This week the by far the biggest thing that I struggled with was coming up with a an idea for my Hack #3. At first, it was tough for me to think of ideas to do because there are not many forms of software that I am familiar with and that I use on a daily basis. For me, I really only use Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets and then I also use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Other than those few, I am not very well versed when it comes to forms of software. Because of this, I decided to use the one that I was the most familiar with: Google Docs.

This was only half of the battle though, as I was still unsure of what to do with Google Docs, but then I got to thinking. Whenever I use Google Docs, it is always for school, work, college applications, etc. I only ever use this software for very serious manners. Whenever I sit down and type on Google Docs, I have to form well thought out ideas and really pay attention to what I am typing, I wanted to make Google Docs have more of a different feel. To make this form of software become more fun and relaxing, I decided to turn Google Docs into a new form of social media.

At first this seemed like it would be somewhat of a daunting task as I felt like there were not many feature within Google Docs that would provide much versatility apart from just typing on a blank document, but once I got to playing around more and diving deeper into the feature of this software, I found that this was not true. I discovered that you can change the background color of a document; that way it is not just boring, plain white. The colorful background that I added helped make the software not seem so serious and professional. Next, I found that the comment section was very good for replying to posts that “users” can make on the actual main document. I knew this feature was already an existing thing, but I did not realize that multiple people could add comments to the same text over and over again. The other feature that I thought really helped add to a more fun environment to the software was the emoji reactions. I did not know this was a feature of Google Docs until I started messing around on the platform. This feature was really nice because it made it where “users” can add quick reactions to posts and comments without having to sit down and type out full responses. The comment and emoji features were crucial in the process of creating this prototype social media platform. It made it to where “users” can have the option of either typing out well thought out responses to posts, reply with a short, funny, and relatable message, or simply just quickly reply with an emoji. The features of Google Docs allow for a lot of fun aspects that really never get tapped into because I feel as though users are constantly user the platform for more professional forms of work.