Network using social media

For me, networking on social media means connecting with people who share the same interests or work as me, even if I never meet them in person. It is not just about having followers. It is about finding people I can learn from, or people who can answer my questions when I need help.
As I am a CS student, learning online is already a big part of how I study. I just never realized, before this course, that this was actually a PLN. I often watch YouTube videos from people in my field to learn new things, like new tools or ways of solving problems. So without knowing the term, I was already building a small PLN for myself, just through YouTube.

How are we motivated to participate in networked publics?

I think people join these online spaces because they want to feel connected to others, and also because they want to learn new things quickly. One of the readings this week talked about how people build their network on purpose, they look for people who think the same way as them, or who they trust, and they keep talking to them over time (Rajagopal et al., 2012). This made me realize that networking is not something that just happens by accident. It takes some effort.

For me personally, I mostly go online to stay updated on new tools and trends in CS, since things change fast in this field. I am also curious about what other people in my field are working on or learning right now. Sometimes I also go online just to get help when I am stuck on something. But it is not only about learning, I also comment or share when I like someone’s project or something they made, just to show support or let them know it was good.

Risks And Rewards of Public Communications

The reward is that you can reach and learn from people all over the world, not just people around you. You can also find support or advice fast. But the risk is that once something is posted, it is hard to fully control who sees it or how it gets used later. Something posted years ago can still be found today.
One reading that helped me understand this better is danah boyd’s short article on networked privacy (boyd, 2012). She explains that privacy is not only about what I choose to share about myself. Other people can also share things about me, for example tagging me in a photo without asking first, and this can affect my privacy even if I never posted anything myself. This made me realize that the risk of public communication is not only about our own choices — other people around us also shape how much of our identity becomes public, whether we want that or not.

What is a digital identity?

A digital identity is basically how you show up online — the posts, comments, photos, and accounts that together create a picture of who you are, even if that picture is not 100% accurate or complete. One of the readings compared it to a kind of performance, like how people naturally act a little differently depending on who they are talking to. Online is similar, we often show a certain side of ourselves depending on the platform.
To understand this more, I watched a short video by Eric Stoller called “What is Digital Identity?” (Stoller, 2016). He describes digital identity as basically your footprint on the web, everything you post, share, and how you engage with and treat other people online. He also points out it is searchable: your blog, your posts, your body of work all become part of it. He gives two sides to this. On one side, a strong digital identity can actually help you, for example an employer might see your writing or projects online and want to hire you because of it. On the other side, posting something without thinking about context can hurt you later, since something meant as a joke for a small group can look very different once it reaches a much bigger audience online.

How do personal versus professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use?

I think most people act differently depending on whether an account feels “personal” or “professional.” On a personal account, I might post more casually, without thinking too much about who is watching. On a more professional space, I would think more carefully about how it looks to other people, like classmates, an employer, or people I do not know yet.
For me, I already keep these separate. I have my personal accounts for friends and casual things, and then separate accounts for anything school or career related, like this course blog. Doing it this way feels safer to me, because I do not have to worry about mixing something casual with something that a future employer or classmate might see. It also connects back to what Stoller said in the video. Since a professional account is basically part of my searchable footprint, I would rather keep that space more intentional.

How do digital identities converge in networked publics?

Digital identities converge in networked publics when different parts of who we are, personal, professional, casual end up mixing together in the same online space, even if we did not plan for that. In real life, we naturally act differently around different groups: how we talk to friends is different from how we talk to a professor or a future employer. But online, our audience is not separated like that. Friends, classmates, family, and even strangers can all see the exact same post at the same time.
This connects to Goffman’s idea, mentioned in the Spracklen reading, that people perform different versions of themselves depending on who they are with, almost like being on a different stage for a different audience (Spracklen, 2015). In daily life, we can usually control which “stage” we are on, since we are typically with one group at a time. But online, these separate stages can collide into a single space, so we cannot always control which audience ends up seeing which version of us.
This is actually a big reason why I keep my personal and school/professional accounts separate. It is not just about looking more organized it is because I do not want these different “stages” to collide. I do not want something casual I post for friends to end up in front of a professor or a future employer, and I also do not want my professional posts to feel out of place to my friends. Keeping them apart is my way of trying to stay in control of which audience sees which version of me, even though, as the readings showed, that control is never fully guaranteed online.

Final thought

Going into this course, I did not think I already had a PLN, since I only knew the term “networking” in a formal, professional sense. But looking back at this week, I realized I was already doing a small version of it, mostly through YouTube in my CS field, just without knowing the name for it. Learning about digital identity also made me see it differently. It is not just a profile picture or a bio, it is more like a footprint that keeps growing with everything I post, and it is shaped by other people too, not only by me. Going forward, I want to be more intentional about how I use my PLN and my digital identity, instead of just letting it happen without thinking about it.

References:

1. Rajagopal, K., Joosten-ten Brinke, D., Van Bruggen, J., & Sloep, P. B. (2012). Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them. First Monday, 17(1). https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3559/3131
2. Spracklen, K. (2015). Identity-making and social media. In Digital Leisure, the Internet and Popular Culture (p. 94). Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137405876_6
3. boyd, d. (2012). Networked privacy. Surveillance & Society, 10(3/4), 348–350. https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/networked
4. Stoller, E. (2016, November 25). Eric Stoller – What is digital identity? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0RryRbJza0