2 Digits and a Decimal

Kanye West, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Evan Williams the list goes on and on. What do they all have in common? They dropped out of school at one point or another. I understand that the era that most of these stars were making their names is a different era than that of today but the messages and principles you can take from their stories remains the same.

A college campus during dead week or finals week is not the place to boost your morale. In between mental breakdowns, procrastination, studying, power naps, and exams college students are not in the best state. 

Spoiler: I have never, nor will I ever stress about school.

I was recently with a friend who brought up a valid point while doing a last minute homework assignment, she spoke of a tweet she saw (social media strikes again) "why do we pay thousands of dollars to pay someone to teach us things that ultimately we are just going to go back to our dorm room and google to make more sense of!"

Growing up the son of a teacher/administrator I have always had the inside scoop on the education system at least I thought I did throughout elementary school. Fun fact, it's broken. All the way to the top. 

We grow up in a society in which my dad, a Pre-K through 5th grade administrator, has to talk to 3rd grade parents that want to know how their child will be prepared for college!

Why do six letters determine how successful a young powerful mind is going to be. Countless studies show that an overbearing amount of stress can negatively affect grades more than the rigors of an actual curriculum. I can confirm after 10 interviews in my life, NOT A SINGLE ONE HAS ASKED FOR MY GPA AT ANY LEVEL! 

Why do middle school and at certain high schools' kids come home with more busy work than the amount of work that they have done at school the same day? Students need to be challenged they need to learn. Yes, but about what? In all honesty through high school my best learning experiences were opportunities I made myself. Meeting with students from a school from across the country, Setting up and end of the year internship with a small business. 

Why do college students feel that their GPA is going to make or break their success in their lives ahead?  How is a test or exam on a topic that they likely will not use in their real-world job our benchmark as to how successful someone can be? 

The world is changing, but is our education system changing with it? To quote in my eyes a very revolutionary thinker in the world of education, "the world that students are going to go into by the time they graduate is going to be very different than the world today, so why wouldn't we teach them skills that can transcend time." 

Reading About the World of Social Media

Reading textbooks has never been my favorite thing to do. Four months ago if you had told me my social media principles class was going to have a textbook I would have called you crazy, LET ALONE TWO! Now these aren't your standard hard-cover textbooks but that is not the point.

Reading both Guy Kawasaki's The Art of Social Media and Karen Freberg's Social Media for Strategic Communication I learned way more to social media then I think I bargained for. The world of social media is ever changing as Kawasaki and Freberg continuously remind their readers.

Throughout the semester I have actually enjoyed readings about the growth of social media and how to creatively and effectively use it. Much of the millennial population and generation X,Y, and Z all use social media and some even think they are proficient at it. However many only see it as a constant stream of cat videos and keeping people up to date with their lives. Both of these books dive deeper into how to use social media and its benefits in the professional world.

This will be my final assigned post to this blog. This class has given me quite a bit, and that includes over 40 blog posts that at some points I have no idea where I came up with these topics. I enjoyed some of the writing, there were also times when I wanted to take a week off and that would have cost me points so that couldn't very well happen.

Social media principles gave me a look into social media like I had never thought of before. As the professional world continues to adapt to social media and social media continues to change. I am glad I took this class and I am continuing to learn about what social media can bring to the professional world.