The Digital Mind

It has been proven that social media does have an impact on mental health . However, how it affects your mental health depends on how you go about using it. The book "Light, Bright and Polite" by Josh Ochs offers advice on how to navigate social media in hopes of impressing colleges or future employers. In chapter three, Ochs talks about those strategies, however, I noticed these strategies are not limited to keeping your digital footprint clean. They can also help look after your mental health while you surf the web and scroll through apps. The book states to use social media in a positive manner. Complaining online puts negativity out onto the internet for others to see which may impact your followers (and it looks bad to future employers). Putting out positive thoughts will help motivate your followers and you can feel good knowing you are doing so. This also builds your personal brand as others will view you in a positive light. Moving on, do not permanentize things. Anyt...

     I have been doing presentations for as long as I can remember; elementary school, middle school, high school & college (and I'm sure the presentations don't stop after college)! Presentations are a great way to discuss an idea or get a message across to a large group of people. It is an important skill to have, no matter what age you are which is probably why it was taught so early on in school. Anybody can make a couple of PowerPoint slides, but how can you ensure that your presentation is effective ? This is how: 1. Use an eye-catching template. Having an eye-catching template will help your audience stay focused on your presentation. Nobody wants to look at a blank and boring slide for the entire presentation time. 2. Sprinkle in transitions but don't over-do it. Too many transitions in a PowerPoint presentation reminds me of fourth grade when we first started learning how to use them. It's tacky, unprofessional and distracting. Use it to highlight a slid...

  A digital footprint is a trail of data you create while using the Internet. It includes the websites you visit, emails you send, and information you submit to online services. A "passive digital footprint" is a data trail you unintentionally leave online. - TechTerms.com     What are footprints? It is the impression left by your feet or shoes when you walk, oftentimes leaving a trail. So, what does it mean when the words "digital" and "footprint" come together? It basically means the trail you leave online.  It can often translate into your online identity or affect your  personal brand.  What you do online is permanent, any content (forum conversations, images, Tweets etc.) you publish out there stays on there forever, even if you think you have deleted it. This includes your personal information. When purposely establishing an online identity, Smore.com  suggests to begin at the age of 13, under parental guidance, be real and be consistent. Being ...

     This weekend I watched a YouTube video called "APA Style and Literature Searches" posted on The Stockton University channel. It was a presentation done by Tom Kluxen centered around the American Psychological Association (APA) format. This format is often used and preferred in the social and behavioral sciences field (I know this first hand since I am a psychology major) and can also be applicable to the biology and chemistry field. Since the two key components to APA is the citing (to avoid plagiarism and easily track references) and the title page format (to keep things cohesive) it makes it perfect for identifying and referencing others' research and ideas, which is crucial in the psychology field. Being able to find the source easily allows the psych. researchers to form their own opinions and do their own research on the topic and being able to cite the source easily will help avoid the consequences of plagiarism. If you are interested in being apart of the psy...

"Being on social media is like playing with a loaded gun."    -Dave Sholler, Executive Vice President of Communications at The Philadelphia 76ers.      Last week, my "Exploring Your Digital Portfolio" class had the amazing opportunity of speaking to Dave Sholler  over Zoom. Mr. Sholler graduated from Stockton University and is now the Executive Vice President of Communications for the Philadelphia 76ers. When he graduated Stockton University he did not have access to the internet that we have today. Myspace wasn't made for job applications or networking like LinkedIn is and applying to jobs was a bit more complicated than submitting an application online the way we do now. However, social media has become so much more since then and Mr. Sholler was able to give us pointers on how to use social media effectively and what actions to avoid from the employer's point of view. Here are some tips: Be careful of what you post on social media. Your social media is l...

         It's no secret that social media is a very powerful tool in today's society. It's everywhere we go, especially in the midst of a pandemic, where most tasks are being done online. This weekend I learned more about how powerful social media is by watching The Social Dilemma , a documentary that was recently released on Netflix. Despite the poor representation through the tacky reenactments of the effects of social media, the message was still well conveyed; Social media has a psychological impact on people and corporations are exploiting their platform users.       The documentary consisted of a team of experts who used to help develop different platforms, for example, the developer of the Facebook "like" button, the ex-head of monetization on Facebook, a Pinterest algorithm developer and so on. The people who helped develop these platforms admit that they never intended for social media to be used in the way it is today. Fo...