BLOG #1

  1. What does it mean to network using social media 

Different kinds of social media platforms create different kinds of social networks. For example, Linkedin fosters a professional network, where a “community layer” can be formed; other social media platforms such as Facebook, also create value and offer hundreds and thousands of potential future work opportunities. To network using social media means to have more opportunities to collaborate with people from many parts of the world, and build that connectives while learning from each other and creating new knowledge (Kamakshi et al.,2012). 

2. How are we motivated to participate in networked publics? 

We are motivated to participate in networked publics because we have the natural needs to connect with others. But more importantly, we want to work with people that have qualities that we relate to ourselves, in other words, like-mindedness. The joy of finding people that are like us, and the joy of learning from a diverse group of people, I believe is the main motivation for us to participate in networked publics (University of Derby, 2016).

3. What are the risks & rewards of public communications?

The risks of public communications might be networked privacy according to Danah Boyd’s (2012) article. How can we protect our privacy while engaging in the public is an issue that is of central debate? It appears that if we don’t expose some of our privacy, we cannot participate in public conversation. I would like to think of the potential risk of “exposing ourselves” as an “opportunity cost” of public communications. Almost everything we do comes with opportunity cost, for the benefit of public communications, the question we need to think about is how we minimize such opportunity cost. The rewards of public communication as we might see in the Kamakshi et al. (2012) article are that we can build connections with others who are like-minded and diverse groups of people. 

References: 

Boyd, d. (2012). Networked Privacy. Surveillance & Society 10(3/4):   348-350. Retrieved from http://www.surveillance-and-society.org | ISSN: 1477-7487

Kamakshi et al. (2012). “Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them”. Retrieved from https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/3559/3131 doi:10.5210/fm.v17i1.3559