Throughout high school and university, I have leveraged social media platforms to enhance connections and engagement with friends and classmates. Primarily, I have utilized Instagram for communication on group projects with classmates. While Instagram serves as a convenient and my favorite means of communication, I find it to also be a double-edged sword. At the end of a long day, I often find myself unintentionally spending excessive time scrolling through Reels. Or after initially using the platform to connect with friends and classmates I’ll catch myself scrolling reels. While Instagram has been the bridge of communion for many group tasks at the end of the day it is a social media platform made for entertainment as many social media platforms are. A world of endless entertainment is easy to get lost in and have minutes or even hours fly away.
On the subject of social media and Instagram I would like to share how I manage my digital identity, online presence and how I use social media ethically. Instagram is the only social media platform I use. I keep 2 smallish accounts. One consists of close friends and people I want to stay in touch with. The other is a lifting account where I have documented my fitness journey, and share tips on form and dieting.
I primarily use Instagram to socialize, make plans, and post recent photos of what I’ve been up to. Even though my account is private I understand that any post, message, and comment will be on the internet forever. Ever since I had Instagram which has been about 7 years now, I’ve always been cautious about what becomes part of my digital identity. In the back of my mind before any transaction on the ol’ IG I do think about how does this reflect upon myself. If my grandmother wouldn’t approve, then a future employer likely wouldn’t either. While I’m not sure exactly what career path I plan on heading down, whether it being a therapist or living out dreams of being a IFBB natural pro sponsored athlete, what I do on Instagram or any future social media platforms I engage with does matter.
Blog #2
David White, the dean of academic strategies and the University of Arts London made a video describing and teaching different modes of engagement, digital visitors and digital residents. As described by David, a digital visitor is someone who pops on the internet for a little bit to look at possible vacations or find a new receipt to try at home, and leaves without a trace of themselves. While a digital resident is someone who has a visible online presence, such as having a Facebook account. However as David illustrates in his YouTube video, the idea of visitors and residents are not hard fixed titles for those who use the internet, but more a digital compass, similar to a political compass. Where the most left end is being a visitor and the most right being a resident. However the compass is not limited to a horizontal axis of right and left, the vertical axis consisting of the top being personal and the bottom being institutional.
I believe that David’s compass of digital identity can be utilized in beneficial ways such as encouraging people to consider how their next internet activity could shift their position on the compass in ways that may not be favorable for their professional future. Especially because I feel that it’s hard to separate professional and digital identity. As I explained in my previous post, privacy is an illusion on the internet. Having a private account doesn’t stop someone from recording and reposting your posts or activity onto public accounts and servers. Even though you might have wanted to post something personal in a private manner it always has a way to make it to your professional digital identity.
I also believe that the way David explains visitor mode can be misleading. As David describes it, visitor mode consists of looking through the internet to find what you need and leaving, a process he presents as non-personal and non-social. While it is true that searching for a recipe for shepherd’s pie is a non-social activity, the idea that this type of browsing leaves no trace is misleading. Every online action, even in visitor mode, contributes to a digital footprint. Websites track visits through cookies, IP addresses, and other data collection methods, allowing advertisers and platforms to build out your personal profile. While digital visiting may feel private, various algorithms, trackers, and targeted ads follow users as they navigate the internet, ensuring that even the most “visitor” online activities are recorded and used in ways users may not be fully aware of.
References
White, D. O. (n.d.). About. Dave O. White. https://daveowhite.com/about/
Jisc Netskills. (2013, March 11). Visitors and residents. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPOG3iThmRI
Blog Post #3
I am a firm believer that the right to education is a fundamental human right. Which is why I also believe that diversity and inclusivity are deeply essential to creating a knowledgeable and flourishing personal learning network. When people come together from different economical, social, and cultural backgrounds and upbringings, it creates a rich community of diverse information and personal experiences.
A ted talk I thoroughly enjoyed by Kathleen Nalty explains the idea of inclusive intelligence and how diversity makes you smarter. She further explains that diverse groups/companies are more efficient, profitable, and produce higher qualities of work. Kathleen explains that everyone has “blindspots” which I feel is best described as weaning glasses that make you not notice or comprehend aspects that are out of your social identity. An example brought up in the Ted Talk was a transit company that was planning a team-building exercise for the company and the planning committee was composed entirely of able-bodied people. One of the activities they planned was go-karting. When they got there the two most recently hired people were unable to participate due to their disabilities. If they had one of the differently-abled team members a part of this committed surely this oversight would have been noticed and they would have been able to plan a more inclusive event. When we incorporate more diversity more blindspots are filled. With fewer blindspots comes a greater accumulation of knowledge, and the aforementioned efficiency, inclusion, and quality of work.
Now how do we improve and overcome the challenges that come with incorporating more diversity and inclusivity in personal learning networks. Unfortunately, accessibility, language barriers, and lack of diversity are frequent problems that hold personal learning networks from reaching higher potential. My suggestion is to create PLNs on platforms that are open to everyone and have language translating features. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook have translation features that let you read any message in your preferred language. However, Instagram and Facebook are banned in several countries such as China, Iran, Russia, and more. This excludes over 1.8 billion people from using the app. Other apps like WhatsApp also have language translating features and face far less bans. Once barriers such as accessibility, and language have been taken down it opens up new opportunities for fostering diversity and inclusivity. Which ultimately improves multiple means of engagement, representation, and action/expression.
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