I’ve got thoughts on Kathleen Parker’s speech from last Thursday, which I will post here after my exam this evening.

Until then, though, our discussion in class yesterday made me think of a column I wrote for my other JED class last week. The column topic was up to us, and I was getting annoyed by all of the pictures going up on Facebook and Twitter last week from Instagram of our beautiful campus, ruined by some kind of cheesy filter. That inspiration helped me apply my frustration to other social media, until I suddenly found myself in a full-on rant (which, by the way, can be read here: http://www.notjustanothersportsblogg.blogspot.com/2012/10/techonologically-advanced.html).

There were things Parker said last Thursday that I agreed with, and things that I disagreed with. I guess my biggest takeaway from the speech is that we need to be selective in how we interact with this media, because if used effectively, it can be very powerful. But, if used for trivial and vain reasons, it just creates confusion as to what news really is, and furthermore, what news really is necessary.