Being a Responsible Adult Really Blows!

I made a vow not to go anywhere near the computer until I finished studying and taking my GMAT in March.  I made an exception today because I really missed you and needed a break from being a responsible adult.

I actually should still be studying, considering I have an exam in an hour. And so should a lot of people logged on to Facebook right now, according to many of my friends' statuses.

Which reminds me of how winter the always brings forth a breed of statuses that consist of complaining.  If you're in school, you're complaining about having to study and how you wish you were out of school; and if you've graduated, you're complaining about not being in school and how the real world sucks.

Well, a recent study at the University of Waterloo pretty much summed up what I've thought all along: if you're going to complain, your friends will hate you.

I know that Facebook asks "What's on your mind?" and Twitter wants to know "What are you doing?". But in reality, I don't know anyone that has the attention span to actually want to know in-depth details of your every day life, especially if it's going to bring down their day by listening to yours.

So instead of risking being de-friended or unsubscribed, use your procrastination time wisely.  If you create compelling content on your Facebook, Twitter, etc., you'll feel more productive and your friends will support your procrastination by engaging in your posts.

You're probably thinking, "Gee, Dia, how on earth can I possibly accomplish this?!"

Well, today's your lucky day! Here's a list of 5 things you can do that don't involve complaining:

• Procrastinate on a site that specializes in procrastination.  I'm stealing this idea from my best friend, who is known as the comedian within our circle of friends simply because she can cheer anyone up by re-posting the absolute most random things from this site.
• Read the news.  I don't have the patience to read through things that I could care less about (like politics and Nicki Minaj's exorcism), so I go on The Daily Beast to read snippets of important things that seem to cause a stir on my Timeline or News Feed.
• Blog.  Practice your writing skills, market yourself, express your ideas.  Posting entries on other social media drives your audience and inspires you to communicate in a more effective way that's interesting to your readers.
• Complain about something else.  If you absolutely need to complain, maybe start with that horrible book you just read or that awful song that came on the radio.  Writing reviews for other things can not only be an outlet, but can link back to you and make you more searchable.
• Do what you're supposed to be doing.  Plain and simple. If you need to study, go study.

Which reminds me that I need to go take my exam now.  Wish me luck!

http://beerbatteredramen.blogspot.com

"Stay Classy, San Diego"

So if you're friends with me on LinkedIn, you'll find that I usually terrorize my connections on a daily basis with social media news.  I fell in love with social media marketing because of two reasons:  policing, and an awesome professor.

The policing part stems from my glory days as an executive board member on my beloved sorority.

Because of all the bad press associated with being a greek, we had to make sure that the ladies always kept a clean, classy, Disney-rated image - especially on social media sites.  I was always researching ways not just to improve our image, but promote our organization as well.

It wasn't until I got a big girl job and starting taking a social media class (again, thanks awesome professor) that I started realizing the scope of how important your online image is.

Sometimes, the Facebook hawk in me wants to just wring some girls' necks when I see them proudly boasting their beer bottles in provocative poses, or when their statuses consist of how ridiculously, black-out, I-want-to-hook-up-with-anything-that-moves, wah-why-isn't-the-world-paying-attention-to-me, I-just-puked-in-my-best-friend's-car drunk they got last weekend.

Especially with the new Facebook Timeline, it's so much easier to have this record digitally imprinted for the rest of your life, for the entire world to see...

Including future employers.

So ladies (and gents that find the need to discuss about their unrealistic dating "life" and how they spend 2093808402834 hours at the gym), make it a resolution this year to keep your private life private and clean up your act - at least on Facebook.

You can thank me with your first full-time paycheck.

http://beerbatteredramen.blogspot.com/

Monday Night Media Mix

Below is a post from my social media class blog, Monday Night Media Mix, about Beer-Battered Ramen Noodles.
The truth is, I was inspired to create this blog to experiment with a new medium and to make an attempt at maintaining a theme.

Enjoy!

Beer Battered Ramen Noodles

My astrological sign is a Taurus. We're reputed to be stubborn and lazy.

Therefore, change sucks.

But I'm in the middle of a break-up (with my Tumblr account) and I need a coping mechanism. So I've moved to Blogger.

The focus of my new blog is to zero in on twenty-somethings, from random issues to ridiculous stories.

So far, the interface on Blogger is simpler than Tumblr, which motivates me to use it more. It also pushes me to create my own content than to just continuously reblog posts to update my blog.

I've been asked about the name of my blog, beer-battered ramen noodles. It's a play on the college stereotypes about drinking and ramen noodle dinners.

Either way, check it out for yourself, http://beerbatteredramen.blogspot.com and let me know what you think!

http://beerbatteredramen.blogspot.com/

Cyber Bitch

Computers are marvelous. Computers revolutionized technology for generations to come.

But did anyone else watch DISconnected on MTV?

I truly, honestly wish this was the story of my life. But instead, here I am, blogging about it, on my computer.

The premise of the documentary is of how three college students survive without their computers. Not just the internet. The entire computer.

No online homework, no YouTube, just pen, paper, and human interaction.

It emphasizes a point where our communication technology has progressed while our personal communication has regressed. Makes you sick to think about, huh?

Think about how to someone else, we're just a name on an email, a picture on a page. Or to the millions of people that get bullied every day, a nightmare behind a screen.

The age of technology brings an age of cowards. I wish I could say that it stops with high school since college individuals are mature, educated, blah blah blah.

In reality, this couldn't be further from the truth.

Take for instance the fallen site Juicy Campus, the self-proclaimed "enabler of online anonymous free speech on college campuses". In other words, it fed off of gossip, rumors, and rants on over 500 campuses throughout the country.

At one point, it became such a staple in college culture that if you ever wanted joined an organization on campus, you'd better hope your name wasn't on that site.

Out of curiosity once, I read a post about a girl looking to join my sorority. In nicer terms, it claimed she was quite promiscuous and mean-spirited, and included her phone number in case you wanted to reach her for her "services".

What didn't shock me was that someone would do this, what shocked me is that when she came out for our organization, she had to justify this - pardon my french - bullshit.

It virtually became a scarlet letter for anyone listed on this site.

The real terrorists of this country aren't the ones with nukes, they're the ones with words and a shield to anonymity to hide behind.

http://beerbatteredramen.blogspot.com/