Part 2: How Social Media Has Changed A Typical Day at Marist

As my first semester involved in social media, this spring is by far the busiest semester I've ever had at Marist.

Yes, I'm now a college junior, and my course load is getting pretty heavy as I take more upper-level courses, but I'm constantly overloaded with thoughts and standing on my toes due to my new involvement in social media.

Most college students think they are stressed out ENOUGH.  Why get involved in something else that's going to take any spare moment that I have relax?  The answer for me is pretty simple: not only have I found myself passionate about further exploring the tools each day, but I have found that social media has also enhanced my education, both in and out of class.

Let me explain by telling you what I realized during a busy day of work, classes, and homework.

I arrived at the Marist Card Services Office at 9:00 a.m. to work the morning shift.  After fulfilling my morning duties, I logged on to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to check for updates.  While on Twitter, I found a couple of interesting articles tweeted by those I follow, and felt excited to learn more about the relationship between public relations and social media.  Advice, news, or humor articles that I come across while following @MarkRaganCEO, @todaysocial, @mashable, @CommPRHelp, etc. further enhance my PR and SM knowledge, as well as give me the confidence to say that I truly am headed down the perfect career path for me!

Then, I headed to my public relations class with Dr. Mark Van Dyke, where we spend at least 30 minutes of each class exploring and discussing social media tools such as Wiki, RSS Feeds, Twitter, podcasts etc.  Dr. Van Dyke demonstrates the importance of social media competence in today's public relations field, and prompts us to make connections to how social media is changing our society.  

Next, I was off to Professor Jennie Donohue's public opinion class, where the topic of the day was social media and how it is influencing the way in which we measure public opinion.  She demonstrated this through a class lecture that provided many facts and figures about the growing phenomenon. Professor Donohue also told us about some interesting social media gurus to follow, like @briansolis who wrote, "Putting the Public Back into PR." Halfway through the class, I started to think to myself, Wow! This would be great material for a new blog post!  Since I was able to create a connection between the lecture and my blog, I attentively listened and contributed throughout the remainder of the intriguing class.  In this way, my social media interest enhanced my academic interest.  

In my Tuesday night Ethics class, I was happy to find that my professor decided to take a different approach to our normal routine.  In order to determine some of our own ethical values, he prompted us to write out a couple of different topics.  He asked us to make up our own personal "ten commandments."  Again, I thought to myself immediately, this is a great blog post theme!  The creation of my blog helps me to identify the significance in many school assignments, and validates that I should try to take the opportunity to expand on things I learn in class as often as possible.

I came home that night to a Global Studies Seminar assignment that prompted us to read and write a response on articles that discuss today's information overload, and how our society is able to sort through or condense large abundance of information that circulates through various industries daily.  I came across a couple of interesting quotes about the information age that I liked and again thought, great for the blog!  These quotes ask us to find a balance between the wealth of information and the comprehension of important information: 

"What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it." - Herbert Simon
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” - T.S. Eliot

This interesting article fro NPR really made me think (Check it out!):

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/15/134531653/we-are-just-not-digging-the-whole-anymore


I cannot wait to incorporate more of the material I learn in class, and on online/social media tools, into my blog.  The value of social media has further engaged my value in academics.