“…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.

Networking: You mean…I actually have to talk to people?

Networking. Every college student has heard this term (ok, I’m generalizing). You meet someone you find interesting. Something about their job, the company they work for, or the field in general has sparked your interest. Networking, in theory, is so easy. You just walk up to someone, introduce yourself, have a conversation, be exceptionally charming, and then they give you a job. Right? It COULD happen. But instead of a job, they hand you a business card. As an up-and-coming professional, the rest is on you. If you’re like me, the realization of having to talk to actual people to find a job may have you reconsidering your path in life. You contemplate faking illness, or even possibly changing your major completely to something that consists of no human interaction at all. Okay I am being dramatic. But once you pluck up the nerve to make the initial connection, you may wonder what to do next. You have their contact information. First you send out that email.

“Hi,

We met at this event. I’m in the process of looking for a job, and you have a job that I want. I’m going to ask you a lot of questions about that job so you know how interested I am in it. I’ll probably ask  you about yourself. What you like or don’t like about what you do, or what your job is like day-to-day. But by now you’ve figured out that what I really want to know is how you got your job and what I can do to get a job like yours. Because face it, I’m in college and am just looking for that one foot in the door. We should get coffee and talk some more about your job and your life in general because I’m genuinely interested in getting to know you (not only because you can help me) because you seem like a very interesting person.

Please respond so I don’t feel so needy and annoying.“

Ok, I really hope no one’s ever sent an email EXACTLY like that, but you get the idea.

I used to think professionals thought I was really annoying until I realized that they really are happy and willing to help young professionals get their start. It’s all about putting yourself out there and stepping out of your comfort zone. Especially in PR, if you’re not willing to step out of your comfort zone and ask for favors, it’s likely that you’ll remain stagnant in your career pursuits.

However, for the socially challenged, LinkedIn is another great networking tool. Before meeting a professional ahead of time, you will likely be able to find them on LinkedIn. (If we’ve had a conversation, I probably looked you up on LinkedIn on the way home) You can add professionals or simply browse their profiles. Learn some stuff about them that you can bring up in conversation or use to generate interesting questions to ask. They will be impressed that you took the time to do your research.

Just keep in mind that as annoying or bothersome you think you are being to a professional, that they have all been in your position once before. It took me a while to realize, but professionals really are happy and willing to help young people, especially students, in providing them with the advice and guidance they need while looking for that first job. It did take a while to get comfortable with, but for me, networking eventually became second nature.

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