How Internet Slang Affects High School Students
My newest piece for U.S. News & World Report looks into the effects of social media and texting in the high school classroom. For this piece, I spoke with a high school student, a high school teacher, college professors and a dean of college admissions to get their thoughts on this problem. It was interesting to hear how each person reacted to this use of slang, and how students where using this language — whether they were cutting the ends off words (for example: ridiculous becoming ridic) or acronyms for words (like BTW for “by the way”).
I was interested to see whether this has had an effect on the admissions process — as we all know, sometimes high school teachers will let some lax language slide but these types of practices aren’t deemed acceptable in college; and especially not during college admissions.
Here’s an excerpt from my piece:
Revisiting the Business Side of Journalism
In my attempts to begin updating my website (see my updated Words section!) I came across one of my old blogs from college. Known as The Grab Bag it was one of my many attempts to keep a consistent space for my musings and rants. As I was browsing through my poorly-written works – many of these were honestly written after a few cans of Natty Light and nights of partying – I came across one post that conjured up all kinds of memories. Titled “The Business Side (AKA the Ugly Side) of Journalism,” I reflected on the evident changes in the world of journalism.
As a first-year journalism student (I didn’t transfer into the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism until my junior year) I was naive to the business that is journalism. In my piece, I discussed my first week at my internship at Cincinnati.com. I was excited to learn new ways to tell stories – whether it was through the written word, video or photography. But, on my seventh day things changed:
I met with the president and publisher of the company and she gave me advice of how to cope with losses of employees and mentors in the field. I was aware that The Enquirer was going to cut 10% of their staff to brace for the trying times they were facing. I let her know that I was fully aware that cuts were to be made and that I would be fine. “Keep your head down and focus on your objectives,” is what she said. It really was great advice. In hind sight, I really shrugged off the advice because I didn’t think that I would really be affected by the changes. In the end, I was dead wrong.
When I got into journalism, I knew that the field was experiencing a change of great magnitude. Many media companies were trying to figure out where their service fit into the new economic system. As a delusional 20-year-old college student I truly was not ready to see the consequences companies faced when they didn’t adjust quick enough. My internship adviser, who set me up with this great internship, was one of the many employees that day that suffered from the cuts:
Personal Branding: What the @#$% Does That Mean?
This past weekend I finally gave my personal branding speech at Ohio University. As an alum of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, it was an honor to come back and get to talk to the seniors about building a personal brand. There are so many things that students in college can do to build their brand. From owning your own name, being authentic and having an “endorsement mindset,” among many other things, students can take steps now to build their brand and let it work for them when the job search begins.
That was the message that I tried to get across to the students that attended Senior Saturday. I wanted to get across the fact that putting your brand in a position to get noticed does not have to be hard. There are a ton of little tweaks and changes to make to platforms you use every day that can be beneficial to your name.
I am so appreciative that the E.W. Scripps Society of Alumni and Friends chose me to share my experiences and knowledge in building a brand and for all the students that came out this past Saturday. For those that could not make the presentation, you’re in luck! Although you can’t hear my commentary to go along with the presentation, you can check out my slides.
Winklevoss Twins Fall Flat in Suit Against Facebook
If you remember from my last posting on the on-going drama between the Winklevoss twins and Facebook, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss were attempting to return their $65 million winnings from their last suit again Facebook to re-sue the social network in hopes of getting more money. With the recent news that Facebook is worth more than an astounding $50 billion (though Apple isn’t impressed), the twins want more money.
According to Paid Content:
“Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss hired some of the best tech lawyers money can buy to try to find holes in a settlement they reached with Facebook in 2008, that is now believed to be worth more than $140 million. So what did Team Winklevoss dig up? Not much, apparently.”
It appears the three-judge panel had little sympathy for the wealthy duo and believed that if the two were swindled, well, they deserved it.
About.me: A Simplistic Social Profile
I’m not exactly sure how I came across about.me but I haven’t seen a website that allows a user to organize all social profiles in one place in such a stylish fashion until I saw this. This page took me literally five minutes to put together, including linking all social media platforms and adding my short biography.
About.me launched in December 2009 and, according to Business Wire, allows “anyone to quickly and simply assemble a personal splash page, all-inclusive of every social network to which they belong.”
After a growth of 400,000 users in the past year, AOL purchased the website for a whopping $180 million in December 2010. It’s interesting to see how quickly this has grown in the past year. I’m not surprised, though, with the ease of creating this page and the potential for having multiple social platforms to be viewed in a matter of seconds.
I actually just put together my own about.me profile. Make sure to check me out at about.me/ryanlytle! If you put one together, or if you already have one, share it with me below!