Blog 4

Introduction (p. 9-12)

            Amber Buck’s paper, Examining Digital Literacy Practices on Social Network Sites, includes many important details in each section that lead to an ultimate conclusion. These details help to prove why her paper matters. In her introduction, Buck states, “Rather than leaving a paper note for them in the kitchen, Ronnie visits their private group page on Facebook” and, “For Ronnie, social network sites are intricately woven into the tapestry of his daily literacy practices; they play a large role in how he interacts with others in his person and professional life as well as how he presents himself to different audiences.” These quotations really show right from the beginning how important social media is to a person like Ronnie. From communication to his roommates to connections to a professional career, social media is becoming a crucial concept.

Methods (p.12-13)

            Buck’s Methods section begins with saying, “As Porter (2007) notes, research on digital writing cannot rely on the same methodologies, simply translated to digital environments.” This starts the methods section out by stating that this section is going to be different from normal methodologies sections. It is a different type of research so different methods are going to be used. She also stated, “Collecting data from these various sources allowed me to develop a multifaceted picture of literate activity in connection with social network sites.” This describes exactly why she uses the methods she used and what she is ultimately trying to do.

Results (p.13-30)

            Throughout her results section, Buck includes results that will help her to make a conclusion in her discussion section. One quotation stated, “For Ronnie, Twitter represented a ‘stream of consciousness,’ as he described it in an interview; he updated Twitter several times per day and connected primarily with close friends and roommates through the site.” This particular result was important for Buck to include since it really shows how important Twitter is to Ronnie. Buck also says, “Through these tweets, Ronnie showed himself to be an overcommitted and engaged college student, preoccupied with a busy schedule and sleep-deprived in the first and last tweets, always online, and managing school and leisure tasks online through projects and side activities like fantasy hockey.” This sets up a view of Ronnie to the readers. She will also be able to go through this view in the discussion and talk about if it is accurate or not.

Discussion (p.30-34)

            Buck touches on one point that was hinted at throughout the results section. She states, “…he went back to listing Alison as his girlfriend and added fake siblings. He changed his high school to Hogwarts’ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and his current employer to the Ministry of Magic.” This discusses how social media sites can portray a person to be anything they want, and it might not be accurate. This is an important conclusion to make when discussing social media use. She moves on to discuss this fact and how Ronnie handled his information being so public, “In the six months after Facebook changed its privacy settings he migrated most of his information off the site.” Ronnie is considered to be an “expert” user, but this is an important point to discuss since so many people are likely to be naive when on social media sites.

Conclusion (p.34-36)

            Buck’s conclusion tells why she is writing this paper and why studying Ronnie was useful to her topic. She states, “Ronnie’s everyday literacy practices are embedded within an ecology of practice that is shaped by social and technological influences on his writing and his self-presentation on social network sites.” Even Ronnie, an “expert” user, is affected by different influences within social media sites. This concludes that everyone is susceptible to being influenced by social media and it is important to be aware of these facts. She points out that social media not only represents you as a person, but is also considered influence you in the real world. She says, “Students like Ronnie develop sophisticated rhetorical and literacy skills through these environments.” This is another important conclusion she makes. A look into students’ social media use can give an idea of how they use these sites to communicate and use digital literacy practices.

Blog 3

1.  Why do you chose to post things on Facebook instead of other social media sites?

2.     How do you pick the photos you upload to Facebook?

3.     How do you think your Facebook page portrays you and is it accurate?

4.     How do you use Facebook to connect with others?

5.     Are you apart of different groups or conversations within Facebook?

6.     Do you use Facebook to express your different hobbies or things you enjoy?

7.     How long have you been using Facebook?

8.     Have you always used Facebook the same way? How has your use changed since you started?

9.     How often are you active on Facebook and in what different ways? For example, how often do you post things vs. how often do you just check groups or the newsfeed?

10. How do you decide who to accept friend requests from?

11. Have you made connections or friendships merely through Facebook?

12. How do you think your life would be different without Facebook?

13. What is your main focus as soon as you log onto Facebook?

14. What aspect of Facebook do you believe you use most?

These questions for my partner during the interview will hopefully be able to identify exactly what ways she uses Facebook and why. These questions may also be answered during the tour of her page.

Blog 2

Social media is a rapidly expanding method of communication and expression. Many trends have started because of social media and it has even proved to be a successful outlet for different movements, such as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge or the hashtag on twitter, #whyIstayed. The #whyIstayed was created by someone who was just looking for a way to explain why people might stay in abusive relationships to those who may not understand. This hashtag started to give others an outlet to explain their situations and give hope to those that may still be in those relationships. This hashtag created a community. A community of people struggling with abusive relationships who had their own way of talking about the subject, or their own discourse.  This hashtag is just an example of how communities can be started through social media. People can be involved in any number of communities, each having their own discourse. As Joseph Harris states in The Idea of Community in the study of Writing,  “Rather, one is always simultaneously a part of several discourses, several communities, is always already committed to at number of conflicting beliefs and practices.” The people that were involved in the #whyIstayed all came from different communities, but joined together in this common community because they all had something in common in that particular instant.

As an individual who uses social media regularly, I am apart of many different communities. I have a group on Facebook for my sorority, a group chat with a couple friends, and I have even participated in popular hashtags on twitter. Each of these online communities has a different discourse. Each different community has a common interest and uses a common language. Communities such as these can be started by a few people who have common interests, coming together and discussing this in their own way. The more people who share these things, the more people that will join the community. Within these different communities there are people who think alike about a certain topic, but then think differently about another topic. This is why there is so much community overlap. As Harris describes it, “We do not write simply as individuals, but we do not write simply as members of a community either.” Everyone has their own beliefs and interests, which may agree with many different communities. Social media has proved to be an inspiring way for individuals to join communities and express things they may not otherwise.

Blog 1

My name is Lauren Walford and I am from Kearney, NE. I was really interested in health towards my senior year at Kearney High School and knew I wanted to work in that field someday. Once I started college at UNL I chose the major Nutrition, Exercise, and Health Science and bounced around between different career ideas. Finally, towards the end of my junior year in college I decided to pursue nursing and I am now in the process of applying to nursing schools. I am now a senior and I will be graduating in May and then hopefully attending nursing school. This class is my last nursing prerequisite, but I am excited to get this opportunity to improve my writing.

Growing up, I always loved to write. I remember in 5^th grade when our teacher provided us opportunities to write poems and short stories, which really began my interest in writing. Each time we were provided with an opportunity to be completely creative and write about whatever we wanted to that day. I even loved to make my parents homemade birthday or holiday cards including short poems. Throughout school I became too involved in sports and other activities to pursue writing in any serious form besides English class and a handful of Science papers. I still love to write and sometimes do it just to get out frustrations and relax. I find when I get really worried or stressed out, I can just start writing whatever I am feeling and sometimes it’s just my thoughts and other times it forms into a short story. I love to read as well and find that the more I read, the more I get inspired to write on my own and inspire people the way that books have inspired me. I hope to improve my writing so I feel confident enough to share with others and maybe start writing more consistently. I think a blog is a great way to start because it’s completely up to you how you write it, which makes it more enjoyable than writing a paper in school that has strict guidelines.

            Writing is a very important skill to have because it is used in every aspect of life. This can be seen when evaluating different communities. A community is a group of people linked through common factors. Some communities I am involved in include my sorority Alpha Omicron Pi, each of my different classes, the university as a whole, and my part time job. In the piece of writing by Joseph Harris, The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing, he evaluated community as a kind of vague term. This vagueness includes the potential ability to ‘cross the border’ from one community discourse to another. Each community contains its own language and its own ideology, but it is important to be able to be apart of different communities without feeling out of place because there is overlap everywhere. This topic is important to think about since we are all involved in a university setting, including a variety of different communities.