times people post fake news online.

So there, I really think myself and most youth use social media as a platform not just to express ourselves but also we can use it to get in the know and be updated of the current happenings in our country. I am actually also really thankful that there is news almost everywhere now (pertaining to social media apps), since it is very important for every single person to know the current issues and basically the current happenings in our country.

Hello

David Samson — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 08:09:34 GMT

First of all I would like to explain how I ended up here. I started out university in the course I did not really have passion for and it really took a toll on me. I actually never really knew what I wanted to do with my life after college and I was really worried about this since everybody I knew in high school, well most of them, knew what they wanted to do and pursue for the rest of their lives. And there was me, the very on the spot, spontaneous person who just went with the flow with things. Going back to university life, it basically started out pretty bad. I was starting to fail subjects which were mostly math since it was very important for my major then to be at least good at it. Basically, I was just so unmotivated to study, go to school and do school related things just because I was in a major that i did not like.

*Me looking for a will to study*

Days, weeks, months passed and I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, looking for something that I was passionate about. On my free time, I would either be training with my hockey team or I would just watch videos on YouTube. These two things became my escape, well I guess they have been there for me for the longest time but in this stage of my life they became really really important for me. These things allowed me to think freely and not just be boxed in a few ideas of math and science.

After a while of doing school plus hockey plus watching a lot of YouTube videos, I felt like I needed to do more with those. Lo and behold Philippine Team Hockey Try-Outs were announced and that was a dream for me, to just represent the country doing what I love. And so, I did it. I tried out and by God’s grace I made it to the team and I was just so happy to be part of such a great team and not just that but we were representing our country.

Me and my team in Japan for the Asian Winter Games

For the YouTube part, I loved watching vlogs and videos similar to that so it was really on my mind to start vlogging or at least making videos. A short background of me is that at a very young age my dad would lend me his video camera, and all I would do was record everything that I wanted to record. Going back to the present, another thing or aspect of my life that pushed me to vlog was my friends. Some of them vlogged already and I just told myself that I had to start since there was really nothing to lose. I kept making excuses at the start but I realized that if I kept doing that I would just keep delaying myself from doing what I really wanted to do. So I did it, I vlogged one day, edited the video and before I posted it I was nervous but I eventually posted it and the rest is history.

This is my YouTube account a year after posting my first vlog

Now the question is why did I share those things not related to the first paragraph at all? Well it is because those things I love doing were my passion and without doing something about it I would not have reached where I am now. Hockey and YouTube became a part of my life a long time ago but taking a leap of faith and stepping out of my comfort zones in both of them just made me do so much more. I also realized because of Hockey and YouTube that I wanted to get myself in doing something media based or like a major focused on creating things and that is the path I chose. I am currently a Communications major in De La Salle University and even though it is getting tougher each semester, I know that it will all be worth it in the end.

My name is David Samson, I am 19 years old and I love creating.