#10 - Listening Posts

                                                                                         Listening Posts

In the world of social media and word of mouth, news is fast to get out and fast to spread. Being up to date with what is going on around you is very important in this day and age. Listening posts are an important part of staying up to date. There are many ways to find a listening post and I have many of my own I use in my day to day life.

One of the listening posts I use is my friends I have in my dorm and around campus. A lot of the time I find out about a campus event through one of my friends who heard about it or if they’re in that organization. We also discuss topics outside of campus activities and it provides me with extra insight into certain situations and topics.

Another listening post I have is my job. I work in a restaurant native to my hometown in Camden and it is a hotspot for people to go and eat. I get a lot of information working there between the customers and my co-workers. They provide a lot of stories about what's going on in my hometown that I don’t get or am not fully updated on due to me being in Magnolia. They also discuss various topics that help provide me insight on what others were thinking about what goes on in our town and how they feel about it. This has proven to be a really good resource for hometown or specific news in the time I’ve worked there.

Finally, a listening post I use the most often and is probably the most obvious is social media. A lot of people (me included) are on social media a lot in just a day, but social media has proven to be a great way of getting news and getting information even for the most niche of things. There are many different forms of social media to find news from. I use Facebook typically for anything hometown related or anything more personal with people I know, as I have found it the best way to obtain that type of news or information. I usually find a lot of news on X (formerly Twitter), but for anything very pressing I typically double check it to make sure it is true, usually using Google to find a reliable source. Overall social media has proved to be a very valuable listening post to keep me updated in my day to day life.

In the world of Social Media and word of mouth, with news constantly coming and going in a constant flow, It is important to keep up to date with what's going on around you. Whether it be what's going on in your school, hometown news, or just keeping up with news in general, it is important to establish listening posts to stay up to date and frequent with the news.