Silver Lining

Well, this is my final blog post for my Social Media Principles class. Any blogging I do from now on will be on my own terms. I've enjoyed this blog, but I have to say, it'll be nice not scrambling around Sunday night to find blogs to comment on or news stories interesting enough to highlight with a post. For this blog, I wanted to reflect on my semester.

Yes, I know many of you are probably tired of my slight complaining or cries for help on other posts. However, for this post, I'm not going to talk about the negative parts of this semester. Honestly, you can only hear someone complaining about their life so many times before wanting to stab their eyes with a fork. As I would like to keep my eyes intact, it's time to look at the silver lining.

The first obvious one, I made it! I guess that may be celebrating too early, but it's now dead week, and I'm still alive, so that's definitely a plus. Sure, I would've liked to get more sleep this semester. And if my future self is reading this at 2 a.m., stop procrastinating and go to bed. Honestly, you're not slacking for going to bed early. Are you really going to get anything else done? Didn't think so.

Now, I already made a post about how blessed I am, so to differ from my earlier post, in this one I'll offer some advice to others out there who may be in my situation. I know it seems impossible. People tell you to take time for yourself, but you barely have time to sleep. How are you even supposed to think about yourself? You have clubs, homework, work, friends and grades to occupy your worries.

Take a deep breath. God never gives us more than we can handle. Things will work out in the end. If you don't believe in God, believe in yourself. You know what you're doing. And always remember to laugh. Find someone or something to surround yourself with that brings a smile to your face. It isn't always going to be the same person or thing, but find something.

My last piece of advice is to remember why you're stressed. Yes, you're stressed because you over promised yourself. But WHY did you over promise yourself? Because you love those organizations. Because you need to graduate on time. Because you love to be involved. Whatever your reason, keep that in mind as you spend all night finishing an assignment. Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself. You'll make it through, and sometimes finding humor in the fact you waited until the night before to finish a huge assignment will help you get through the night.

So, take a deep breath and finish your assignment. Watch one too many episodes of a TV show. Spend too much time talking to your roommate. Don't be afraid to spend an entire day solely with a significant other. Whatever it is, make sure you find your silver lining.

The Use of Craigslist

This story is much different than that of the documentary "Craigslist Joe," in which a man uses the website Craigslist to survive for a month across the country. Instead, this story is about those who took a life using Craigslist.

We are told all the time about dangers online because of people like this. These newlyweds killed a man who responded to their Craigslist ad because they wanted to kill someone together. I cannot possibly begin to fathom their thought process. However, understanding their thought process won't reverse any part of their crime.

If you read the full news story, you will notice the ad he responded to was calling for "lonely men" to engage in a "delightful conversation" for $850. So, some may say he had it coming. He was married and had a family, so it's his punishment from straying.

I send my deepest regards to his family, and I hope the killers are properly sentenced for their crime. They are precisely the reason why parents are so worried about kids spending so much time online.

So, what happens to websites running completely online, like Craigslist, when stories like this come out? How do they respond to the negative image?

Perhaps, one thing that helps is that they aren't responsible for those that post or respond to any listings through their website. The world is a confusing and sometimes dark place. It's up to others to look out for themselves and keep their own safety.

Another thing that helps their reputation are numerous satisfied users and a documentary like "Craigslist Joe." Honestly, if you haven't seen the documentary, it's worth a viewing. I laughed, I cried. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And it's these kind of accounts that help the website stay running. Whenever your business is mentioned in a negative way, it's always important to check in with audiences such as these. Make sure they still know you in no way were involved in the unfortunate event. Maybe even go as far to reach out to the victim's family. Whatever the step, they need to respond in some way. The article was in no way placing blame on the site, but many audiences could be lost without any assurance from the company.

Measuring to Know Your Audience

In Chapter 14 of Katie Paine's Measure What Matters, she talks about the importance and steps to take when measuring in higher education. She told the story of a college paying high stakes simply for not understanding their audience and measuring their reactions. The town surrounding a university overtime became hostile toward the school, so when a new soccer field was proposed, the townspeople let everyone know how they felt. Because of this, the soccer field wasn't built, the $6 million was turned down from a generous alumni and the president of the university resigned. Seems a bit much for a soccer field, don't you think?

To these people, it wasn't just about the soccer field. It was the way the university proposed the soccer field. Rewind a couple years, and the homes in this town would be filled with faculty and staff from the university plus families with students enrolled in the college. What was the need to publicize and weigh in on opinions that were already involved in the planning process. Overtime, these staff and family members had to sell their homes, bringing in an entirely different audience. This is what the university failed to understand. They could no longer say something was going to be built in town. The citizens wanted a vote. They didn't want to be told what was going to happen.

That's completely understandable. It's almost equivalent to the ever popular parents' reasoning of "because I said so." No one likes being told what to do. Because the university didn't measure, they didn't realize that's how they sounded to their townspeople. They were simply thinking in the best interest of the college. If they had presented it that way, I'm sure the town would have agreed. Instead, they had no soccer field or president, and that seems like a bigger mess than just trying to measure at the start.