On Aug. 27, employees of the Baton Rouge General Mid City emergency room were notified of a pending closure because of financial shortcomings. The hospital is the only emergency facility between Zachary and south Baton Rouge. 
But in the days leading up to the hospital’s closure, Bobby Jindal was tweeting up a storm about his fantasy football draft, challenging his pal Phil Robertson to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and showing his support for Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the midst of a lawsuit. 
It’s frustrating to scroll through my Twitter feed and see news outlets and fellow students talking more about what’s happening in Louisiana than our governor.
And when Jindal bothers to tweet about the goings-on in Louisiana, it’s for publicity. Like tweeting a photo of himself giving Phil Robertson an award for entrepreneurial excellence for his TV show, “Duck Dynasty.” 
Our University has been pushing the use of social media to spread news and awareness of campus events among the student body, and it’s been going well. 
The Himes Testing Lab is one example of an interactive and informative social media strategy. Throughout the day, Himes tweets about openings for early testers, reminders of lab policies and even answers questions that students tweet at it. 
This is the sort of social media usage that the Jindal administration should consider learning to reach out to the younger voters. Sure, watching the governor of my state dump a bucket of ice water on his head is funny, but I’m not always looking for a laugh on Twitter. I’m looking to consume information.
There’s a stigma involved in social media that depicts users as mindless zombies absorbing the empty thoughts of their friends, liking pictures of themselves and their animals and escaping the real world. 
This could be why Jindal chose to post so much about his fantasy football league last month, attempting to get a few likes or connect with the younger generation. But we’re on social media sites for more than just entertainment and 15 second videos. 
Using those 140 Twitter characters to inform students and young adults of the issues that the Jindal administration is working on or implementing a Twitter Q&A session would be an excellent use of social media to connect the government with its people. 
I can’t pull out my iPhone at a family event without someone from an older generation telling me to put away the useless hunk of plastic. That attitude toward technology stems from not understanding how our generation is using technology to connect with the world around us. 
The New York Times pays someone to tweet their stories each day because they have realized the days of prepubescent boys throwing papers onto front porches are behind us. I read news from the Times, Washington Post and The Advocate each day, something I didn’t do before I made a Twitter account. 
And something I couldn’t do if those media outlets didn’t have social media and online departments. 
If you sit in the back of any class at LSU where the professor allows the use of technology, you’re going to see students on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook or some form of social media. Social media is a characteristic of our generation. And public figures such as Jindal stand to benefit from learning to use           it  effectively. 
Jana King is a 20-year-old communication studies junior from Ponchatoula, Louisiana. You can reach her on Twitter @jking_TDR.