I haven’t updated my blog with my first published story yet because I don’t have a published story yet. This is of course, no one’s fault for things don’t happen until they do.
I’ve hit my first speed bump as a journalist though. I’ve had sources gone quiet for a bit and it’s starting to be a gigantic pain in the ass. But there’s nothing I can do except try and be a pain in the ass back without being creepy.
There are a bunch of questions that run through my head as I try to focus on my first story and getting that going while other events and stories go soaring over my head. I feel behind though I’m all on top of my feature idea. I find myself slinking back onto social media and I see other people publishing works while I feel left in the dust.
I don’t see how much more I can do but I’ve got to do something. I guess I just have to re-evaluate myself and try to refresh my outlook on being a journalist. It’s my priority and I should stop feeling like I have a promise held down to one story. I should get going on other works and maybe toss aside my pride behind my first story.
Anyways, the title of this post had social media within it and I did mean to discuss social media and my adapted feeling towards it in the world of journalism.
I’ve recently had my profiles on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and iTunes peer reviewed for the first time by somebody who I’m not friends with and it was actually an eye opening experience. To what I thought was a profile clean up before college, I had made my profiles readily appropriate for basic purposes.
Basic purposes being, not looking weird to girls who wanted to slide into my DMs. But, now that I’m an official reporter for a news organization, I really have to step up my game.
For instance, all those pages I liked in seventh grade that are inactive on Facebook now can still be seen by the social media hunters that want to see who’s interviewing them. I’ve got to do a total revamp of all my profiles big time if I want to actually be considered for a job somewhere.
Though, my YouTube, Twitter, and iTunes profiles are all sound. I still run my “Nerd News” gaming page on YouTube. My Twitter page is the best form of myself online. Meanwhile, my iTunes page is where you can find “The Creatively Challenged Podcast” which is the podcast my friends and I discuss movie and entertainment news.
There’s a time and a place for everything in real life and in your social media life. Once you become an adult in the working world, it’s time to clean up the profiles. Unless your job depends on you being a wild and spontaneous personality on social media, it’s time to grow up.
So don’t be mad if you don’t get the job you wanted or if somebody doesn’t want to date you because you’ve got videos and likes on your profile that indicate you plow beers like water and want to post about it. Well, it’s still pretty impressive, just leave it off of social media.
Through the emotional rollercoaster that was this post (which mimics my life at the moment), remember, clean up your social media profiles and be professional when you can be. Also, straighten out your priorities and make sure your life is the one you want to be living.
~DS
The Danny Diaries 