Flip Yeah

Before attending my TEAC 259 class last week, this F icon held no meaning to me. In fact, I might have had trouble even guessing that this symbol is supposed to represent an F. However, I discovered that this is the icon for Flipboard, a website/app that advertises itself as "your personal magazine." You can subscribe to topics that interest you, then Flipboard will highlight current event articles from major publications about the topics you have chosen.
We had to create a Flipboard account as an assignment for class, so I figured I would find the required number of articles, share them, and never log back in again. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover this is a website I could see myself coming back to visit regularly. There are several reasons why Flipboard is worth checking out- here's what drew me in:

1. It plays into one of my favorite things: mindlessly scrolling.
Whether through Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter, I enjoy devoting large quantities of time each day to scrolling. Flipboard is no different, as you scroll through the many different articles pulled to find one you want to read. The difference is, here I'm much more likely to read a meaningful article than on other sites.

2. Keeping up on current events is on my New Year's Resolutions list- every. year.
"I'm going to stay more informed about what's going on in the world." How many times have I told myself that? But frankly, it's usually just not convenient enough to fit into my daily life. This is a fun way to counter that mindset.

3. It's personalized to you.
What makes Flipboard unique is that you get to make it your own. I don't have to scroll through a hundred articles to find the two that actually interest me; Flipboard does some of the hard work for me.

4. I get to view content specific to my field.
Flipboard is a great starting place to keep up-to-date on the current happenings in the education and speech pathology fields. Staying current on what's going on elsewhere in my field will be important to my career, and I can see myself perusing Flipboard to get a sense of what's up.

I loved getting this chance to learn about one site that's out there to keep us more connected to the world. If anyone has any similar websites they like to use, feel free to let me know!