College | Caffeinated

screenshot from http://snackr.net/

Sometime around last Thursday, I did an intense cleansing of my computer. After moving a massive amount of photos, docs, and mp3s to my hard drive, I was finally able to do everything I have ever dreamed of (at that moment): install Snow Leopard and other cool new toys.

sidebar: when I say intense cleansing, I mean INTENSE. Did you know that when your Macbook’s Hard Drive runs out of available space, it spells it out for you? When I saw, “Available: Zero KB”, I knew I needed to get cracking.

The first toy I downloaded was Snackr. Best. Decision. Ever. If you’re not using this FREE app, ummm, why the hell not? Especially as an ad-freak, PR enthused, closet tech-geek, journalism student, this thing is SO COOL. It’s a news ticker for your laptop. The ticker shows headline, source, how long ago it was published, and a preview (should you choose to click the headline). Yo Anderson Cooper, what you got on that?

How am I using my Snackr feed? After toying around with different ways, I’ve decided to use it as a compliment to my Google Reader (which I use solely for blogs that I NEED to read daily, or, postly?). Essentially, it’s a news feed of what’s interesting to me. I’ve got a bunch of feeds from various areas or authors on Advertising Age, True/Slant and Wired, the ‘Comment is free: America’ feed from The Guardian, Mashable, and more of the like. These aren’t places I am able to read every article every day. It’s pleasant, and easy, to have them roll across the bottom of my screen and pick what to read, when to read, without having to untangle the web.

How can you use it?

• Journalism students: Subscribe to your favorite news sources, specifically for in-depth news. You know where you’re going to get your breaking news (iPhone, Twitter, etc), but wouldn’t it be convenient to have a ticker full of the numerous places/journalists publishing fantastic, in-depth stories? Get snacking.
• Other students: Whatever your emphasis is, there are news sources for it. It’s the Internet. If you were majoring in Canadian fur trading, I’m sure you could find things (btw, that’s actually a class at University of Minnesota-Duluth). A friend of mine who is a nursing major asked why she would use it. Well, there is Nurse.com, MedicalNewsToday.com, and probably a gazillion (exaggeration alert) other news sources for the nursing industry.
• Communications Professionals: I can see this tool being useful in many ways, but two in particular:
  • Follow feeds that pertain to the industry of your client(s). You won’t read every article. Nor should you have to. But you will see the headlines, and Snackr even has a nice ‘preview’ feature for you. If the same topic keeps scrolling by, maybe it merits some further digging.
  • Get a feed of your favorite news sources on the roll. You’re busy keeping up with your client(s) all day, right? Well you can still know what’s going on outside of the clientsphere- without wasting interwebz time.
• My Mother: My mom loves looking for new recipes, cooking tools, and the like online. Instead of wasting time combing through different sites to see what looks good, why not have them scrolling across your desktop? “Green Bean Birthday Cake” doesn’t sound too great, so don’t click on it. “Deep Fried Green Bean Birthday Cake” sounds interesting, I might click the preview on that.

Indulge your craving, become a Snackr.

photo credit: law_keven

Two of my roommates are currently in a class that I’m enrolled to take next semester. Scratch that- a class that I am required to take next semester.  The final project for this class is, in summation, to “develop your personal brand and execute a promotion strategy for it.” As I watched them scramble and stress to do this project, I giggled in my head a bit. “Bahhh,” I thought,” I’ve already developed my personal brand. I’ve read all these awesome posts about personal branding from the best. This class is going to be easier than cocktail waitresses in LA.”

Then my mental leprechaun strolled along with his club to knock me down a few levels. I felt like an insanely cocky douchebag for ever having such a thought, in addition to having a headache (it’s a big club, apparently. And when did leprechauns get clubs?).

Occasionally, thoughts similar to this are a problem for me. I think that just because I’m doing the whole Twitter thing, writing a mediocre blog, reading and commenting on others’ blogs, and attending conferences or tweet-ups when possible, that I’m in some way ahead of most of my classmates. And it isn’t just me, whether they’re willing to admit to it or not, this is something I’ve noticed from a bunch of students.

It’s like we think that doing the whole social media thing, building a personal brand or whatnot, will put us on the yellow brick road to professional enlightenment. And we are oh so wrong.

Social media isn’t the magic bullet, guys. Social media isn’t our classroom, it isn’t teaching us the fundamentals, history, and basic techniques (of whatever you’re studying). Yes, it’s a great tool for furthering our education, networking, and building a personal brand. I’ve been able to take core concepts from class and relate them to blog posts I read (links are some recent examples of posts that struck a chord with class material). I’ve talked with and been introduced to brilliant people I would never find in my classroom.

Engage all you want. Network, blog, read, comment, digg, stumble, and spin in Internet circles to the extreme. Build your personal brand like it’s the most important possession you’ve got. Go for it.

Recall, will you, that dime-piece blonde girl or guy in your Sociology 1000 class freshman year. Sure, they looked fantastic- almost unbelievable. Greatest thing since Twitter, as far as you’re concerned. Talk to them, though, and you realize that they aren’t sure what Sociology is and think Karl Marx was an X-Men.

That’s what your personal brand, online engagement, etc. is without class. Looks great on the outside, but damn, at least six-year-olds know their X-Men.

How do you balance class and Internet, among everything else college kids do? Do you think I’m full of it, that classes are b.s., and students should look elsewhere to learn? Are you building a Taj Mahal that looks like a Mexican Prison inside?

photo credit: wetsun