The social media struggle

I just started my last semester of graduate school. (yay..kind of)

My first class of the semester is a graduate-level social media research class. I like research, and I’m fascinated by how social media affects people. (Notice I didn’t say I ‘like’ social media…See previous post). But now I am torn.

I had previously been operating two personal twitter accounts. Being a mass comm major, a lot of professors thought they would “challenge” the class by having us tweet throughout the semester. Knowing that the account would be monitored by people controlling my grade made me extremely uncomfortable so I created a “professional” twitter account. On this account I would tweet PR and classroom related things…then, subsequently, would go on my “personal” twitter account and complain about how stupid the assignment is.

Now being in grad school, I care much less about the perception of my tweets from my peers but the thought of a professor reading all of my stupid twenty-something, related tweets still makes me uncomfortable. Even though my personal twitter shows my true personality…do I want professionals to see that? In a way I do, because this is who I am. Another part of me is like “Sarah grow up. If you don’t want professionals seeing those tweets than maybe you shouldn’t tweet them?” but then again I think..well..it is MY account and I’m free to say whatever i want, right!?

This is my social media struggle. HELP!

UPDATE: This article “5 Questions to Ask Before Posting to Social Media” is great! 

“…but then you print some sh*t that makes me wanna scream”

I recently distanced myself from social media. Mostly Twitter. I’ve come to hate most social media sites in the past year or so, with the exception of a few niche sites like Pinterest and LinkedIn.

I decided to get off of Twitter because I realized that I really don’t care about what any of my followers have to say. That mostly speaks to the quality of the people that I follow. Everyone on social media has an opinion, which duh, that’s what social media is for. Giving people the opportunity to express themselves and yes, everyone is entitled to say and think whatever they want.

Lately, every time I log on to Twitter it’s all the same stuff. Complaining when you’re bored, complaining when you’re busy, men slut shaming, women slut shaming, everyone calling everyone out for the way they live their lives all while boasting these meaningless quotes and prophecies about what you need to do to be successful or how to be a better person. No one really lets anyone live their life without having some conflicting opinion about what’s cool and what’s not.

I live by the philosophy that if someone is doing something that makes them happy, and they’re not hurting themselves or anyone else, then just let them do the damn thing. Who cares? People care so much about how other people live their lives and spend so much time telling others how to live via social media. Twitter and Facebook especially have made people think that just because they have an opinion on a subject then that makes them an expert, and they can pass off their knowledge as some kind of supreme law.

I know that me telling people to shut up on Twitter is hypocritical and doing exactly what I said I hate, which is telling people what to do, so that’s why I just logged off. The only downside is that now I feel so out of the loop. I mean I didn’t even know about Beyonce’s new album until like 12 hours later (a long time in the world of social media).

I think in the near future I will be doing a cleanse of my followers and only keeping the ones who’s posts I enjoy reading. For now it’s actually been nice not knowing what people are saying or doing. It’s also been nice not being glued to my phone which is a habit that I hated myself for acquiring.

Sorry this is a bit of a rant but I just had to get it off  my chest.

“The List”: Part 1

I have about 2 and half years of experience being in my twenties and there some things that I have noticed certain trends about being this age. I must say that I really hate reading lists about “Things every twenty-something should know” or “what ever twenty-something should be doing” because all they do is stress you out and make you think you’re living your life wrong. Which we already all think we are anyways.

But this is part 1 of my “list” of things that I have noticed during this short time of being in my twenties.

It really is all about “who you know” not “what you know”

It is unfair but it is what it is. I am all for networking except for when it leads to companies hiring under-qualified twenty-somethings, and then later complaining about how incompetent millennials are. I won’t complain too much because I got my current job solely through networking and being at the right place at the right time, but the emphasis on networking often gives young professionals false hope that they can get an amazing job from who they know, but come time to deliver quality skills, they are coming up short.

“Social Media is not a career”

Duh. I can’t even count the number of times I was told this while networking. Social media is a day to day activity and it is like breathing for a lot of people. There is no need for fourty-somethings telling me that I’m not going to make a living doing social media. Young people have been marketing themselves on social media since before professionals even realized it could be used as a valid marketing tool.

Generation Y invented social media and Generation X took it upon themselves to write articles about it and teach courses on it and call themselves “social media experts”. There is something wrong with a job posting requiring 7+ years of professional social media experience when Twitter itself was only created about 6 years ago.

Don’t expect to be taken seriously 

I worked in my last office for almost 5 years, and was always the youngest person working there. The department was failing and no one was open to suggestions. The point is, it doesn’t matter how many degrees you have, if you’re under a certain age, you still won’t be taken seriously as a professional. They won’t hire you, but they sure will ask you to teach tenured, 60-something PhDs how to right-click a mouse and compose an email.

Just be grateful, no matter what

This first year out of college has been an interesting time. I’m technically not even out of college since I made the ridiculous decision to go to grad school, but grad school is so different, it doesn’t even count. The point is, that everyone’s journey is different. I was lucky enough to find a full time job and find myself envious of my unemployed friends who get to do crafts and watch Netflix all day. Meanwhile, they’re willing to do anything to secure that 9-5 position. This time is so trivial when you look at the big picture that as long you’re doing something that makes you happy you should just be grateful to be where you are.