The Power of Social Media

 http://www.breakingalltherurals.com/2011/ten-social-media-tips/

The increasing number of celebrities rising from the amount of negative attention they receive continues to raise the question, what legacies will we be leaving behind and what kind of control do we have over it?  While we have become programmed to expect the media to overhype situations both negative and positive, can we make changes to their power through social media?  Can we put an end to the rise of popularity through negative actions or does social media simply increase the issue.

For example, I recently came across the Washington Post article, Pearls Before Breakfast, about violinist, Joshua Bell.  Although the article was written in 2007, it is making a “come back” with links being shared across Facebook.  Placed strategically at the busiest time and in one of the busiest spots at a train station in Washington, DC, Bell played one of the most difficult pieces of classical music.  As the experiment was intended to show, the majority of the people going in and out of the station did not take the time to stop and appreciate this once in a lifetime performance.  Most weren’t even aware of what or who they were passing by, children, who were intrigued by Bell, weren’t encouraged to listen and explore their curiosity, and those who did stop were drawn away by other priorities.  We’ve all been there, in a hurry, running late, and stopping for any distraction will put us even further behind.  We know the difficulty of explaining to your boss, “I’m late because there was this amazing violinist and I just had to stop and listen?” 

The greatest thing about social media is like this article, we are able to share in an experience without actually being there.  We watch the video on YouTube, pass it along to our friends on Facebook, and comment on how unbelievable it is that no one has the time to “stop and smell the roses anymore.”  On the other hand, social media has become a source of news that spreads like wildfire and with the good comes the bad.  Someone read it on so and so’s status then it must be true right? 

As the “owners” of social media, we have the choice of what to share and the news we spread.  While it is in the human nature to be drawn to disaster and drama, we all look for signs of hope as well.  Within the last year we’ve seen the fall of Charlie Sheen, the rise of Tim Tebow, the fall of Whitney Houston, and the rise of Jeremy Lin all through social media.  While we may not be able to stop the negative stories from being shared on social media, we can be hopeful that they are the shortest lived.  The Charlie Sheen and Whitney Houston stories will fade but we will continue to hear Joshua Bell’s story from that one day in the Washington, DC subway for a time to come.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw

Getting the Most Out of an Internship

hotspotatl.com

For the past month I have been interning with the Akron Aeros, learning the ins and outs to getting a minor league baseball team prepared for the upcoming season.  Many may not see the value in an internship especially with the stereotypical idea of interns being there simply to fetch coffee.  At first I admit that I viewed it as a necessary evil to entering a career in the sports or entertainment field.  From week one though, I have found that it is much more than that. 

There are two key ingredients to what I would call a successful, meaningful internship.  It starts with an organization whose management and employees are willing to not just teach but give responsibility.  It is just as important for an employer to find value in an internship as it is for the student.  The Congressional Management Foundation, focused on improving congressional operations and citizen engagement wrote an article, Keys to a Successful Internship Program.  This article provides universal tips that any organization, regardless of their industry, could use to develop their own program.  Their advice for managing a successful program is:

1.     Develop a clear purpose

2.     Create a formal orientation and training program

3.     Provide clear guidance and structure

4.     Balance interns’ administrative duties with more substantive work

Specifics for how to accomplish each of these key elements can be found in the complete article. 

Second, just as it is important for an organization to be willing to teach, it is important for an intern to be enthusiastic about learning.  The most important advice I received when starting my internship was that it was up to me how much I get out of it.  An internship is not just about what you learned from books or in class, but making connections and sucking as much knowledge as possible from the professionals you are working with.  Regardless of if the internship is paid or unpaid, it is an opportunity to gain professional skills while determining what aspects of an industry or job a student wants to pursue. 

So as my journey as a graduate student is coming to an end, I am finding out that growth does not stop here.  The experience and knowledge I am gaining from my internship is the result of not only an organization willing to teach but also the opportunity for continuous learning.

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