Growing up, I had about 1,000 different ideas about what I would study in college. At age 5 I wanted to be the first Doctor/Lawyer who doubled as an actress. As I got older, I looked into a lot more serious and achievable things, but the one thing no one ever brought up was the major that is Communications. Seriously, no one ever taught me about that one.
Now that I have officially declared my major as Public Relations, which fall under the realm of communications, I find a lot of people hating on that choice. Whether it be family members concerned about my future employment or fellow students calling it a 'last resort major,' it's clear that there are a lot of misconceptions about communications. Here is my top five things that you should not say to a com major.
1. "Wow, so you're majoring in how to talk?"
There seems to be a wide selection of people who have no idea what a major in communications actually is. Much to their surprise, it's not actually just about learning how to talk to other human beings. Communication majors actually learn a lot of in-depth theories about the world of communication, as well as strategic advertisement, business communication, and even marketing strategies.
2. "I bet all you do is play on facebook for your homework."
While social media plays an extremely important role, we don't just sit there and scroll through our old high-school friend's current life drama. As far as social media is concerned, we use it to apply communication theories as well as learning how to use it as a marketing tool. For us, social media is much more than memes and dog videos. Although, who doesn't love a good meme or dog video?
3. "Com majors have it so easy."
Communications is a field that is constantly changing. Between social media, world politics, and human evolvement, communication is never the same every day. No, we're not messing around with chemistry labs or studying how to do open heart surgery, but we are doing in-depth analyzation of the effects of social media, or maybe a research project on how advertisement affects buyer behavior. Com majors have to adapt to different situations instantaneously.
4. "It's a 'last resort' major.
Haters of the communications major argue that people don't decide to be a com major until they failed at something else. As a second-semester freshman, I've known since my first day that communications is the right field for me. I've always loved analysis and theory, and I genuinely believe that my com major will put me into a career that I'm happy with - because there are so many options.
5. "You'll never find a job."
There are too many concentrations in the communications major for that to be true. You could choose to focus on public relations, journalism, media, business/marketing/advertising. All of these areas are essential to communications. Job growth for communications based careers, in general, is projected to increase by 4% by 2024. PR looks to grow by 6%, and film/media related jobs are projected to grow by 18%. Needless to say, it's not a dying career.
So, next time you plan on hating the communications department, consider everything you could gain from a communications major or minor.
