This semester one of the classes I'm taking is about social media. It's not quite what I expected. I feel as if we've been reading serious, conservative articles written by people who I just don't relate to but then again I'm often impatient about building the background and learning about things that have no immediate practical use to me. This week I feel the connection and am starting to see what I need to do in regards to social media.
One of our assignments for the week was to watch the digital_nation episode of Frontline which turned out to be very interesting. There are so many real applications to social media, and while I think some can be damaging (always being 'on' and constantly multitasking) some seem to be very useful and beneficial despite initial appearances. Having fun and making social connections are so important in life yet undervalued in traditional K-12 education and beyond into adult life yet these are the things which allow us to flourish as humans. While Second Life and World of Warcraft do not hold much interest to me, they are wonderful means that promote connections and collaboration.
Another assignment this week was to read our grad assistant's blog. While we were assigned to read Vanessa's post, How to Spark a Snowcrash, & What the Web Really Does, as I began reading it she referred to an earlier post, An Idea Worth Spreading: The Future is Networks and I got caught up in that post. I've had a Twitter account for a while and am pretty overwhelmed by all of the posts from the people I've been following. Additionally, all of the tweets I read and send are a mishmosh of personal and professional items. After reading Vanessa's post I realize that I need to continue cleaning up my online persona, making my personal life personal and professionalizing my professional profiles. While this should be completely obvious and I should have done this long ago, being a student off and on for the past decade or so has blurred the line between professional and personal life. Also, as I've become more focused in real life my digital life has not been reflecting that. So, thank you Vanessa for driving the point home and showing me the importance of digital connections!
ps - my new and professional Twitter account with a focus on fine arts, crafting, art museums and art ed is kellyadolan.
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