Twitter- A Media Revolution

Since I've started using Twitter, I have found a whole new way of receiving my news. As I think about it, Twitter is a blend of news completely different from Facebook where I only hear about people in my life, or news websites- It's a liason linking me to all of them. As I scroll through what seems like endless tweets, I can follow everyone from my father to USAID, Kim Kardashian to the New York Times. Even The Pope has a Twitter! Because of this, people can now send messages to their followers in real-time rather than going through multiple steps of publicists and scheduled news timings for simple messages.

Right now since I'm focused on getting an internship with the State Department, I have started following their tweets to see what's going on around the world and what they're doing to participate in world issues. It completely blows my mind how closely connected just a follow can be- For example, this morning I found out about a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in a province of Turkey that I had once visited through tweets from the State Department, where I could then click on links leading me to more information on what exactly happened. They keep a live update by sending messages whenever their representatives have something relevant to say to the public. Another example of this is when Osama Bin Laden had been captured, the message had gotten out on Twitter faster than Obama's address to the nation. Talk about revolutionary!

The door to the ease of access of information has been opened through the internet, and it seems that Twitter is a major moving force. To keep up digitally, I'm following future employers closely and have read of opportunities through their tweets. I also have a part-time writing job where I have seen the benefits of tweeting a new article. Because I can add tags, it has made starting out less strenuous by having articles under the tags that I post with them. By actively engaging in Twitter, I can see how keeping up digitally is important. The way information is transferred is on hyper-speed, especially when people like me are preparing to become active working citizens. I can see that it is a revolution in the digital age and I'm excited to see how it evolves!

Inspiration

I think it is important to keep up with international news and conflicts around the world, especially in places I have visited, want to visit, or find to be important in current events. Over the summer I studied abroad in Paris for the foreign language program, and recently one of the hot topics the Hijab ban in France and the ever-increasing muslim influence. When I went to Paris, I was able to put some of my language skills to use to talk with people about how they felt about it when it came up in conversation. During my time there, I would casually browse articles on the internet- the ease of access of information is so convenient, especially when I had to be informed about my surroundings since I was there for a month. I usually was lazy and read the articles in English, but sometimes I would change the settings on my facebook or Yahoo news page to French to get in the habit of switching over my normal daily internet check-up to take my experience to another level. Sometimes I would even buy fashion magazines in French (because fashion is just more fun that way anyway!) and I even browsed through the Cosmopolitan website in French to make learning outside the classroom more entertaining!

Through the internet, it is so much easier to learn new words and have access to a whole different language so that I may continue what I started without letting it fade when I'm not in the classroom. I really want to be fluent in French since it is the official language of various international political and social organizations, and it opens up opportunities for jobs with travel. Plus, immersing myself in different cultures is fun and exciting! I hope to be able to translate and write in English and French, and who knows- maybe I'll pick up another one along the way!