What’s your IG?

Follow me on “the gram!” That’s usually what I hear people say after meeting for the first time. It’s almost gotten to the point that exchanging numbers isn’t even necessary. This usually applies to my social life but even in my professional life, social media still matters. Journalists love Instagram for it’s immediacy and vast amount of users. Instagram is the place you can hashtag your life away and instead of drowning the post, you can add it in a comment so it doesn’t take away from the message of the post. It draws people searching the hashtags to your post, just make sure to use popular hashtags that people will actually search.

Are you a Tweeter?

Remember back when Twitter became a “thing?” Well it wasn’t just a thing really, it was the the thing. Everyone was talking about it. It was the “new” Facebook for my circle of friends and it didn’t take long for me to realize that there was a wave of users following the same trend. The fact that there was a character limit added to the fast-paced aspect of Twitter that was so refreshingly new. People just tweeted. And tweeted. And tweeted. A lot. But it was normal. That’s what you were supposed to do. It was almost like every user had purchased their own personal soapbox and people would respond so freely.

And we’re LIVE!

In our digital world of new age inventions and technology, social media has made a mark that says its here to stay. A particularly newer component of social media is a user’s ability to live-stream. There are many popular live-streaming sites, but Periscope is undoubtedly the most popular right now. Personally, I’m not really a live-streamer. Or maybe just not yet. However, the first time I used the Periscope app on a friend’s phone, I could definitely see why it has become so popular. The people that follow your account are notified when you begin a broadcast and can tune in and send you comments or “hearts” to reflect their opinion of your podcast. We played around with it and just started talking about anything we could think of. It was pretty cool, to say the least, but I guess after awhile it seemed kind of purposeless if you didn’t have something valuable to broadcast.

Why so SNAPPY?!

Many people have asked me, “What’s so great about Snapchat?” I usually answer, “Because it’s different than any other social media platform right now.” At this point, even with Instagram coming out with InstaStories, a concept very similar to Snapchat, it’s just not the same. Snapchat was the first social platform of its kind. The ability to have content disappear was new and exciting, and had never been done before its deb
ut to the world in 2011 by Stanford University students, Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel. The duo knew they had created a masterpiece and dropped out of college after receiving their first check. They also made a smart move by declining Mark Zuckerberg‘s offer of $3 billion in 2013 since Snapchat is now worth about $25 billion. 

No such thing as information overload?

How clean is your room right now? To be honest, mine is a mess! I can admit that I would prefer a cleaner room, but my on-the-go lifestyle usually leaves me shuffling through my drawers for a quick outfit and grabbing something quick to eat in the car on the way to my daily duties. When I come home after a long day, I usually enter my room feeling the urge to clean up and reorganize my things now that I have more time to do so. It usually only takes a little while to get my room back in order because of the shelving and storage I bought to keep my belongings organized. Finding ways to efficiently organize, plays a major role in your personal productivity.

Are you human?

Usually when people say “the more the merrier”, it’s in a figurative way. Imagine trying to clean your room with 50 people trying to help. Trying to explain what to do and what goes where to everyone can become more of a headache than a help, if you ask me. Many hands make light work, but too many hands can just be too many. So is it true? Can you really have too much of a good thing? When it comes to the number of people in a journalist’s audience, I doubt it. The more people a journalist can reach, the more popular they (and their news organization) becomes. When you have a job that thrives off of public attention, trust, you want the crowd!

A Ray of Hope for Journalism Students

“Its almost redundant to say ‘Digital Journalism’ … everything in journalism has a digital aspect now.” This tidbit from Meredith Artley, editor in chief of CNN Digital, gave me a great perspective on how technology has completely changed the field. It’s encouraging to hear her outlook in her interview with Global Journalist, because the more digital media
skyrockets globally, there is much more need for a degree in this field.

Now THAT’S a good story!

Ever listened to someone tell a story so well you could literally visualize every scene? Those are the best kind of stories. These stories are full of details and imagery that captivate you and place you inside the storyteller’s mind as if it were your story to tell. The ability to tell stories through video has made our history what it is today. Being able to see exactly how something happened adds so much volume to a story. This reason alone breeds my interest for learning the mastery behind creating videos.

We are WEB WORKERS Now!

There’s no denying that the Internet is being used now more than ever. Will we ever stop using it? I doubt it. Just think about what your life would be like without it. I can imagine myself in complete disarray not being able to connect to Wi-Fi or use Safari from my iPhone for a quick search. How else would I know what time Zaxby’s closed on Sundays or when the Beyoncé tickets were scheduled to drop? The Internet is so important now, many jobs (including mine) wouldn’t be jobs without it. What if you met someone that had never used the Internet before? How would you explain how it works? As simple as it sounds to “do a quick search”, the nature of how the Internet really works can be overwhelmingly complex.

A blog post about blogging…

Blogs are probably one of my favorite ways to read content because of the conversationalist aspect that are used in them. Especially when it involves reading content that I don’t necessarily have an interest in, the blogger can usually capture my attention just by how the blog is written. It’s actually kind of weird that I’m writing a blog post about blogging but whatever! Another great thing about blogs is that usually, they make difficult things much easier to understand. It kind of feels like messaging to someone via chat, except they’re the only one responding. Good example? Eh, probably not, but you catch the drift! The ability to address an audience informally could seem “unprofessional” to those who prefer traditionally styled writing, but the truth is, most people like things SIMPLE! I know for a fact that I do. Break it down in words that make sense to the majority, and I can almost bet your readers will increase.