My first entree into marketing and advertising was working for the Rapid City Journal (RCJ) (http://www.rapidcityjournal.com) in Rapid City, South Dakota as an advertising representative. One of the 'perks' was daily delivery, free of charge, of the newspaper. I have always been an ardent reader and took time each day to read the paper. Though the RCJ is not the size of a major city newspaper, it does a fairly decent job of covering national and local news interspersed with major world news. In addition to reading the daily paper, I also watched the nightly news, priding myself on having a basic knowledge of world and political affairs, who won the Monday night football game, and what the weather was going to be like on the weekend.
Fast forward 20 years and I am news-challenged. Yes, I know we have military in Iraq and Afghanistan; the MN Vikings have a 7-1 record; the NY Yankees won the World Series (and I'm not even a bonafide sports fan!); Hillary Clinton is the Secretary of State; and it's going to be in the 50s this week weather-wise. What have I missed? A lot it seems. I missed the great tragedy at Ft. Hood, TX last week of the mindless massacre of 13 innocent people (plus injured) until my son told me this past weekend. I have not kept up with the healthcare debate now moving to the Senate nor do I understand the potential current and future impact on my family's healthcare coverage. I forgot that tomorrow is Veteran's Day. I didn't know we had a city election last week or worse yet, who was running and what referendums were up for a vote. Even writing this makes me anxietous. Perhaps too much news causes me too much stress.
Most people who know me may be surprised to find that I am not keeping up with current events and instead am living in a world occupied by information via such random social media as twitter, facebook, hotmail, outlook, google and bing. Thank gosh I receive, via email, headlines each day from bing news (http://www.bing.com/) though the headlines consist of only 5 to 6 random national news stories. I do subscribe to the Sunday edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and though I feel it lacks hard hitting editorial news (they recently announced the cutting of 100 staff members; 30 in the newsroom), at least I know what the Target promotions are for the week and can get my weekly dose of $0.50 off Pringle and Dove chocolate coupons.
I seem much calmer lately...thank God for Pringles and dark chocolate.
I can't decide if you are wondering if your decision to gather information from social sites is a good or bad thing. You are the smartest woman I know and you have a great kid. I love your blog.
ReplyDeleteCarol
Hi Carol....I think gathering information, at whatever level, is valid but it really depends on the SOURCE of the information. Unfortunately, I think we are sometimes 'lazy' and don't put enough thought into the source, for example, Wikipedia is not a valid source of information but is widely used.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment sweetie - hugs, nee