Broad Brush: Selected

Hello all-

The rubric for Blog Post #1 suggests that we as a class are a "reading public" of sorts; an otherwise random collection of readers, save for the fact that we share a commonality. The easy answer to this is that we all have a vested interest in attending, and therefore ideally passing, this class.

While some of our class discussions have yielded some common viewpoints on certain issues we've discussed, there is enough diversity in our class from a gender, race, age (and likely professional, educational, and life experience background) stance to invalidate any suggestion that we all share some common trait that would show up on a standard census. (Unless some of you have had some remarkable plastic surgery that hasn't been shared with the group.)

In fact, even the most basic thread that links us (all attending this class) is not solely indicative of anything beyond our status over the next few weeks. This may be the last class before graduation for some, or the last semester or year before graduation for others. A guaranteed base market analysis could ostensibly be whittled down to "we all are looking to leverage social media in a meaningful 'A-grade conducive' manner".

I assume this focus extends to our instructor as well, unless teaching us all how to use social media incorrectly is part of some psychology thesis we'll learn about the hard way.

While it may sound crass (hopefully most, if not all of us are here for something more than a good grade), the only likely assured link lies in we all have an interest in passing this class.While the obvious approach would be simply to post a link to a handy resource for many college students, this link (hopefully) does not address each of our individual motivations to pass this class.

Whether you are signed up for MDST 485 as part of a curriculum, are interested in learning more about social media, have an elective to fill, or just need a court-friendly alibi for Tuesday and Thursday nights, these all (with the exception of the latter) tie into a want or need to complete a college degree. Without getting into the weeds as to why (better job, more money, you lost a bet), it does beg the question of whether this goal is worth it.

For that, I leave you with a recent article that discusses in more detail just what this multi-year, multi-thousand investment most, if not all, of us have embarked upon. You've either asked the questions this article poses and are confident in your ability to process the information, or have just assumed college was a logical progression and may benefit from an outside perspective.

In either case, click the link. The Internet needs to get paid.

Blog Topic #1