A Day in the Life as a Millennial

Kira Hoffelymeyer’s iPhone alarm starts to go off and she knows it’s time to start her day. As she prepares herself for school, she goes through her daily morning routine. Opens up a new container of oatmeal and then begins to read the International news off her iPhone until she has to leave for class.

The senior at University of Oregon says, “Usually, in the morning I read from the top down starting with the International stories. But my favorite and probably most visited site I read is AJ+.”

Usually most students’ choice of what they prefer to listen to as they walk around campus would be music. As Kira walks out the door to head to her last term of classes, she plugs in her headphones into her iPhone and turns on a Podcast she enjoys listening to.

Kira said proudly, “Podcasts are my favorite thing to listen to. I’ve always been into audio and been able to understand it better rather than just starring at something. I would say I listen to NPR and Serial the most. What I also like to do with Podcasts is put it into double speed so I can listen to stories quicker. I’ve always been a fast-talker so I guess I’m a fast listener too.”

When asked why she has always been interested in audio, she waited a couple of seconds before answering as if she was collecting all her thoughts together. Once she remembered, she said it had to do with singing when she was younger. She started singing at the age of 3, but didn’t know how to read music until the age of 11.

Kira said, “I really think that’s why I can understand audio better than most. I was forced to listen and understand the music before I actually learned how to read it.”

After Kira’s classes get done for the day, she walks over to the Emerald and continues to stay plugged into social media because it’s her job. At the Emerald, she maintains its Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat sites. Kira is a “super j” major, in which she majors in investigative journalism and reporting. Although she enjoys helping the Emerald with its social media sites, she knows she does not want to make a career out of it. Kira’s goals for down the road would be to find hard-hitting newsworthy stories that get written in print or on the Internet.

Kira said, “I know I for sure don’t want to be a TV journalist. I would be happy if my stories made it onto print, but I wouldn’t be disappointed if it made it onto the Internet as well. I just know I don’t want to be the one running the social media sites as journalist.”

As well as running social media sites for the Emerald, Kira runs her own personal sites at her free time. Kira’s personal sites are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. She says her favorite thing to do on Facebook is watch the “Tasty” videos that are run by BuzzFeed. When I asked her when she first started getting into social media she said it would probably be around 2008, right when Facebook was just starting up.

I then reminded her of Myspace, she laughed and said, “Of course I had a Myspace, how could I forget about that?”