By: Alex Rocco
Taking this class was one of the best decisions I made and it almost didn’t happen. I took the class because I didn’t get into one of the classes I wanted, but taking this class was extremely beneficial. I have learned so much from this class and as a sophomore, I am going to use the skills I learned throughout the rest of my time at Penn State.
Skills:
In my opinion, the most important skills I learned this semester were how to challenge myself and think deeper and how to market on social media. Before this class, I never had a teacher challenge me to always think deeper. I tend to be quieter in class, so having Dr. Z ask us after class what our takeaways were allowed me to think about what I truly took away from the class. Having the ability t0 gather your thoughts and think about what truly stood out to you and then speak or write about it, is such an important skill that more people need to learn. I also enjoyed speaking about what I took from the class as it made me feel like I had a voice. The other skill that I learned while taking this class was how to market on social media. With social media continuing to evolve, marketing a company or even marketing yourself on social media is extremely important. Coming into this class I wanted to learn how to better market myself and display my brand on apps such as Twitter and I have learned skills such as posting what you do and staying active on these accounts. These skills are very important because thinking deeper is a skill that not many have and marketing on social media is becoming extremely popular.
Lessons:
An important lesson I learned from this class was how valuable social media is and the positives and negatives that come with it. I had never thought about social media in great detail before this class. It was just something that I had always used to communicate with people, stay entertained and find out what is going on in the world. Social media has a lot of positives as in seconds we can talk to people all over the world and stay informed about what is going on everywhere. Despite the positives, several negatives come with social media. One negative is that our attention spans are decreasing because of the quick videos that are posted on social media which affects our brain. Social media also leads to FOMO which causes more people to become upset. The other lesson that I learned was that people need more human interaction. Many people in the current society lack basic social skills because they are so used to communicating with people behind a screen. Human interaction is very beneficial as not everything people do is on social media.
My Career and Future:
I honestly have no idea what my future holds as just a sophomore. I am a broadcast journalism major with a passion for writing about sports and sports broadcasting. One thing that is for certain is that writing will be in my future. This class taught me so many skills on how to be a better journalist through the GNI skills that I have already seen an improvement in my journalism skills. Another thing I learned from this course is how important mental health is. Unlike most professors, Dr. Z took time out of each class to check with us about our mental health and said we can take breaks if we need. In today’s world when everyone is under constant stress, it is very important to make sure your mental health is in check and I appreciate Dr. Z always taking time out of his day to check with us.
Conclusion:
This was my favorite class I took this semester. It gave great insight into social media, journalism, and business. Our lectures were always very engaging and the class is designed to allow people to give their opinions on the discussions so it was great hearing my classmates’ thoughts. Dr. Z is one of the best professors I’ve had at Penn State and I am truly going to miss this class.