Saeed Jones Brings Buzz to Campus

A few weeks ago, when the annual writer in residence was announced, I saw that Saeed Jones was coming to GA for about a week. When I found this out, I did a quick search online, and I found that an exceptionally successful and interesting writer was coming to GA.

Saeed Jones spent several days on campus.

What I found most interesting about Mr. Jones was that his day job (besides writing) was at BuzzFeed, one of the most rapidly growing and powerful startups right now. For me, being interested in both technology and literature, talking to Mr. Jones was a unique experience.


Mr. Jones visited with multiple groups and classes during his stay.

I had the opportunity to attend a workshop where he talked to a few of my fellow classmates and me about journalism, writing, and growing up in general. What made the discussion so interesting was talking to a passionate and successful person with only 10 people in the room, as opposed to 500 at an assembly. Mr. Jones also found a way to balance humility with honesty, which most young people cannot do. Furthermore, talking to someone who imbues his online persona (23k followers on Twitter) with, to quote Mr. Jones, “public intellectual discourse” was quite refreshing, as sometimes I feel that our increasingly online lives leave that aspect out of our lives.

Students were rapt by Mr. Jones' perspectives.

Continuing that idea, I found Mr. Jones’s statements about the future of BuzzFeed (and social media) to be quite interesting; he is now the literary editor of BuzzFeed, which is not a position that most technology companies have. What I found clear is that Mr. Jones will have a big future to play in our lives, both online and in print. His unique perspective on the world and interesting stories are captivating, and it was truly grounding to talk personally to someone who inspires so many.

~Owen R. ‘17