Personal development and happy memories

By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

Yesterday marked 18 months since I finished my journalism degree at the University of Northampton. As I walked home on Friday from my 9-5 job in publishing, I started to think and reflect on how I have changed as an individual and how things have progressed because of the Uni experience.

When I look back at my three-year stint at University, it was a time where things changed again in the world, especially in the field that I studied in. When I was a fresher in 2009, one of the first lectures we had was about journalism law and I always remember one of the senior lecturers saying to us; ‘No journalist has ever been prosecuted for their work.’ That changed when the general public found out what Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks had been doing at the News of the World. That doesn’t mean their six-year affair which was revealed at the phone-hacking trial recently.

I had the chance to go to University before I eventually did make the step to higher tier education and that was in 2007. After a couple of visits to Universities a year earlier, I made the decision that I wasn’t ready to go away and study further. As an individual at the time, I didn’t feel like it was the right thing for my development and needed to grow more as a person and to realise what I really wanted to do. I’ve always believed that this was the right decision and a pivotal one at that.

Once I get settled into a routine or into a position, I get into a decent comfort zone. My lengthy stay in the former retail job I had at Clarks Shoes can vouch for this. However, if I had gone to Uni earlier than I did, I don’t think I would have lasted six weeks. Therefore, the two years I did at Milton Keynes College, studying media production were both valuable and essential to my future. I wasn’t there to socialise heavily and enjoy life outside of college, I was there to study, work hard and get the results required for my future goals.

Northampton gave me plenty of memories over three years

That eventually took me onto the Northampton journey (Avenue Campus pictured) and it is an experience I will never forget. The other day, I looked through some of the photos of the nights out and even the projects I worked on during the three years. Recently, I wrote a case study for the UoN alumni association so who knows – my words could be appearing in the next prospectus for upcoming students! I remember the good times but also the not so good times, when things didn’t go to plan or times were the façade I used to show started to see signs of cracking under the pressure. I nearly walked away once from it all halfway through second year and had another big wobble at the start of third and final year. It is in these periods where some self-assessment was required (nothing to do with tax forms by the way!) Did I want my degree bad enough to survive the testing challenges? As a harsh critic of my own abilities, the answers were to keep going and see where everything ended. Sacrifices were made to get back on track and I ended up with the rewards come graduation day itself.

I consider myself lucky to still be in touch with many of my course colleagues

Luckily, I have more or less stayed in touch with a huge proportion of the people (myself and three colleagues pictured) who were on the same course as me. It might be distant and through services such as Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and even the ‘old-fashioned’ text message but it is better than losing complete contact – something that I have had to unexpectedly get used to from unlikely sources in recent times. The hope is that in the coming months/years, a reunion could be organised in the future. As a course, we knew how to work hard but also how to party at the same time. Now that I'm in a professional environment, my partying days ended a long time ago…but a small part of me would like to revisit this element just once more before the age catches up on me!

After graduation came the hardest challenge. It is almost a year now since an unpaid internship ended as a paid contract was offered, agreed and then rejected in harsh circumstances. The story behind all this will come out one day, perhaps in a future post on this site, maybe in the inevitable autobiography in around 30 years’ time but the people who did use my services for no pay in the year as a freelancer have been proven wrong. I now have a secure position until the start of summer 2014, on a solid salary and a role that is both enjoyable but also demanding at the same time. Even this week, I have had to take greater responsibility in a couple of consuming projects in my job. I’m honest enough to say it is demanding but keeping busy is important to my characteristics, especially having had to go through a personal loss myself in the closing stages of another landmark year (more reflection on in my yearly review in December.)

I do believe though that now, 18 months on from handing in that final project, the sad farewell to colleagues and friends on the journalism degree I did, I can assess where I really am with my background. I feel that I am a stronger person, a better individual, a more confident human being and accept much easier now both criticism and approach tasks with a lighter but focused attitude. All these skills were developed through University. If I had never gone, who knows whether I would have developed these personal abilities? While the Uni chapter is now firmly in my past, the happy memories and even the tougher times will stay with me for a lifetime.

Categories: Avenue Campus, Facebook, Publishing, University of Northampton, WhatsApp

The dangers of social media

By Simon Wright

The good world of social media has made a massive impact on so many, if not all of our lives.  Does anyone remember the days before 2004, which was the year Facebook was launched by some guy called Mark Zuckerberg – have you heard of him…thought you might have.

Just over a decade ago, what was the best way to stay in touch with your loved ones, your close friends or even your work colleagues?  It would be through phoning them to arrange a time to see them, or a simple text message.  E-mail was also around, although not as easily accessible than it is nowadays.

The amount of social media choices we have today is endless

Now, whatever we do – social media seems to follow us.  Sending a tweet in 140 characters, plastering your wall with photos from a wild night out on Facebook, watching crazy or classic videos on YouTube, or keeping a professional database on LinkedIn.  

These are some of the main tools we use, and let’s not forget the impact of other sites or applications such as WhatsApp, Skype, Google Talk, Google+, MySpace, or BBM.  Yep, carry on listing these and I’ll sound like a broken old record.

There is a time and a place for social media, but just what are the dangers when it goes wrong?

Twitter – Professional or personal

When Twitter was launched in around 2007 or 2008, it was something I was absolutely not interested in.  In fact, I thought it was just a site where fans could just stalk the movements of everyday celebrities, from TV personalities and pop singers to Premier League football players. 

I first got Twitter at the start of my University degree in 2009, but still didn’t get into it until well into my second year at the University of Northampton.  Over 2,500 tweets later, it can get quite addicting, but where do you need to find the right balance?

Some will use Twitter for personal use and feelings.  That is all well and good for some, but don’t promote this as a professional account on a professional website.  You have to be very careful with what you tweet nowadays.  A lot of people have got into hot water with using Twitter.  Examples have stretched from the superinjunctions row in 2011 when celebrities were using gagging orders to stop the press getting their hands on a story that was quite revealing, to Lewis Hamilton’s major blunder of tweeting McLaren confidential race telemetry just hours before last season’s Belgian Grand Prix to his millions of followers.

There is a place and a time to use it.  It can be seen as peace of mind, but be mindful when tweeting of what might be seen as funny, or a joke, to when it becomes too personal or going as far as using words of a racial/discrimination nature. 

It is difficult finding a right balance at times.  I attempt to keep a fully professional approach, and use Twitter to promote my links for my websites, or retweet a friend who is doing well, as well as having the occasional opinion on modern life, or the general news.  For example, the Leveson press enquiry was a big thing to follow, and easy to have your own view. 

There are times where Twitter can get funny.  The RIM server crash in October 2011 allowed BlackBerry to be ridiculed with hilarious tweets such as ‘Dear Blackberry, HAHAHA! Sincerely Apple’ or the usual jokes about John Terry’s affairs off-the-field using the hashtag #JohnTerryExcuses.  

However, to be taken seriously in life – it is important to keep a balance between the funny, the opinionated and the totally offensive.  

Up and coming journalists especially like me must be extra careful, because nowadays, some prospective employers tend to search your name when applying for a job and check your Twitter activity.  

If they think you tweet inappropriately with examples such as ‘That party last night was totally dope….or ‘my dog just licked my friend’s face, was so funny LOL,’ then that employer will simply screw your application up and throw it in the bin. 

Facebook – Don’t let it get you down

It is quite incredible to think that Facebook has been around for almost 10 years, and has made a significant impact in the last six years.  I joined in July 2007, and used to use it excessively.  

Nowadays, I will only use it for an hour a week which was one of my New Year resolutions which is still going strongly into June.

Facebook’s impact on the world can’t be lost, and the background story is interesting, especially if anyone saw the movie ‘The Social Network’ three years ago.  It is probably the number one choice still for many when it comes to social media, and it annihilated its opposition like MySpace until Twitter came along to invade and take away some of its popularity.

What doesn’t help Facebook is the amount of times Zuckerberg and his team change the profile layout.  Since I’ve been on Twitter, I can only recall one major change to the website layout; Facebook is almost in double figures.  It is still the place to share video links, post photos and keep in contact with friends involving long messages that can’t be summed up in 140 characters.  However, don’t get too addicted to it.

I previously will happily admit that I used Facebook for at least one hour a day a few years ago, sometimes more than that.  That’s not as bad as people spending half their life on it, but it can turn into quite an unhealthy obsession.  Also, be aware of what you might be posting.  Don’t make Facebook public in your privacy settings if you want to keep your personal business away from those search engines. 

There have been a few times where I’ve been using Facebook, and it got me so down, I needed to take a clean break.  In late October 2011, things were not going well for me on a number of levels.  I wasn’t having a great stint in my part-time job at the time, my early third year work at University was simply not good enough, and I was being affected by some world events that were happening far too much.  Every time I went on the site, I felt like I was either taking things too personally, or felt in a negative mood afterwards.  At the start of November 2011, I banned myself from Facebook for 25 days to see if I could live without it.  I managed it very comfortably and have rarely slipped into old habits since. 

Facebook can be a great place to start a lengthy message conversation or keep in contact with those you may not see any more from college, Uni or sixth form.  It is great to arrange events, and share those great or sometimes more embarrassing photos the morning after a hectic night out on the dance floor, and it can be a good form for communication.  I know for sure it helped having a page for the UoN journalism group I graduated with, so if anything came out that was updated, or some information was required, it was handy to answer queries, or to express opinions or even calm situations down that looked like they might get out of control.

Facebook is a good tool to have in the modern world, but don’t take things too personally.  If you do, this social media alley is not for you.

Deciding what to have

I think my social media balance is very good, and I don’t think the use of it is out of control.  I have LinkedIn (professional), Twitter (professional and opinions) and Facebook (personal). 

However, the individual in themselves need to strike the right balance with social media.  

For example in my case, I deleted my MySpace in late 2009 when I realised I wasn’t using it anymore, and if I ever decided to go down the Google+ route, Facebook would have to go.

Make decisions and stick to them.  The most important ingredient about social media is enjoy using it in moderation, but don’t take it personally, don’t let it take over the whole of your life and know what is right and what is wrong when it comes to using these sites.

Here are just a few pointers of knowing what is right and what is wrong when it comes to using social media.

1. Only criticise when you feel it is worth it, or you feel you can do a better job.  Repetitive criticism gets boring, and if you’ve only got something nasty to say, keep it to yourself rather than tweet it to your number of followers, whether it’s 3, 33 or 3,333.  For example: Piers Morgan’s regular criticism of Arsenal is fun to start with, but can get pretty tedious after a while.

2. When you have photos you want to share, make sure that they are appropriate to use.  It can just take one person to make a suggestion or a comment and the whole thing could go viral.  When deciding what to put online, think long and hard about it before posting.

3. If you still decide to use Facebook to poke people, seriously get a life.  Why would you want to poke an individual?  The e-mail message from Facebook: ‘You have been poked,’ is the most pointless e-mail message you can receive – unless you get constant spam from medicine companies!

4. Think before your tweet or update a status.  This isn’t a problem if you’ve got good news to share such as passing a driving test, or celebrating your graduation.  We all like good news.  Even posting your heartbreak at losing a close individual is okay if you are looking for messages of symphony and thoughts.  Do not post anything that is going to be offensive in any way, or makes you sound angry about the entire planet everytime you go online.  Your followers count or friends count will drop if you do this. 

5. When in the job market for a new job, take extra care when using social media.  Companies will always want people who will respect their values and standards.  Those who go too personal can kiss goodbye to their dream job.  If you don’t want to be made searchable on search engines etc…check your privacy settings, as there will probably be a way to stop this coming up.

6. Those looking for news stories, take it with a pinch of salt.  For example, Twitter is very good as a starting reference point, but don’t forget that it will be the websites that report the full story, and that is a better guideline.  You never quite know what is factual and what isn’t on Twitter unless it looks obvious from the name of the account.

7. Be very careful of what personal information you post online.  Posting your date of birth is fine, but only put contact details down such as address and phone numbers if you feel comfortable with doing that.  You never know who might be looking at your profile.

8. Have fun using it and feel like you can express yourself, but be aware of the risks when it comes to using these sites.

Social media has had an impact, and for many, a positive impact on our lives.  However, there are dangers and consequences for misuse of information, so have knowledge of what’s right and what’s wrong before entering the social media pantheon.  

Categories: 2004, E-Mail, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mark Zuckerberg, Skype, Social Media, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube