I Don't Know Where my Cell Phone was Made, and I Don't Care

BOSTON (Reuters) — Even as some economic commentators fret about the rising trade deficit, U.S. college students remain big fans of U.S. products like LG mobile telephones, Adidas sneakers and Lego toys.

Or so they think.

South Korea's LG Electronics Inc., Germany's Adidas AG and Denmark's Lego are among more than a dozen well-known consumer brands that U.S. college students misidentified the nationality of, according to a survey released Friday. (CNN Money.com)

As if we didn't spend enough time obsessing about "stuff." Now it's a dilemma if we don't know what country manufactures it?

According to a recent survey, college-aged millennials don't know (or don't care) where their favorite products come from. "This can be important economically since survey respondents tend to associate particular countries with producing high-quality merchandise in particular categories."

Is this really an issue?

We live in a global community. Products are developed, manufactured and sold in diverse locations around the globe. If you ask me where my LG phone came from, I wouldn't say South Korea. I'd say Best Buy.

Think of it this way. Jack Daniels is made in Lynchburg, Tennessee. In college, I spent way too much time nursing a bottle of whiskey to know this information. If you spend that much time coddling your LG cell phone, your Adidas sneakers or your old collection of Lego's, you have bigger problems than me.

Blogging is the New Graduate School

Like most people our age, my friends don't really read blogs. So I created a My Space page to market my blog. At first, this worked out great. Our friends could see bulletins every time a new post went up and people got a better sense of what the blog was all about.

On top of this, every night before bed I left an AIM away message stating, "click here" and people would be sent to the site. I also updated my Facebook profile every time a new post went up. All of these things worked great for the first few weeks. My friends went to the site, and someone new would ask about it nearly every day.

Despite all of this, we realized that it is not easy to convert the average twentysomething to the wonderful world of the blogosphere. Even my friends and acquaintances that appreciate what I'm doing and compliment my site, do not frequent my blog or any other blog on a regular basis. And when they do visit the site they almost never leave a comment.

It's ironic, though, because blogging is a way to deal with the biggest problem at the beginning of one's career: No expertise. If you offer intelligent opinions or advice on a credible blog, then you are an expert. This is why more young people should blog. If you have a focused blog, then you can jump from job to job and learn many skills, but the constant will be that you are an expert in whatever area you choose to research and write about.

Read the rest at the Brazen Careerist….