Greenhow et al. (2009) discuss the process of forming identity in various spaces within Web 2.0 and this was personally the most convincing for me. I was one of “12 to 17” year old high Web 2.0 users in 2009, and back then we were starting to situates ourselves in a space that as Greenhow et al. (2009) suggests was low stakes and had minimal risk of scrutiny by adults in public spaces. Over the last five years this avenue has “exploded” and people from all around the world are developing and finding communities where they can find others who share similar identities. This is particularly true for vulnerable populations such as the transgender and LTBQ communities. Most recently, this has been an avenue for youth to express their views on the political and social climate in a powerful way. Along with youth, we are seeing people of all ages engage with social media to build community and network in professional settings. I would also argue that use of social media an informal learning tool would benefit the formal learning practices taking place in the classroom.
One area for future research that I was less convinced about was publication by Crook (2015). While he argues that publication on Web 2.0 should be concerned with peer pressure and underachievement, this seems like an oversimplification. While most online discussion boards these days are open sourced publications, I would argue that it is a good way to engage in a “conversation” without being face-to-face with a person.
Hi Krystal,
I really like your examples of youth, identity, vulnerable communities, and web 2.0. This is especially true now, with how teenagers are making important social and political issues known through avenues like Twitter (Bromwich, 2018). I especially think social sciences, civics, and issues of democracy should be taught in formal spaces while incorporating social media. I wonder what kind of background research or arguments do you think would best support the fact that we need social media literacy in formal educational settings? I often cite sheer numbers of people/movements involved in social media, but perhaps we should be also thinking of other avenues through which we can put forth our arguments!
—-
Bromwich, J. E. (2018, March 07). How the Parkland Students Got So Good at Social Media. Retrieved March 22, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/us/parkland-students-social-media.html
Hi Krystal! I think you add a number of important points here like noting how vulnerable populations are able to form online communities supportive of their identity development. I also think you make a great point about social media as developing civic identities in that it enables students to participate in politics and social issues more easily than before. However, as supportive as online communities can be, there have been issues with cyber bullying that pose a great threat to adolescences’ identity development.. I think that this was something missing from Greenhow, Robelia, and Hughes’ (2009) call for research on identity. Do you think research should cover the negatives of identity development in these spaces in addition to the positives?
Hi, Krystal. The way you connect the course readings to recent events is intriguing. This is always difficult to do in a discussion of research because — well, recent events have not yet been studied. In such a situation, I often look to an online publication called The Conversation. It is a forum where scholars write about their research for a general audience, often adding some academic perspective to current public debates.
When I search on The Conversation site on “Parkland,” for example, I come up with a list of numerous short essays by faculty and doctoral students written over the past month on issues ranging from gun control to student activism:
https://theconversation.com/us/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Parkland+
The essay at the top of the list, on student activism, is essentially an annotation of key research in this area, with some opinion layered on top:
https://theconversation.com/march-for-our-lives-awakens-the-spirit-of-student-and-media-activism-of-the-1960s-93713
As we would expect, this essay on student activism references to books and studies linking social media, civic engagement and identity.
In the future, it might make your observations more powerful if you could mention some of this kind of research, if you’re going to try to connect course readings written a decade ago to current events.
Overall, very interesting post!
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