I would say I have a large online footprint because I have made a lot of progress for creating an online website and social media pages that I can refer to for internships and jobs. I made my website this past summer using Squarespace and I use this as a resume platform that shows all my work over the years. Being a communications major I think this is something very vital to have, especially since a lot of what I want to be involved in requires a visual display. After working with a coach this summer who has built her own business coming out of High Point University, I have learned about all the steps it requires to get your foot in the door and that involves keeping up with news and media. I learned how important it is to make connections through LinkedIn and other social media platforms because it will help you build a relationship with people that can help you in the future.
By visiting my pages on social media, it can be very obvious that I am an avid world traveler. This is not something I take focus on for my website because it is a personal pleasure, but through my Instagram, it is very noticeable. I have traveled to all seven continents by the age of 16 and I continue to travel consistently with my family. I think this is a subtle representation of my background because I have learned so much through seeing the world first hand and feel as though I have gained a vast amount of knowledge by going to these places. It has helped me with a lot of film and video projects I have worked on for classes as well. For example, one of my projects on my website is a video on the culture of China and I was able to produce interviews and clip together with an educational video for a class on my journey. Even studying abroad is something, indirectly, you may notice on my website through the work I produced for my internship being in Australia.
When it comes to private information, that is something I need to focus on because I feel as though a lot of my personal information is out in the open. In our generation, people are posting a lot of documentation on social media sites that might not be great for jobs to see. I need to make personal things more private like Instagram and Facebook to avoid these matters. On my website, I do provide my resume which contains my phone number, email address and the city I live in, but I don’t think you can avoid those types of contacts. So far it has not had a negative effect and I think when applying to jobs it is important to provide them with enough information so they do not question why you don’t have certain forms of contact. I even created a separate twitter account for formal occasions to attach to my website so I have my personal life separate from work.
In conclusion, I think a lot of this is very important for the communications world because of the types of fields we are going into this generation. Media is constantly evolving and that requires us to evolve with it. Therefore, I think social media is beneficial because it has helped for promoting and taking the communications world to another level, but it has also had a negative impact as well. I think it has taken over our generation too far that people are addicted. It makes people lonely and isolated because they are so connected to these devices that they don’t know what they would do without them. Yes, it is a different type of lonely like explained in The Atlantic article, but it still affects us on meeting people, gathering less information around us, making bonds with others meaningful and easy. It isolates us from what is around us because we count so much on having it accessible 24/7.
Link to Personal Website: Casswiesner.com
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