The college-aged generation has a reputation for being invested in technology, more specifically, social media. Our parents sometimes complain about our use of Twitter when we’re visiting home and our teachers have policies to prevent phone-use in class due to some students’ tendencies to check Instagram instead of taking notes. While constantly being glued to your phone and social media can be a negative thing in a certain context, there is a benefit in our generation’s devotion to technology— we are becoming increasingly more social media-savvy.
Social media and the digital space are taking over the world.This means that while social media influences your social life, it also influences how you will perform in the professional world outside of college. In many fields, such as business and communications, being able to efficiently handle a platform like social media prepares you for when you will have to represent yourself to future employers and clients.
Basically, being an avid social media consumer isn’t a waste of your time. When you use sites like Twitter and Instagram, you are connecting to others around you and learning how to appropriately express yourself to a large number of people. While you may share the occasional cat video or tweet a funny joke, you also gain a surprising amount of skills from perfecting your social media presence.
Employers from our generation may have a leg up in some fields when they graduate from college simply because they know how to utilize social media. This is because being connected to the world and modern social norms is important. On top of this, more and more companies are hiring people simply to run social media platforms, meaning that your love for Twitter may help you land a job one day.
While you should not let social media consume your life, you may want to begin appreciating social media for the skills you are gaining from its use. If you make the effort to really use it to make connections, practice communication, and convey your ideas, you may just find that social media helps you more than you think.