When I Grow Up...

 The age old question that everyone asks- the annual question at every family function: "So Alex, what do you want to be when you grow up?" If I had a dollar for every time I got asked this, I would be able to pay my tuition or drop out of school completely to live a life of lavish with no work. Though, to answer that question, I don't know.

I have quarter-life crises about this far too often. We spend all of our childhood and young adult life preparing ourselves for a career. We work hard to get perfect grades, learn social skills, and watch what we post to social media just so we can be reputable adults in the work force. All my life, it feels like I have been working towards an uncertain goal; I spend so much time studying and working towards good grades and a degree, but will I actually use my degree? What if my career path has nothing to do with communication or art? What if I decide to live off-the grid and forage through forests for the rest of my life? 

Even though all of these thoughts constantly loom in my mind, I am getting better at putting myself at ease. I know that whatever I decide to do, even if it is foraging through forests, I will be successful because I learned how to work hard and I have a good online reputation. Since my generation has grown up with social media, there is no doubt that it will continue to evolve and play even more of a part in our lives once we reach adulthood. There are already so many jobs that revolve around social media, and there are even social networking sites that help you find a job. Just like me, social media is still growing, and I think it will eventually have an impact in all lines of work, even if they aren't directly dedicated to social media.

Me running away from my responsibilities.

Top 10 Ways to brand YOU!

 Why would you want personal branding tips from an over-worked college student? Well, for starters, I just learned these strategies in class so they are fresh in my mind, plus, I am pretty good at staying on brand. (See what I did in the first sentence?) Personal branding is key to having a respectable online presence, especially if you want to become a public figure. Here are 10 things that I think are key to successfully branding yourself:

10. associate yourself with others who will benefit your image

    The old saying "you are who your friends are" is so true when it comes to who you surround yourself with. for example, if you follow a bunch of right-wing are conservative pages, chances are you are right-wing and conservative. Who you surround yourself with also impacts the type of people who will visit your online presence. 

9. interact with your followers

    The beautiful thing about the internet being asynchronous is that engagement with others can be on your own time! This allows you to come up with well articulated responses to people who reach out to you. In addition to this, interacting with others shows you to be real and an active member of social media.

8. post things you would want your mother to see

    This is a great rule of thumb for avoiding cancellation. If you are thinking about posting something a bit risky stop and think; "how would my mother feel if she saw this?" If the answer is far from positive, then you should probably steer clear from that post because your boss or the general public might not like it either.

7. post frequently

This shows that you keep up with the times and are an active member of society. It also shows that you don't abandon things you start.

6. post things that are true to you

    Being authentic to yourself shows that you are confident in yourself. This gives off a sense of trust and accountability. Anyway, it's easier to be yourself rather than trying to stay true to a false persona.

5. be respectful to others in your online community

    I think this should be obvious, but unfortunately, some people think that being rude to others online is justifiable. Treat others the way you want to be treated, and a great personal and professional brand will come to you in return.

4. come up with a theme for you brand

    What do you want to be known for? Choose something you are passionate enough about that you wouldn't mind it being attached to your name. If you are passionate about running, center yourself around that and interact within that community. If you are content with being known as a crazy runner, then have at it.

3. stay out of internet drama

    The thing about internet drama is that no one listens to the facts and things move extremely fast. That being said, thoughts and opinions can change so the "cancellers" can quickly turn into the "cancelled". In my humble opinion, it is always best to stay out of internet drama because the future is never clear and plot twists can occur at any moment.

2. Confidence is key

   People love a confident person, especially when it comes to the professional setting. Just don't get cocky. There is a difference between confident and cocky, so don't forget to stay humble and take criticism with a grain of salt.

1. consistency is everything!

    consistency shows that you have yourself together and really know your brand. Consistency is important in everything such as interactions, content, and more. Consistency is key to unlocking the professional side of social media and maintaining your brand.

The internet is your oyster, so go out there and make the most of it by connecting with others and growing from it. Don't forget that consistency is important in all of the rankings above and that being yourself will get you far!

Be like this dog I saw on the beach: confident, classy, and professional.

 

A Guide to Stress Management for the Stressed Out

 Yes, life gets stressful at times. Especially in college. Between late night study-sessions, essays to be done, sports to be played, and life to be lived, it often times feels like we are in way over our heads. School is a stressful time on top of life in general and beginning to adult doesn't make it that much better. As someone who is constantly busy, it can feel like life is a demanding coach and we are the overworked athlete. Though, with lots of trial and error, I have found ways of coping with this crazy, and often times dubious thing we call life. By no means to I have my life perfectly figured out, but I do know my way around it quite a bit, and I would like to share some of my favorite ways to managing everyday stressors brought on by this beautifully stressful thing we call life.

One of the most old school (and fool-proof) methods to organizing your life is by writing things down. I have a yearly planner; it is my bible. I take it everywhere I go and write my plan for each day along with assignments and daily reminders and activities that I must complete. The most exciting thing for me is when I complete something because I cross it off with a brightly colored highlighter. This just makes me feel so accomplished and confident that I am on top of my goals! Having a planner or calendar is also a great way to plan out the upcoming weeks or months so you don't over commit. You have everyday of the year in front of you so this is a great way to avoid conflict.

Another way I stay organized and on task is by doing both the most important and most difficult parts to my day first. If I have a difficult assignment or have to go to the bank to figure out my non-existent money, then I do that first because they are the most difficult and boring. If I get these kinds of things out of the way, I have more time to do other things, and the thought of doing them no longer weighs me down. I have never been the type of person to fall victim of procrastination, but I do know the looming thought of having to. do some of these things destroys me mentally. That is why I tend to make these tasks a priority so they don't negatively impact my thoughts and in turn, my day.

Lastly, my favorite way to cope with stress is by rewarding myself after a long day or hard task that I was initially dreading. In psychology, rewarding good behavior is shown to lead you to want to continue doing such behavior because of the reward that follows. Good rewards lead to dopamine, and dopamine leads to happiness. The feeling of sitting back with ice cream and Netflix after a long day is a feeling like no other. After completing every hard task of the day is a really good feeling and I know for me, it makes me feel at ease knowing I am doing something right.

Me, busy at work writing this blogpost. 

Midterm Week Meditation

 Like a wise man, Bon Jovi once said, “we are halfway there.” It is almost the end of my sophomore year. I honestly cannot believe that it is already time for midterms for the second semester of my second year in college. I have learned a lot in such a short amount of time, especially when it comes to social media and myself.

The most interesting concept in COMM 373 is definitely the newest topic of cancel culture. The idea of cancel culture is extremely prevalent today and has been, I’d say since the 2016 election. We always act so fast when trying to cancel someone, but I’ve noticed that no one really pays attention to the facts or try to understand the other side. This generation is full of wanna-be heroes and posers that do things just to stand out on social media. Since cancel culture and internet shaming are fairly new concepts, I find it interesting to see its evolution unfolding in front of me as I am actively learning about it in class. Now, I am more aware of it and my own actions on social media platforms. Though cancel culture often gets a bad reputation, it can be beneficial if done in a tasteful way to people who actually deserve it. I know this is easier said than done as there are so many different perspectives and opinions that people hold on certain things. Hopefully as time moves forward, we as a society can come up with a better way of serving justice to those who deserve it.

As for things that were not so enjoyable in class, I can honestly say that we did spend a bit too much time exploring activism on social media. Though it was an interesting concept with a fascinatingly abundant amount of theories and concepts, we spent a lot of the time learning about the same things. I thought it was a bit funny that a majority of the guest professors all decided to speak about this topic. It was not boring, but there was a lot of time spent on it.

Finally, we get to the deep stuff; connecting what I learned in class to my real life. Everything is applicable to real life as our life is becoming increasingly controlled by social media and technology as a whole. Movements and opinions are shaped by what we see online so it is important to be aware of where we get our news. Learning about impression management is one of the most useful things that we could learn in social media, especially since we are approaching adulthood and a professional life. I hope to not get cancelled, so these lessons will help with preventing that.

IMPRESSIONS

IMPRESSIONS On social media and in waking life, we are put into various environments, each of which require a certain behavior. For example, if we are with close friends and family at home, we can laugh out loud and say what comes to mind without second thought. if we are at a sporting event, we want to act strong and confident to throw our opponents off-kilter. If we are in class with students we do not know, we might act more reserved as we scope out the scene. 

The same is true for internet spaces; if we are friends with older family member on facebook, we may not want to post about wild nights out or re-share that one funny meme with extreme profanity on such a public forum. That is something we should save for our camera roll alone, or maybe a “finsta”.

The point is, depending on who is watching us and where we are, our attitudes and actions change. This is essentially the idea of impression management. This is something we all do wether we realize it or not. For the vast majority of us out there, we are always seeking approval and community. This leads to us putting on a show to get those around us to accept us. But is it really us?

Some of the pitfalls and dark sides to impression management is feeling like you cannot be yourself. Sometimes we feel as though our authentic selves are not worthy to be loved by others so we hide who we are in order to be accepted by those around us. Motivations for such actions come from all over. We may want to fit in with the “cool” crowd, get hired at a new job, or avoid conflict. Whatever the motivation, pretending to be someone that you aren’t or limiting your personality on a day-to-day basis is exhausting. 

Impression management on social media is also incredibly taxing. On forums such as LinkedIn, professional and well-composed is key. People join this network to get in touch with other professionals, so in this environment, good impression management is crucial. However, on more casual social sites the line between fake and controlled is a bit blurred. On apps such as Instagram, people often go to great lengths to get the perfect picture to post. Instagram, for example, is just a highlight reel and not reality. People work so hard to fit a persona that is unachievable and nowhere near reality. So, in this case, impression management can take a negative turn.

Overall, being a human with a soul is hard. There are way too many people to impress and so little time. Impression management is necessary, but like all things must be done in moderation. Being cool or well-liked is not worth it if you stray far from yourself and don’t see YOU when you look in the mirror. However, use it to your advantage; get that job and make that money.

My technology-free happy place

Alex vs. Phone 

I know that I sound like an old person when I say this, but I have to stop living on my phone. I find myself going on it not because I want to, but as a coping mechanism for avoiding awkward situations and unwanted social interaction. 

Now, this could be a product of our generation and the fact that we grew up in front of a screen, but my case may be a bit different. All my life, even before I got my first iPod touch at the age of 11 I was painfully shy. I would never talk to people or be able to look anyone in the eyes as I would stutter to get a simple sentence out of my mouth. Therefore, I had no friends and lived a majority of my childhood on the outskirts of true friendships and cliques. Having handheld technology definitely did not help with this situation. 

Over this past week, I was tasked with the act of keeping track of my screen time. I didn’t really think that I was on my phone a lot throughout each day, but alas, the results were shocking. My findings aligned with my preconceived notions but at the same time I was surprised. Throughout the past week my screen-time averaged 5 hours and 40 minutes a day. Seeing this was disappointing but hear me out: most of the time spent on my phone is to go on You Tube or Spotify for background noise when I eat or run. Additionally, whenever I drive I have to keep the map on because I have no clue where I am going in Maryland. Since we are in the middle of nowhere, every decent place is a hike that requires at least 20 minutes of driving. That is a factor that increases screen time at extremely high rates. Emails and school work also take up much of my screen time. However, the biggest culprit is bedtime. 

I spend so much time on my phone at night looking at memes and finding the answers to the most pressing questions that my brain comes up with at night. Since I am very busy during the day with school, work study, and track, bedtime is really the only downtime I have to look at my phone. 

In conclusion of this experiment, I want to try to limit my screen time and not use my phone as a crutch for avoiding social interaction. As a communication major it is kind of my job to have good communication skills so this is something that I have to improve upon. I personally hate being on my phone but my social anxiety loves it and so does my brain. Memes are my technological kryptonite. 

 

 Let’s cheers to me making it through week two of the new semester! It honestly feels like nothing new. I have gotten into the swing of things way too quickly; it feels as though my routine of eating, sleeping, attending class, running, and homework never halted over break. Though, amidst the craziness and repetitiveness that is my life, things have been shaken up a bit in my social media course.

Every class for the past few days or so, there has been a new Proffessor coming in to give us a lecture alongside the watchful eyes of my original professor. This is because the school is looking to hire another communication Proffessor.  This is exciting as it switches up the class routine a bit and we get to meet more people in the industry.

I loved making a wide range of new connections and having been able to learn from a wide variety of people in my social media course. One discussIon that really stood out to me was from Ms. Christina Riley this past Tuesday. 

In her lecture she discussed the basics of the benefits and downsides to using social media for activism. I thought that this was important to learn because oftentimes what we see portrayed by the media is only the end result of campaigns. 

We are only exposed to the hashtags, the movements that are taken to the streets, and the celebrities and influencers that are mounted at the forefront of these campaigns. Very rarely are we exposed to why social movements choose social media to head their cause. Through Ms. Riley’s lecture it became evident that groups take to social media to spread news, but also get ordinary people involved and make them feel like heroes. 

When we use a hashtag and repost or re-share something noteworthy it makes us feel “woke” or like a good person. In reality, it was just a post that people are most likely going to scroll right past without a single thought. We didn’t take to talk shows or show up to the office of law-makers. We just shared a hashtag with no context thinking that we did something great. Though it is not active activism, it is still something nonetheless and that minuscule actions like this are what large scale social movements thrive off of on social media. Though that one hashtag does not directly create change, it still has the ability to cause a conversation.