I did it completely wrong. To be honest, I’ve been doing this whole class wrong and it’s already the fifth week of class. It’s taken me this long to finally catch up and here I am.

My first blog post was supposed to be about something COMPLETELY else than what I wrote about. I’m thinking about scenarios where I delete the blog post entirely but I don’t think that would fit my erratic online personality. I’ll keep it up, being the good sport I am, and continue with the actual assignment:

Technology in Advertising & Public Relations

It’s interesting to be growing into adulthood during this specific point in time. I’m living in the age where a plethora of information can be accessed at my own fingertips; yet, I find that with this gift comes a lot of distractions. It’s so easy to be sucked into kitten videos while studying or researching online — better yet, I found a thread of tweets today of kids using Animojies and saying cute things like “I love you mommy – woof woof!” while using the dog Animoji. I completely forgot I had been doing productive things before falling down that insanely adorable rabbit hole.

I think companies that are smart with internet advertising realize this. They know that today’s generation of Millennials and Zs have short attention spans. They know how to activate the pleasure signals in the brains of relatively attentive minds with smart advertisements, whether they be interactive mini games or funny videos (the spectrum isn’t defined by those two examples; there’s so many attractive advertisements out there). Sometimes I wonder if I’m going to shell out my morals to work for an advertising agency that profits off the inattentiveness of people my age. I can be cynical about technology, which also makes me wonder if this degree is something that suits me.

However, I think majoring in advertising and public relations is a really smart decision. Virtually every company in the world uses advertising and public relations. As technology advances and we culturally shift from floppy disks to iCloud and beyond, companies get more and more creative with advertising their products and services. With the (n)ever(ending)-so-promising future of VR, which will either be the next dominant platform of technology or not, I wonder what advertising will be like under that tech reign. We can already see with some VR/mixed reality programs – such as those that allow you to tour potential homes or ‘try on’ clothes – we are immersing ourselves even deeper into technology, and who honestly knows how companies will use that to their benefit in advertising/PR? What I know, however, is that no matter how complex and interactive technology evolves in my lifetime I will at least be able to get a job doing something with an Ad/PR degree.

Does that sound like a defeatist attitude? Am I succumbing to a degree just because I know I will be able to make a few good dollars with it?

I’m looking on the bright side when it comes to Ad/PR. I hope – and I am hoping so hard – that companies will use Ad/PR in the very near future (aka, now) to bring attention to the dire situation that is climate change. Millennials and Gen Z are already making an impact to impede the damage; look at the meat and dairy industry who are silently struggling to grasp the loyalty of young consumers who are cutting those things out of their diet either partially or entirely. While I do not wish for their comebacks, I do wish for other industries to do their duty to cut their emissions and be as green as possible and also advertise this to consumers.

I desperately want the fashion industry to cut back on using synthetic fibers; even only using poly-blends of natural and synthetic fibers would be a good start. And I want these companies to let us know via Ad/PR that they are consciously making these changes. I want to be part of this movement – I want to work for a fashion firm (I’m looking at you Versace, Zana Bayne, Filson’s, etc.) and reach out to the consumers to let them know that we are making a difference. Whether that’s through quirky Twitter posts, Facebook ads, Snapchat shout-outs, or even a VR app that lets you talk to Donatella Versace herself about saving the turtles from eating microplastics, I want to be part of that.

So yeah – that’s the bright side of my Ad/PR mentality. I don’t want to exploit the inattentiveness of internet users for a cheap buck – I want to be part of a movement to save this planet and be environmentally conscious while helping a company remain profitable. Hopefully this degree will let me do just that.