Qualifying Exam EP
It was a labor of love to release my debut EP Qualifying Exam on 12/31/21.
Click here for a link to all the places it is streaming and for purchase.
Click here for a link to all the places it is streaming and for purchase.
Managing Friendships in a Global Pandemic
I had the pleasure of being a guest author for Wear Your Voice Magazine where I wrote a short piece about how to manage our friendships during COVID-19, pulling from some of my research on friendships. I hope you check it out!
Due to the website shutting down I have transposed a copy of the article below:
There are four key ingredients to building and maintaining successful friendships: investment, emotional closeness, trust, and support.
By Dr. Marcus C. Shepard
After a year-and-a-half of battling Zoom fatigue, isolation, and a host of mental strains, it should come as no surprise that some of our friendships have taken a backseat as we try to prioritize our own well-being. Researchers at the University College London (2021) found that roughly 22% of those surveyed in a recent ongoing study felt that their friendship quality has suffered due to the pandemic. Friendships are good for both our mental and physical health (Chopik, 2017), and the desire to reconnect with friends we haven’t seen in a while, reset or readjust friendships, and/or end long-term friendships strained are possibilities many of us have been juggling over the past year. In order to talk about friendships and how they have been impacted by the pandemic, I think it’s helpful to first overview what I call the “friendship formula” in my textbook Midnight Musings: Interpersonal Communication & Social Media (Shepard, 2018) and understand how these ingredients are the bedrock to any friendship.
There are four key ingredients to building and maintaining successful friendships: investment, emotional closeness, trust, and support. Investment is what you put into the relationship and this investment includes your time, feelings, energy, and thoughts. Close friendships are formed through initial encounters (Twitter mutuals, fellow bar patrons, classmates, coworkers, etc.) which, through mutual investment, are extended into something more intimate. You and your friend both put in the time, energy, thoughts, feelings, and maybe even money into building your friendship.
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Midnight Musings: Explorations in Public Speaking
The second book in the series Midnight Musings entitled Midnight Musings: Explorations in Public Speaking (2019) was released on October 18, 2019.
Midnight Musings: Explorations in Public Speaking shares a holistic communication approach developed from years of research, teaching and professional experience. It is your public speaking playbook. You will discover how to understand your audience, overcome communication apprehension, create memorable presentations, and develop a will to plan and practice that will enhance your value as a communicator -- forever. With Midnight Musings: Explorations in Public Speaking you will learn to: (1) Overcome stage fright and anxiety, (2) Merge the basics of rhetoric with the principles of design thinking, (3) Maximize the power of persuasion with storytelling, (4) Motivate, inform and inspire your audience, (5) Recognize and confront gaslighting, (6) Craft and receive constructive critique, (7) Communicate online and in diverse contexts, & (8) Leverage emerging technology and prepare for the future of public speaking.
Midnight Musings: Interpersonal Communication & Social Media
I am pleased to announce that my first book Midnight Musings: Interpersonal Communication & Social Media has been released.
Midnight Musings: Interpersonal Communication & Social Media traces how social media impacts, changes and evolves common interpersonal communication practice. Throughout this text, Shepard explores foundational theories and expands the scope of these theories to introduce new concepts (indirect definitions, preference/prejudice continuum, illusion of perspective, & amiendships) for a greater understanding of interpersonal communication.