The latest projection of the future of this new technology, according to our friends over at Mashable, is a partnership with politics. The suggestion that presidential candidates will introduce Foursquare and other LBS into their campaign strategies is an intriguing one to say the least. Connecting a physical location with the online world is a now readily available capability that has potential to change the game in the coming election. Read more on this topic on Mashable.

I’ve never been good with change, although it’s something I’ve recently been embracing since I seem to have no other choice. The transition into college was a lot easier than I expected. I remember feeling homesick early on, but classes and brand new friendships kept me busy, leaving me little to no time to sulk about the fact that my high school days were officially gone. I immediately fell in love with my major, even after the dreaded prerequisite classes, and started on the fast-track to success.

By my sophomore year, I was heavily involved in my school’s budding chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), to which organization I attribute most of my public relations knowledge. It was this organization that made me passionate about the field and gave me the tools I needed to become the best prepared I can possibly be for a job post-graduation. By my junior year, I was serving as promotions committee head, leading a team in the organization’s publicity efforts. As a senior, I’ve been leading PRSSA as chapter co-president, which as been my most challenging and rewarding experience thus far. Enough about that for now. The summer between my sophomore and junior years was spent studying the language and culture of Spain with a group of my fellow classmates in Salamanca.

Studying abroad was one of the best decisions I made in my four years at JMU. Not only was I forced to learn the Spanish language on a level I’d never be able to reach at home, but my cultural bubble was finally popped. This experience allowed me to see the world from a totally new perspective. This is what got me interested in international public relations practices. It is truly a challenge to be able to understand and communicate among differing cultures. But hey, I do enjoy a challenge..

I don’t know if I could ever climb Mount Everest, but it is the epitome of the word “challenge.” Which leads me to here and now. My senior year of college is coming to a close and I have one word to describe it:  rollercoaster. My life this year has presented me with an array of challenges whether personal, professional, emotional or educational. In juggling and overcoming these various and numerous obstacles, I have learned about myself, my future profession and about life in general. I have learned, sometimes the hard way, how to be the best possible version of myself- something I’m not sure I could have learned, or at least not as effectively, if I hadn’t made the excellent decision to attend JMU. I love my school and always will. Here’s to forever being a Duke.

http://www.jmu.edu/news/madisonscholar/2011MuonLifetime.shtml

Facebook:  1, Burglars:  0.

Not to downplay the success or the resourcefulness displayed by this touching tale, but to me this seems like a special case. I’m not saying that social media superhero stories like this are unlikely, but rather fairly uncommon. If a best friend of mine had posted a similar status, I think I would be more likely to check in on the friend first rather than immediately call the police. Call me crazy, but I’d take an SOS via Facebook, or any other social media outlet for that matter, slightly less seriously than one via text or phone call.

As Facebook may have been Bhakta’s only available means of communication at the time, I’ll commend him for his quick thinking. He was lucky to have a friend who not only took the status seriously, but was prompt in his response. As the social media outlet evolves, maybe we’ll see more of these heroic happenings unfold, or, just maybe, we’ll witness a few instances of the little cyber boy who cried wolf.

Could I be going against my resolution to be more optimistic..?

More on the story at:  http://mashable.com/2011/03/18/facebook-burglary-2/

Aging Landmine Study

With 77 days to graduation and counting, the time to find a real job and move on with my life is growing closer and closer. This, for me, is bittersweet (as they always say). There are so many things about my undergraduate years that I’ll miss, but there are just as many that can’t disappear soon enough!

The stress is becoming increasingly distracting and I’m desperate for a solution. Though in a perfect world, the quick fix would be a fabulous job offer in a beautiful city (*cough* Raleigh *cough*), I’m open for any suggestions. What do you do to de-stress? Any advice to help me sleep at night? How do you put your mind at ease when you’re feeling overwhelmed?

After a few minutes of astonishment, my curiosity got the best of me and I delved deeper into this phenomenon and discovered that each tweet was posted with approximately 5, 10, or 20 minutes in between. I’m onto you, HWMNBN! Even more than this, I picked up on the fact that there are a few tweets sprinkled in that look a lot like their predecessors. Try identical, aka HWMNBN has some sort of add-on that’s cycling tweets through at seemingly “random” times. Good try, HWMNBN, but you can’t get past this one! I’m like a hawk.

Clearly, this concept bothers me a bit. I can respect and understand a busy man looking to keep his followers’ interest, but to me, this automated feature makes it appear a bit disingenuous. What do you think about this? Please feel free to refute my point. I’d love to be proven wrong on this one.

What do you think? Could you handle the stress? Or would you SNAP under pressure? These are the questions I ask myself. I guess there’s only one way to find out… dun dun DUN!

Nir Rosen, a fellow at New York University’s Center on Law and Security, has accepted resignation following some inappropriate, and rather politically incorrect, tweets regarding the sexual assault of CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan in Cairo. Logan was in Tahrir Square for a 60 Minutes feature on Feb. 11 covering the celebrations when she was separated from her team and brutally beaten and assaulted before eventually being rescued by a group of women and Egyptian soldiers.

Rosen’s tweets included statements like, “Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson. Where was her buddy McCrystal?” referring to Anderson Cooper’s beating in Cairo earlier this month. He was also quoted as tweeting, “I’m rolling my eyes at all the attention she’ll get.” Well, Mr. Rosen, the attention is unfortunately now yours.

After since deleting these posts as well as apologizing profusely, Rosen commented on the potentially dangerous nature of an instantaneous communication channel such as Twitter stating, “I know that in a matter of seconds with a thoughtless joke, I brought shame upon myself and my family and added insult to Ms. Logan’s injury.”

Not to justify what Rosen said or did, but I can sympathize with his mistake. There are so many people out there, myself included, who have carelessly shared things on social media sites without proper contemplation, without thinking about how they will come across to others. We can all consider this an opportunity to learn from another’s mistake. Mr. Rosen got himself into trouble because he has lately been very visible in the public eye, but we “common folk” are not exempt from such situations. Think before you tweet.

Originating from “weblog,” this diverse outlet serves many a purpose. Some blog for business, some blog for fun. Some blog about hobbies, interests, or passions. Others blog about an annoyance, advocacy, or current event. Some keep it professional, others don’t. Some share their inner-most thoughts, dreams and aspirations. Some treat a blog entry as a diary entry, taking it to a highly personal level. Others keep themselves guarded, preferring to remain separate from their blogger identity.

I’ve always tried to remain somewhat anonymous in my blogging. I’ve commented, shared, and reacted to stories I’ve found, adding a little personality while intentionally keeping my cyber-guard up. This has always been a challenge for me as I tend to be an emotional person. Anyone who truly knows me will say that I’m fairly open about happenings in my life, no matter how personal. There are very few things that I know or feel that I’ve kept hidden from absolutely all others. The idea of treating a blog as an online diary of sorts used to terrify me. Why would I put my more personal thoughts and feelings out there for any stranger to see? It seemed wrong, scary, intimidating. I’d like to believe that this is a concept that a lot of bloggers struggle with when first getting their bearings in a forum such as this.

In reflecting on this concept more recently, however, I’ve come to a new conclusion. In order to have a believable, respectable, relatable web presence, it may be important to let my readers in to get a sense of the real me. Putting myself out there in this way could ensure that my thoughts on even unrelated topics are understood. So this is me tying in a whole new aspect to my blogging experience. I’m by no means taking off my social media analyst hat, but I am indeed adding another layer. These are my thoughts, random as they may be, that keep me awake at night. Now under a new category, “Insomniac Entries,” can you find me, myself, and I in a more candid way. Welcome to my brain.