Twitter and Social Media

Well. What can I say? The “week of Twitter” assignment was definitely not the most comfortable thing I’ve been asked to do for school, but it was very refreshing to see social media from another point of view than Facebook, which I can admit I have a slight addiction to since entering college. Twitter was definitely a whole new approach to social media. The concept of the “tweet” was a very hard notion for me to overcome—I didn’t like being restricted to 140 characters when I had a lot to say.

I believe this assignment was to give us an all-around better awareness of the world around us and the technology that we are endowed with. There are many different types of social media, and each one has its own special use in the world. It’s nice to have Twitter in that you can just get little clips of what’s going on in celebrities and business’s views, and breaking news right as it happens.

Another good point to this assignment was to teach, and stress, the importance of professionalism. It’s not wise to parade on your social networking profile about your partying habits, have inappropriate statuses or information, or have unruly photographs for the whole word to see. Future employers can easily access that unsightly information about you, and it can be a deciding factor in whether or not you get a job. Also, a sense of common courtesy should be displayed. There’s a time and place to let people know you have an absolutely depressing life, and your Facebook status is not it. Be sure to keep your relationship status appropriate and keep your profile page neat, clean, and professional.

I would say that this assignment was certainly interesting, and it definitely gave me a new perspective on how I present myself on the Internet. I can’t promise I’ll ever use Twitter again, but you’ll for sure see me on Facebook! :)

Thoughts on Diversity

You’ve all heard the line “never judge a book by its cover.” For me, I hear that phrase and automatically think of diversity in the United States. Especially on college and university campuses, diversity is a universal issue when numerous different types of people end up attending classes in an area of only about 5 miles. It’s hard not to have misconceptions and prejudices when you meet someone different than you. I’ll admit I haven’t always got to know people before judgments are made in my mind—but I’m glad to say I’ve always had the awareness and the tolerance needed to attend any American college!

"Best" Situation

It’s very hard for me to think of, let alone depict, the moment in my life when I was at my “best.” However, several moments come to mind. Leadership is always that has come naturally to me. Going through my high school years, I was involved in numerous leadership activities, including officer positions in FFA, student government, and National Honor Society. I was also the FFA and senior class president. Being in charge of around 40 people can be a little intimidating, but one event in particular definitely tested my leadership skills and my patience!

Every year, our FFA chapter puts on an end-of-the-year banquet. The purpose of this is to welcome members and their family, hand out awards and scholarships, and introduce the community to our chapter and agriculture. As president, I was automatic chairperson of the committee of the spring 2010 banquet. The agenda for what needed to be done was large: food, programs, invitations, script, awards, and keynote speaker and entertainment.

Everything was done with the help of the rest of the officer team. While I believe this day showed the best of me, it also showed a not-so-good side of me. Stress was definitely in the air that day, and everyone felt it! Being a senior, the thought on my mind was the scholarships that were to be handed out that night. The amounts were unknown, but it was common knowledge that I was to receive the top scholarship. There was, however, a lot of dispute over what amount I deserved among the underclassmen. Needless to say, my stress caused me to say a few “choice words” to the specific underclassmen who were determined to undercut the scholarship amounts—none too gently.

As the time for the event to start finally approached, I had just about the biggest migraine anyone could have. I was two weeks from graduation, and the whole chapter was feeling very heated towards one another. As I stepped to the podium to welcome the crowd, I decided that I would just forget about everything for two hours and put a smile on my face. In doing this, I bit my tongue and put on a professional front that was all the crowd could see. No matter what happened, I was going to be as positive as I could be. When the chapter leadership pins were given out, I was announced as one of the recipients by my FFA advisor. He said that I completely deserved it for all of my dedication and hard work towards the chapter and that night’s banquet. All of the effort I put into my four years of my high school career had actually paid off. This is why I consider May 8, 2010, the day when I showed the best (and worst) of me!

Class of 2014 Mindset List

Hey guys! My name is Brady Eischeid, and I am a 2010 Hixson Scholar from Guthrie County! I am currently in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, majoring in agricultural education (teacher certification option).  I am also a member of section 1 of the Hixson Seminar class!

When first reading the introduction for the Beloit College Mindset List for the collegiate class of 2014, several ideas pop out at me. “With cell phones to tell them the time, there is no need for a wristwatch” and “Russia has presumably never aimed nukes at the United States and China has always posed an economic threat” are the two that I definitely can determine “truth or myth.” The first statement is almost certainly a truth. Few young adults these days are ever caught with a watch; most will just use their cell phone or music player to determine the time. The other statement is for me a myth. This is mainly due to the fact that my mother can sometimes be a know-it-all history buff. As a result, I learned more than my fair share of American history in the mid-1900’s.

Once into the 75 fact list, I can just skim through the first several statements and just sort them into two categories: MAYBE and NO WAY. The very first one, “few…know how to write in cursive” is a MAYBE: even if we don’t like it, we all had to do it in third grade up until junior high. As for the second, that gets a big fat NO WAY: any Iowa State University student has received and sent “snail mail” alongside email. In addition, I happen to be 13 percent Czechoslovakian, so the statement “Czechoslovakia has never existed” is personally a clear-cut NO WAY.

I also noticed that a good chunk of the statements listed in the Mindset List are related to technology and young adults’ attitudes towards technology. Examples like “viewer discretion” for television warnings, computers’ CD-ROM disk drives, car manufacturers, and the computer HAL show the trend of innovative machinery and how our generation is much more dependent on it than that of our parents and grandparents. The next biggest categories of statements and topics appear to be people, historical events, music, products, and economy.

The Beloit College Mindset List is, overall, a very good insight to what a large portion of students my age are thinking about the history, technology, economy, and culture of the world. It definitely puts into perspective about how much perception can change from generation to generation. This has been my first blog as a Hixson Scholar, and I hoped you enjoyed it! Thanks!