I’m almost a sophomore and not sure what classes I should try out next year to help figure out my major. I’m actually really drawn to media, technology, and the arts.
I have really big dreams of doing something big and inspiring that makes people happy or helping with something people are engaged with a lot. Such as social media, popular websites, games, youtube, etc. Things related to entertainment mostly. I know I’d have to work my way up to do something like that, but I’m having trouble choosing where I should start, and what I want to do. I think money is more a concern for me than anything… I keep getting told to go into STEM, but I think I’d be unhappy with it.
What school do you go to? Try doing a communications degree or something like that.
So there are lots of major that would allow you to work in social media, popular websites like YouTube, or games. The sort of obvious pathway is computer science and software development, as software developers are the ones who make those technologies work. But in this day in age, there are hundreds of people who work in those areas. For example, I work in video games and I’m a psychologist - I run research with players to understand how they play our games so we can make more games that they like.
What majors are offered at your university that you’re interested in?
I’m not sure what college you are attending and what majors it offers, but you may be interested in checking out communications, media studies, or creative technologies.
People tend to advise others to follow the STEM path, and it’s great that they may be trying to help, but only you can decide what the right decision for you is.
Life is too short to not do what you want.
Again, you may be interested in what I’ve listed (especially media studies).
Here is a link that describes a little bit about media studies:
https://learn.org/articles/Media_Studies_Majors_Your_Career_and_Salary_Questions_Answered.html
Good luck!
I’m interested in experience architecture, media and information, and I’m even considering taking a packaging class.
Experience architecture: https://admissions.msu.edu/academics/majors-degrees-programs/experience-architecture.aspx
Media and Information (game and interactivity focus)
Both appeal to me, but I have an intense fear of these being useless. Media major gets a bad rep- well. Non-stem majors in general. It sucks, but I guess it’s getting to me.
Experience architecture was the major I was going to recommend, but that major is limited - most schools don’t have it. Michigan State is one of the few that does, so if you go to Michigan State that’s a great major to consider
I work in user experience/interaction design (and specifically in video games). Although I have a PhD, the people in my field (writ large) are mostly a mix of BA and MA holders.* As the tech industry grows and matures, this field is growing as well - there’s a need for people with expertise in the area to make sure that the tech we build is usable by, useful to, and acceptable to the people we’re marketing it to. Especially if you pair this major with some computer science classes - and maybe a computer science minor - you could potentially work as a user experience or front-end developer.
*I will caveat this by saying that video games is so competitive that the people who do user research in games, specifically, tend to have MAs and PhDs. That doesn’t mean you can’t go get an MA and move into games after some years of experience, though.
As for the second major - media and information design - well. There’s certainly nothing wrong with the major and there are lots of jobs that you can do with it after college. There are, in fact, lots of people who work in game design with all kinds of majors - including majors like media and information. This sounds like the kind of major that would lead to a career in game design or design in another area of tech. But…again…the video games industry is very competitive. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t try (and Michigan State is a great place to do so from! They have built a nice little area of media/tech expertise) but it is to say that you should plan carefully, make sure you seek out internships and part-time opportunities to gain experience, and build appealing/marketable skills to help you with a Plan B. Programming and learning different art/design software programs will help you.