Digital Media World Gets Spooky!

Digital media is involved in our daily lives and, if you are like me, you don’t even realize it. It all just becomes a normal occurrence in your day. Personally, I feel  that digital media gets extremely apparent around the holidays and around the time of special occasions. In honor of this time of year, I wanted to talk about digital media and how it is incorporated with one of my favorite holidays, Halloween! Below I will talk about how digital media can contribute to getting all of us in the Halloween spirit. (These are just suggestions that I've grown accustomed to or thought others would think are pretty neat.)

#1: SOCIAL NETWORKS

Facebook is big in amping up the Halloween spirit! Based on your friends and pages that you “liked,” Facebook can help show you different ways to celebrate. It can inform you of the cool events that will occur, such as haunted houses, concerts, and parties. Also, many  people are just dying to show off their costume to all of their friends. With sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. you can upload pictures straight from your phone and other devices to all these social networks and look forward to seeing what everyone thinks.

#2 COSTUME IDEAS/HUNTING

Going out to Halloween stores is always a fun experience all in its own. But if you are like me, sometimes the stores in town just don’t have what you’re looking for. Perhaps you want to be more original or lessen the chance of having the same costume as someone else when you go out. In this case, the internet comes in handy big time! As mentioned before social networks help during this time of year and it is possible to get your ideas from them. With technology being as advanced as it is and continuing to grow, Halloween shopping can be a whole lot easier. There are plenty of websites with costumes to buy online, some with great deals. Or lets just say that you don’t really wish to spend money on a costume this year. Ideas are all over the internet for easy costumes you can put together from typical clothing and prop items that many people are presumed to have already just lying around.

#3 THINGS TO WATCH

Movies, shows, and other types of videos are a great way to engage in the Halloween spirit. Going to a movie theater to see a scary movie is super fun. It is known that many horror movies come out around this time of year on purpose which attracts huge audiences. The Paranormal Activity movies are an example of ongoing films that have been coming out every year; for the past four years in fact. Cable television also has great horror movie marathons in October like the Halloween movies, Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Friday the 13th movies, and the list goes on and on. Also, the Food Network always has great Halloween specials every year where people like Emeril and Paula Deen demonstrate how to make fun meals and treats that exhibit the Halloween themes. Needless to say October is such an amazing month of movie and television madness, you wont want to get off your couch! Also, you can watch videos on Youtube or other websites that show previews of haunted houses! Those are a must see if you are interested in a little scare. This video below is a preview for Halloween Horror Nights 2012, a huge haunted house experience.

#4 APPS TO DOWNLOAD

If you have an Android phone or iOS devices, then there are so many apps to download to add to your Halloween experience. Here’s just a handful of them that I found great and helpful.

• Costumes for Halloween: Again, if you are having trouble coming up with and finding a Halloween costume then download this app. You can literally just shake your phone and it will suggest a costume for you. As well, it displays plenty of pictures of costumes for you to choose from. (Android)
• HauntFinder: If you love haunted houses, then you will appreciate this app! This informs you of all the spookiest haunted attractions within 200 miles of your location and gives you directions as well! (iOS)
• Trick or Treating: Using this app you can map out you and your children’s trick or treating routes and have it guide you all with GPS navigation. (iOS)
• AT&T Family Map: This is a convenient app which can be used to enable parents to check the location of their children while they are out trick or treating. (Android)

There are also multiple apps for downloading Halloween music soundtracks and sound effects that can be used for parties and homemade haunted houses!

So as you can see, the digital media world encourages holidays, like Halloween, adding extra excitement to everyone’s experience! I consider most of these tradition when it comes to my Halloween experience. What about everyone else? Is anyone else incorporating as much of the digital media world into their holidays?

Happy Halloween DIG2000!

-Shannon Pitt