Keep Keeping Up!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that Tristan cheated on his baby’s mother Khloé with her sister Kylie’s best friend Jordyn who just a few weeks ago, were taking bff pics on an island together.
Or did you decide you were too busy with work to read up on it?
If your answer is no, don’t feel bad. In fact, be proud of yourself. Because if Jada Pinkett Smith from Red Table Talk hadn’t been keeping up with it, she would have missed out on creating arguably the best episode of her show yet. Everyone I know has suddenly gotten onto Facebook Watch because this reveal was unmissable. Any other hosting show on a lesser watched channel is kicking itself—this was a hugely smart move on Jada’s part. And it’s because she knew what people were begging to hear about.
It’s easy in school to think that staying updated on mainstream culture and news is a luxury. Reading tweets and scrolling through your feed every morning feels like the thing you do when you don’t want to get out of bed yet. The truth is, it’s actually a necessity in our field. Not knowing the biggest trend or the hottest topic could be damaging in more ways than one in communications. If you don’t know what’s going on, you could very well create the next tone deaf Pepsi-Kendall Jenner ad. (Funny how that family keeps popping up in this post, right?) And what’s possibly even worse, you could miss out on a golden opportunity to make your work or publication more relevant. Red Table Talk saw that Jordyn would be looking for a platform to speak her part, and by giving her that space, they created a need for thousands of viewers to tune in and listen.
It’s best to create a habit of when you read and catch up on what’s going on, whether that be first thing in the morning, during your lunch break, or when you’re settling down at night. It’s helpful to use your online media accounts to the best of their abilities. Rather than just following meme pages and your friends (both are essential, I’m not saying to unfollow them) add on relevant publications, important organizations, public figures within your field. Sign up for emails from those publications also. That celebrity you hate but is in the spotlight? Add them too. You never know what will happen that suddenly inspires you or gives you something new to talk about.
As I said earlier, the biggest part of this challenge is feeling like you’re not wasting your time as you read and scroll and comment. Grad school makes you second guess what before would have always made sense—like whether 15 minutes to wash your hair is really necessary or how many coffee based meals you can have in a day. But with projects and papers requiring that you be creative and informed, a little extra reading every day can go further than you think.
Hey, at least it’s fun to keep keeping up.
