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  • How LinkedIn Can Help You Find a New Job

    How LinkedIn Can Help You Find a New Job

    There’s no way to sugarcoat it: trying to find a new job is really, really difficult. It’s hard to even know where to begin. Who’s hiring? Who has good benefits and a good work environment? If you’re not using some kind of job board or have a ton of connections, you’re running in blind.

    That’s where LinkedIn comes in. More than just being a simple job board site, LinkedIn is the best social media app for meeting professional connections. After all, it’s much easier to get ahead in a crowded job market when you know the right people. Here’s how to have LinkedIn work for you.

    LinkedIn

    Take it Seriously

    LinkedIn might be a social networking site, but you should take it seriously. It’s not quite the same as Facebook or Instagram. It’s an opportunity to present yourself in a professional and well-curated way for potential employers and colleagues.

    As such, you should make sure you present your best self on LinkedIn. Make sure your pictures aren’t ones of you and your buddies hanging loose and partying. Make sure you’re well-dressed and well-groomed in your pictures!

    Use it Often

    Make sure to use LinkedIn often. Even if you’re employed and like your job, it’s good to have connections that you cultivate. If you only use the app when you’re looking for a new job, you’ll be out of luck. It’s not enough just to run to it in an emergency: you need to keep up to date!

    By using the app often, you ensure that you’ve got a presence online that potential employers and professional connections can see. This is essentially an ad for yourself as an employee. Take pride in it, and make sure everyone knows just how good of an employee you are.

    Resume

    Make sure you keep a well-formatted, up-to-date copy of your resume easily accessible on your LinkedIn. You never know when a recruiter or hiring manager might come along and see your profile. If they do, you want to make sure your info is all up-to-date and accurate!

    There’s no reason to potentially miss out on a great job just because you’ve got some goofy typos on your resume. Make sure you keep everything connected to your business page tight and well-formatted. This is an easy step to take that will take you only a few minutes, so don’t put it off!

    If you’re looking to make lasting businesses connections, LinkedIn is where it’s at. Get your profile active and looking great today.


  • Are You Spending Too Much Time on Your Phone?

    Are You Spending Too Much Time on Your Phone?

    Smartphones have changed the way we live our very lives. They’re alarm clock, timer, flashlight, calculator, game system, portable computer and, of course, phone, for the modern human. However, many people feel as though they may be spending too much time on their smartphones. When is it time to make a change?

    Too Much Time on the Smartphone

    Ignoring Family

    We’ve all been hanging out with friends or family and then noticed that no one was talking to anyone. Everyone was just scrolling through their social media, or reading an article, or texting. If you find you’re missing out on quality time with loved ones, make an effort to keep your phone in your pocket when hanging out.

    It’s easy to get sucked into your phone. Consider silencing notifications from social media apps, and even just leaving your phone off or on silent. In an emergency, people can reach you. Otherwise, why stay glued to the phone all day? You’ve got a life to live right in front of you.

    Wasting Time

    You know that slurping sound that Facebook makes when it siphons your free time? The feeling of the minutes whiling away as you scroll, infinitely, down the page makes your stomach sink. Stop doing it. There’s nothing new or exciting or interesting happening on your Facebook feed, your Twitter feed or your Instagram feed.

    These apps are designed to harvest your data and then sell it to ad agencies for a lot of money. That’s it. They’re mindless, they’re not keeping you “up-to-date” or “informed,” and they’ve been shown to have a negative effect on mental health. Just stop scrolling.

    Mental Health

    Yes, you read that right. Social media is linked to making people feel more insecure, more depressed and less fulfilled in their own lives. When you’re constantly exposed to clickbait media, fake news articles and manufactured outrage, it becomes grating. Why subject yourself to such a toxic mix of badly curated media?

    Social media can be great for keeping up with friends and current events. Seeing new pictures of family, updates on vacations and news blurbs are all great. However, aside from these highlights, there’s nothing to be gained by scrolling down the infinite feed forever. You’re just subjecting yourself to drivel for no reason.

    How to Quit

    Compulsively checking one’s phone is addicting. Consider getting a smartwatch, or a normal wristwatch. This gives you something to check for the time without pulling out your phone to suck up your hours. Another option is getting into a hobby that is engrossing and doesn’t leave time to constantly check your social media.

    In an extreme case, if you feel like you’re spending too much time on your phone and just can’t stop, take drastic measures. Uninstall your social media apps. Turn off your cellular data. Heck, just turn your phone off. You’ve got a life to live, so live it.

  • When to Take a Break from Social Media

    When to Take a Break from Social Media

    Social media is a part of everyone’s everyday lives now. There’s nothing quite as modern as flipping back and forth between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, trying to keep up with all of your various newsfeeds.

    Sometimes, however, social media takes too big a bite out of your free time or starts eating away at your mental health. It helps to know when to take a break from social media.

    When to Take a Break from Social Media

    Free Time

    This might sound a little heavy, but you’re probably wasting a ton of time on social media. Your free time is limited: why piddle it all away on some dumb phone app? Surely your hobbies are more interesting than looking at pictures of people you went to school with years ago.

    Take back your free time by stepping away from social media. There are way more fun things out there than scrolling infinitely through yet another news feed. Painting, dancing, singing, watching movies, reading, going for walks in the park, playing board games with friends, the list goes on and on. Just step away from the phone.

    Mental Health

    There’s a clinically-proven link between spending a lot of time on social media and depression. Low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness, and even pervasive nihilism are all connected to over-consumption of social media. This is all because of the way social media hijacks your brain’s rewards systems.

    Your brain gets a hit of feel-good chemicals when your content is liked or shared. This is a very addictive process, and it can be very difficult to decouple it from social media use. The best thing to do when you’re spending too much time on a social media app is to just delete it outright and spend more time with your friends in the real world.

    Arguments

    We’d be lying if we said we’ve never been in social media arguments. Thanks to the current divisive political climate and the spread of constant misinformation, arguments are bound to happen on social media. We’ve even had relationships with family soured over regrettable Facebook exchanges. This is really, really unhealthy.

    If you’re finding yourself getting into arguments online and getting really stressed out by your own social media account, cut social media out of your life. Just uninstall the apps from your phone and live your life without sweating the social media. It’s more fun to just live in the moment, anyway.

  • How LinkedIn Can Help You Find a New Job

    How LinkedIn Can Help You Find a New Job

    There’s no way to sugarcoat it: trying to find a new job is really, really difficult. It’s hard to even know where to begin. Who’s hiring? Who has good benefits and a good work environment? If you’re not using some kind of job board or have a ton of connections, you’re running in blind.

    That’s where LinkedIn comes in. More than just being a simple job board site, LinkedIn is the best social media app for meeting professional connections. After all, it’s much easier to get ahead in a crowded job market when you know the right people. Here’s how to have LinkedIn work for you.

    LinkedIn

    Take it Seriously

    LinkedIn might be a social networking site, but you should take it seriously. It’s not quite the same as Facebook or Instagram. It’s an opportunity to present yourself in a professional and well-curated way for potential employers and colleagues.

    As such, you should make sure you present your best self on LinkedIn. Make sure your pictures aren’t ones of you and your buddies hanging loose and partying. Make sure you’re well-dressed and well-groomed in your pictures!

    Use it Often

    Make sure to use LinkedIn often. Even if you’re employed and like your job, it’s good to have connections that you cultivate. If you only use the app when you’re looking for a new job, you’ll be out of luck. It’s not enough just to run to it in an emergency: you need to keep up to date!

    By using the app often, you ensure that you’ve got a presence online that potential employers and professional connections can see. This is essentially an ad for yourself as an employee. Take pride in it, and make sure everyone knows just how good of an employee you are.

    Resume

    Make sure you keep a well-formatted, up-to-date copy of your resume easily accessible on your LinkedIn. You never know when a recruiter or hiring manager might come along and see your profile. If they do, you want to make sure your info is all up-to-date and accurate!

    There’s no reason to potentially miss out on a great job just because you’ve got some goofy typos on your resume. Make sure you keep everything connected to your business page tight and well-formatted. This is an easy step to take that will take you only a few minutes, so don’t put it off!

    If you’re looking to make lasting businesses connections, LinkedIn is where it’s at. Get your profile active and looking great today.

  • Are You Spending Too Much Time on Social Media?

    Are You Spending Too Much Time on Social Media?

    It can be very difficult to tell when you’re spending too much time on social media. It’s easy to sit down at your computer or on your couch and start scrolling endlessly through your social media feeds. Twitter offers up news and bites of thought, Facebook shows you your friends everyday life events and Instagram shows you windows into the lives of others.

    Maybe you’re feeling like you’re spending too much time on social media due to the effect it’s having on your psyche. Are you feeling depressed or anxious when you start scrolling through your feed? Maybe it’s time to step back.

    How to Tell If You’re Spending Too Much Time on Social Media

    Every Moment is Captured

    If you notice you’re always framing each moment and capturing it for Instagram or Facebook, maybe it’s time to reconsider your social media intake. If every meal is being photographed and uploaded and every restaurant is only for your Insta clout, that’s not terribly healthy. It’s okay to enjoy things in the moment, as the ephemeral and temporary things they are.

    If you’re always clinging to the very moment, you’re causing yourself anxiety that is totally unnecessary. Your life is yours alone: you don’t need to stress out trying to make it look fantastic and otherworldly for other people’s benefit. Live your life for yourself first and take a step back from the over-documentation.

    You Compulsively Check Your Phone

    “Live in the moment” is a difficult adage to live by. We’re inherently social creatures, and we often desire outside validation from our peers. That’s why it’s so addictive to grab our phones, open them, and check on our social media. However, this is a really bad habit to fall in to.

    You know the loop: you’re stressed out, you’re putting off important things that you need to do, and you check your phone really fast to see the time. Maybe you’re looking to check off any notifications before you start in on something important. Then, you get sucked in to scrolling.

    Maybe it’s Facebook scrolling down your friends’ pictures, Twitter scrolling to see news updates or just zoning out while looking at Instagram models. In any event, you’re looking at your phone for twenty minutes, and you feel yourself wasting time. But still, you keep compulsively switching apps and scrolling.

    You Care More about Social Media Than Real Friends

    Another big red flag for social media addiction is compulsive phone checking at the expense of actual social engagements. You’ve probably had friends over before and felt yourself drifting out of conversation by scrolling down your phone, making yourself distant from the real people in your life.

    If you’re neglecting your real friends in person over your social media accounts, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Again, you need to live in the moment and enjoy what’s in front of you. If you’re out with your friends, you should just connect with them! There will be a chance to check social media later, when you go home and don’t have friends around.

    You’re Always Comparing Yourself

    A buddy of yours from school got more likes on their selfie than you did. A person you used to date is looking hot on a date with someone who looks way better than you. Some of your friends went to a movie and got dinner without you. These things are popping up all over your feed and you’re starting to get really self-conscious about it.

    These digital updates are actively making you feel bad. Your phone is glued to your hand, you don’t know what to do. You’re on the couch, the TV is blaring white noise and you can’t seem to snap out of it. You’re comparing yourself to the people you know and it’s killing you.

    What Should You Do?

    There are a few things you can do to try to break this cycle off. The first, and most obvious, thing you can do is to just delete the apps from your phone outright. Maybe you keep your accounts online so you can check from your desktop at home, but you should really start with getting them off of your phone.

    A more drastic step you can take is to downgrade from a smartphone. If your smartphone addiction is driving you to constantly reinstall apps and start the social media cycle over, just get rid of the smartphone. It’s not worth hanging on to something that makes you feel bad. Remember: the things you own shouldn’t own you.

  • Twitter Urges All Users to Change Password

    Twitter Urges All Users to Change Password

    Thursday, Twitter began urging all 336 million of its users to change their passwords, following news that passwords had been erroneously stored in plaintext on an unencrypted log. Users logging in after Thursday are met with a pop-up urging them to change their passwords and explaining the situation. Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO, expressed the need to be “open about this internal deficit.”

    How Long Have They Known?

    What is unknown, in spite of Twitter’s semi-transparency on the issue, is when this data mishandling was discovered, or for how long the data has been stored in this way. Typically, passwords are stored in logs using a technique called “hashing,” which is an encoding that replaces characters with other, random characters, thus rendering them as gibberish to someone without access to the encryption key. The log that Twitter disclosed the passwords were being stored on, however, were being stored in plain text.

    Not a Breach

    Twitter has been quick to point out that this was not a data breach, like the Target credit card debacle, nor did they have to inform anyone of this lapse in security. Twitters CTO, Parag Agrawal, tweeted: “We are sharing this information to help people make an informed decision about their account security. We didn’t have to, but believe it’s the right thing to do.”

    Best Way to Handle This?

    This news is unique, in that it was disclosed by Twitter, and as Agrawal so humbly observed, they didn’t have to inform the world of their mishandling of users’ passwords.  However, had the news broken without an official word from Twitter, the news would have gone from “unusual blip” to “full blown security scandal,” so the choice to inform the public was surely a wise one.