Maggie McDevitt

 Its is not question that the past year and a half have been some of the hardest times for most of us. The shock of a global pandemic did not come easy. Since March of 2020, COVID-19 had taken the reigns to out lives and each of us have been impacted by it in some way. As a population we have experienced almost a year long quarantine, a massive loss of jobs, unemployment rates sky rocketing, and a daily risk to out physical and mental health.  For me, COVID-19 took away some of what is supposed to be the best years of my life, and left me to pick up the pieces. I was a junior in college when the pandemic first hit and I was the happiest I had ever been. I was about to be 21, I a had good grades, great friends, and things were looking up. Until that all stopped...The constant fear and anxiety brought on by COVID-19 and the isolation during quarantine really took a toll on my mental health. I am a person that thrives around others and not being able to see my family, friends, an...

     For this assignment I decided to create a video describing the struggles students that work a full time or part time job while also a full time student face. Majority of college students in America, approximately 70% work a full time or part time job while also attending college full time. (Rapacon, 15). It is a very difficult task to maintain life while completing a degree alone, adding a job to that work load only makes things more difficult. For the age group of 18-22, many influences affect your daily life such as social activities, school work, family, friends, and for the group that works a job to support themselves financially, juggling those factors is even more difficult.        For senior Marlee Arrington, working at least a part time job while in school as also been imperative for her. She did not have the luxury of financial assistance and has to make ends meet on her own. She tells us in the interview how the struggle of full tim...

       For this weeks blog post I decided to create a photo story of what a day in the life of a college student during the pandemic looks like. I know everyone has been struggling with maintaining their normal daily tasks since the start of the pandemic and with trying to find their new normal. So with this photo story I tried to show a little bit of what my new normal looks like!       I start my day by grabbing my keys and my mask that now hangs by the door so I do not forget it and I head to the gym at my apartment complex. I then make my way to the gym and I am greeted by a sign on the door reminding me that a mask is required to enter and a table with a stack of masks sits just inside the door for residents that might have forgotten theirs. I then head to the small gym to begin my workout. My apartment has made a few changes to the way we are allowed to use the gym since the pandemic including time reservations for gym access and masks are r...

       The transition from college life to the workforce life always been a hard shift for most students. We spend almost 16 years of our lives in school studying to create the best life for ourselves, waiting for the day we walk across that final graduation stage, only for it to hit us like a brick wall. The idea that we will graduate college and start a career we love and have the most successful life, is very much romanticized and not at all the reality.       No one tells you that the shift from student to employee is a really hard one. No one tells you that you will miss the days as a student and at college where your days were so carefree. No one talks about the struggles you will go through having to figure out full time in the workforce and much of a difference it is to the class room. No one talks about the identity crisis you will have being forced to jump into a world that is nothing like the one you have lived for the past 4 years... n...

      This week I got the chance to interview a fellow JSU student, Jada Hester. Jada is a senior at Jacksonville State University and is studying Digital Journalism. She is 22 years old and is from Crossville, Alabama.      In the interview, we talked about Jada's hobbies and passions and the things she likes to do for fun. I learned that we have similar passions for reading and we even read the same genera of books. Jada also talks about her love for writing and how she plans to make a career out of it. She also loves to dance and has been dancing since she was a little girl. Jada is currently a member of the Marching Ballerinas at JSU and if she is not reading or writing she is dancing.      I really enjoyed getting to know more about my classmates on a personal level and talking with Jada. I hope enjoy it as much as I did!  https://jsu-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/mmcdevitt_stu_jsu_edu/Ed4hx6siHp9JkRKNyz69XV8BC3ZRd...

    Internet Product has taught me much more than I ever expected this semester. This class has taught me how to provide analytical information for websites, emails, and social media. I have also learned the importance of analytical data and how to can drastically improve your online presence. I have learned how to create a proper social media strategy for a company or a  person and how to maintain that strategy. This class also gave me the opportunity to explore Adobe Spark, Hootsuite, and the chance to create my own blog.      I am so thankful that this class allowed each student to create their own blog page and have the freedom to write each week about any topic. It has helped me to find my path and to have a voice of my own. The blog has been a great way to allow students to use the topics discussed in class and apply them to any situation. I plan to continue this blog page in hopes that it will help other college students that are...

     Social media has grown to be such an important aspect of almost every individuals life. Social media has its fait share of pros and cons, this goes for casual users and professionals. The benefits that social media has brought to professions such as marketing, advertising, sells, and business are not arguable. Social media allows for these professions to easily connect with a world-wide audience to further their success's. However, that is simply not the case for journalism.      The impact of social media is quite heavy for all professional journalists. The ability for users to publish content about anything at anytime allows them to feel like a "reporter". This has a negative affect on the professional journalists that want to share credible news and stories via social media. Now a days, anyone can capture a situation that looks to be news worthy on their smartphone and share it with the world in a matter of seconds. This lessens the credi...