Things I Say

This past week I've been experiencing the power of Twitter through completely new eyes. For about year now I've had a personal Twitter but I approached it completely different than I have the one I created for UST111, also known as #ust111. Up until this assignment, I used Twitter as most people use Facebook, communication with close friends. As far as my high school goes, everyone has Facebook and people add friends indiscriminately. Only my close friends have Twitter and follow one another and I liked it that way. This made Twitter my way of keeping in touch and Facebook as my way of meeting people better, mostly through Facebook creeping.

This is completely opposite than we discussed in class. I understand how Twitter is used to get to know people because in most cases you don't have to approve the follow as you do in Facebook. This both amuses me and scares me completely. With the use of Four Square that my friends use, I'm constantly worried. Anyone can follow you, see your Four Square location and stalk you. The danger of Twitter seems more alarming to me than harmless Facebook creeping. Granted you can post Four Square to Facebook but so far my experience with it is that people keep it contained to Twitter.

As for the numerous people who said "I'll never touch Twitter after this assignment." I hope you don't abandon it. I haven't seen it at ISU yet but I know on many campuses, Twitter is a HUGE tool in keeping in touch with people. Who's free to hang out, who needs help with the class you took last semester or who knows the best place to get a cheap but completely heavenly sandwich. The whole reason I joined Twitter is to keep up with my friends already in college. I was timid about using it but now I use it all the time. For this assignment alone, I kept up tweeting on both accounts,(Personal: @Megmeg11892 and Hixson: @Mgoneil), plus Facebook. Granted, my personal account was mostly for random inside jokes or complete nonsense that the audience for the Hixson one wouldn't quite care or want to know about.

The assignment was hard, I'd have to agree. It's hard to be completely conscious of people who are grading your tweets, in a way, when you are wanting to share about your life. Just keep in mind that your Facebook is, or will be, under the same watchful eye of future employers so don't take your frustration out on Twitter.

I don't like having something being a representation of me that isn't completely honest of who I am. I'm young, I have a few years until I will be getting a serious job but I understand somethings that I do on social networks will have to come to a stop soon but my philosophy is be honest who I am. If I wouldn't say it to someone in real life, I don't post it on the internet, yet I would say a lot more than some people would want to hear. That's why I didn't turn in my already established Twitter for this assignment.

I guess the summary of this post is: Know your audience. This is the electronic book of your life, what are you willing to share for the world to read?

Beloit College Mindset

As college freshman, we all have the same goal: Graduate. How we get there, what we encounter along the way and how we accomplish our goal is up to us. As Beloit's College Mindset List (BCML) spells out, as the class of 2014, we already have a few mindsets before we step on campus. We are a generation that has many advantages over those of the past. We have millions of resources at our disposal at the touch of a button. This isn't bad but what has growing up in the early 2000's influenced us compared to those in the past?


One of the things BCML states in their list is about the human genome. It says "DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed." This is weird to think about because it is always in the back of my mind when I'm geeking out and watching crime shows about past unsolved crimes. Every time they say something about evidence I think to myself, "Why didn't they get fingerprints" or "What about hair samples?" If DNA fingerprinting wasn't around, not only would science be hindered but also things like television fiction would be changed. One of the most popular shows today is CSI, a show that would be lost without collecting the samples and hunting down the unknown criminal. Who would sit and watch detectives think and drink coffee?


Another statement that stood out to me was "Adhesive strips have always been available in varying skin tones." I guess I never noticed it. I recently bought a pack of band-aids and it was a dark tan which I didn't notice until I got back to my dorm. It might be the fact that I've never actually purchased "normal" band-aids, I prefer Toy Story themed ones personally, myself before but I seriously thought they only came in one color. It makes sense from a business stand point to offer other colors to promote use (and sales!) to those who prefer to not have a mismatched colored bandage on their skin. 


The last statement that I wanted to challenge is "Nirvana has always been on the classic rock station." The first time I heard a Nirvana song on one of my classic rock stations it definitely caught me off guard. I do remember one time when I asked my dad what made a rock song "classic" and he told me "Things from around 20 years ago." This was back when I was 9 or 10 so of course Nirvana didn't quite fit into that category at that point. Now that it's 2010, it is about time they hit the classic stations. Yet something deep down in my mind says that this just isn't okay. For me, classic rock will always be 80's and earlier. Not that I'm arguing the classic-ness of Nirvana, I just personally feel like there should be a 90's music station to statify the need for that decade to become "retro". Most of the songs from that decade, especially the early part, are completely different than today's music and music from my definition of "classic." I think we could all use a station that has exclusive rights to hits like "Mmmbop" and play it 24/7 like our bathroom radios blast "California Girls."


It would be interesting to see what might be on the list in five years. Even in high school there were distinct differences between the freshman and seniors for my last year of school. Even more between the middle schoolers and the class of '10. It'll be a great read nonetheless. Now the waiting game.

My Best

As any "best" needs a worse, that's where I'll start. My freshman year of high school is what defines my worse. I walked into high school that year with a pretty bad attitude towards it. It was right in the middle of the time where my view of how others saw me was boiled down to being constantly compared to my older brother. If he joined an activity, I was asked why I wasn't in it. If I got a B, I should have gotten an A because that's what Tyler could have done. Everything was boiled down to "why wasn't I more like him." At least that's what I thought.

Somehow in my mind, this caused me to push it further. Do whatever it took not to be like him. I slacked off, started hanging out with people I had no interest then, or now, to hang out with, just because it wasn't what Tyler would do. I'll spare you the details but I ended that year with a 3.14 GPA and a unmentionable amounts of tardies, not bad for most people but compared to my brother's 4.0 and perfect attendance, it wasn't good.

So that's my worse. Here comes my "best."

At the end of my sophomore year, I came to my senses and realized that being compared to a great person isn't necessarily a bad thing so I straightened up. After years of fighting it, I realized, not to be self-centered, that I had to be a pretty good person to be compared to him or else why would they bother? After I realized that I wanted to go to college and study what I love, I hit the books. I worked hard to get the grades I wanted and to participate in everything I wanted to. I challenged myself to better myself through working and volunteerism. I turned my worse into motivation to be my best. Iowa State was my goal and I did everything I could to prepare myself for it. 

I learned to be a better leader by working hard on the newspaper. I learned how to be self-modivating and organized by running my freelance photography business. I pushed myself out of my shyness by joining new clubs both in and out of school. I did it all to work towards my goal and to be my best but also to be no where near my worse.

Diversity

Some people say the hardest thing to deal with when going to college is the culture shock. For me, that was the one thing I was looking forward to. Coming from a small, and not very diverse, town in Eastern Iowa, I’ve had very few chances to experience diversity first hand. I’ve always enjoyed learning about different cultures, whether it was watching television shows or hosting foreign exchange students. Here at ISU there are so many opportunities to learn about different people. Not only from attending events hosted to promote education on diversity but also just in the normal day-to-day life of a college student. Meeting and talking to people before class or getting to know the people on my floor, I’ve been able to learn about different countries but also just differences in the United States.

It’s been fascinating talking about the differences with my friends and roommate about the differences between Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Even though they are in the same region of one single country, there are many differences from what they call pop and drinking fountains (soda and bubblers) to how grocery stores are set up (whole aisles dedicated to cheese?). Even in this short month since moving, I’ve learning a lot and I look forward to learning even more.

Diversity