Blog Post 4

Introduction:

“As soon as he wakes up in the morning, Ronnie, an undergraduate student at a large, Midwestern research university, sends a tweet from his phone, which lets his roommates know he’s awake”

·         This is Buck’s first sentence, however I find it very interesting. It immediately hooks the reader in and makes them want to continue reading. It’s very important to have that kind of introduction, otherwise the reader has no motivation to continue, I hope to include an intro like this.

“Ronnie’s experiences represent common ones for undergraduate students across the United States. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, as of August 2011, 83% of 18–29 year-olds used a social network site (Madden, 2012).”

·         I chose this quote because I think this if an important thing to include, although often over looked. I find it important for the audience to know that this paper can apply to many people, and Ronnie is just a normal person.

Methods:

“Ronnie’s case study is part of a larger study of undergraduate and graduate students’ literacy practices on social network sites.”

·         I like how Buck stated this, I could incorporate this into my paper by talking about how everyone in the class is also participating in this study, even myself.

“Data Collection- In order to study Ronnie’s literacy practices on social network sites, I followed his online activity for two semesters, Spring 2010 and Fall 2010, and I collected data from the following four sources:”

·         I never thought to include a small explanation like this before listing my methods of data collection, I like this sort of introduction to the methods section, and plan on using something similar in my paper!

Results:

“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”

·         Buck’s way of combining all his seemly unrelated tweets into one paragraph that makes perfect sense is impressive, I hope I can do that with my partner’s Facebook posts. This is a good way to make the paper flow better and sound much less choppy.

“Ronnie envisioned different audiences with different concerns and interests on both Facebook and Twitter and constructed his identity on both sites with these audiences in mind. Ronnie had approximately 700 friends on Facebook during this study while sending updates to a list of roughly 200 Twitter followers.”

·         I think including numbers, like how many friends/followers your partner has is a very important piece of data to add to this paper. That number can say a lot about a person, especially when it opens up the idea of follower to following ratio, which Buck does discuss.

Discussion:

“Oudshoorn and Pinch (2003) note the importance of studying users’ connections to and take-up of technologies and to study those technologies within “their context of use”

·         It would be very interesting to include outside sources into this discussion section. I believe it would make a paper much stronger and more thought provoking, I hope to find relatable outside sources to include!

“There have always been technological, material, social, and rhetorical constraints placed on literacy (Brandt, 2001), and social network sites provide one example through which to consider how writers work within specific forms of constraints to represent themselves in digital spaces and to interact with others.”

·         I find this discussion point interesting. I want to form this into a question to ask my partner in our next interview, so I can include something like this into my own paper.

Conclusion:

“He does, however, represent one of what Sheridan, Street, and Bloome (2000) call “telling cases,” which Sheridan-Rabideau (2008) describes as cases that “exceed what generalized theories might expect of them and work against the flattening theoretical appraisals that offer predictable answers” (Sheridan-Rabideau, 2008, p. 8).”

·         I love the fact that Buck took a quote from someone else to describe Ronnie’s social media usage. I will definitely look for quotes online that could be used in my paper, I think that would add an element that most others wouldn’t include in theirs.

“Students like Ronnie develop sophisticated rhetorical and literacy skills through these environments. Rather than focusing only on the ways that social network sites might be used in the classroom, considering the ways students integrate the use of such sites into their daily lives can help researchers and teachers better understand students’ writing activities and digital literacy practices within digital environments.

·         This is Buck’s ending sentence. I like how she pulled all her information into one ending paragraph. Even though this is only a few sentences, Buck does a great job of encompassing her subject into it, and ends her paper very well.

1.       Just to start off, what reasons do you use social media, and what do you get out of it?

2.       What is a metaphor you would use to describe your own personal use of social media?

(Much like Ronnie’s example of Twitter being a stream of conciousness)

3.       Are there certain aspects of your life you wouldn’t want to share on your social media? If so, what are certain things you would choose not to share?

4.       When it comes to certain sites like Twitter or Instagram, why is it so important to have a high follower to following ratio? What do you think that says about the people who find that so important?

5.       How do you portray yourself while on social media? Do you see yourself as a unique user or an average user?

(Ronnie thought of himself as a unique user, he differentiates himself from the average person using social media)

6.       What are certain communities that you belong to online? Are they discourse communities? What types of discourses might they be?

7.       How many friends do you have on Facebook? Do you know all of them?

8.       Is your audience on Facebook different from your audience on Twitter? Are there certain things you’d post on Twitter that you wouldn’t on Facebook? Why or why not?

9.       On Twitter, do you believe it is possible to truly express yourself in only 140 characters? Why or why not? Is it more limiting than other social media sites, such as Facebook?

10.   How would you feel if one day all your social media sits disappeared? Would you be able to go a week without using any of them?

11.   Other than connecting with friends and family, what other uses do people get from social media? Do you think that the uses of social media have changed over time?

12.   What’re some differences about yourself when you’re online versus when you’re offline? Do you speak your mind more when you’re behind a screen? Why or why not?

Blog Post 2
The first article I read was, “Writers Of Color Flock To Social Media For A New Way To Use Language,” this article mainly focused on social media being an outlet for people of color who want to write. Twitter offers a way for colored writers to be seen, because sometimes the sad truth is, they might not be taken as seriously as Caucasian writers are. Thankfully, with the help of social media, both people of color, and those who don’t necessarily feel like poets or writers, can now share their works via Twitter. The second article assigned was, “Fakebooking: Why I Didn't Post This Photo to Facebook,” this article was about a mother, who decided not to post an adorable family picture on facebook. She didn’t post it because, the events leading up the actual photo, weren’t so adorable. She felt that if she were to post it, she would be a phoney. The last article was actually my favorite, it was “Hashtag Activism In 2014: Tweeting 'Why I Stayed,” this article went in depth on the reasons why women stay in abusive relationships. The hashtag “#WhyIStayed” went viral in 2014, answering the media’s question to why it’s so hard for abused women to leave.
All of these readings gave me insight on a better use of social media. Twitter and Facebook can be used for more than just posting pictures of food and talking about your day. In each of these cases, social media was used for the better. Each of these articles were examples of discourse communities, much like I learned about in last week’s reading, “"The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing". As Harris explains it, discourse communities are built on a common goal. In the first article, the goal is to shine more light on writers of color. Every person mentioned in the first article is a part of a discourse community that shares that goal. The author of the second article aims to convince people to use social media not to brag and show unrealistic posts, but to be true to yourself. She is a part of a discourse community with the goal of being who you are, and not being afraid of what others think. The last article, obviously, is a discourse community. The goal is to let the world know the story of the women in abusive relationships, how sometimes the circumstances aren’t what the general public would suspect. These goals or discourses shape these communities because that’s why they were formed to begin with. Another point that Harris made was that although you might be in a discourse community, you aren't ever wholly in or not in a community. For instance, I am in a community of students, because we all live in Sandoz Hall. But, just because I'm in that community doesn't mean that we share all the same discourses.
Being a college student comes with the cliché that I am obsessed with social media. However, that is not really my situation. The only form of social media I use is Facebook, and I actually don’t use it all that often. I suppose that I’m in a community on facebook with my family and friends, but I’m also in a closed group online, because I’m going on a volunteer trip abroad this summer. I would call that a discourse group because we all communicate and share a common goal.

Caitie Bundy

Blog Post 1

            Hello, my name is Caitlin Bundy, but I prefer Caitie. This is my second semester at the University. I took two AP English classes in high school, but other than that, this is my first actual college English course. I chose English as my major because I have always been really into reading. Writing, however, is an area of mine that could use much improvement. Writing is something that brings much joy into my life, but sharing my writings with others is very difficult for me. I feel that what I write is always very personal, and I don’t take criticism lightly, which will be quite a hoop to jump through in this class. Coming up with an answer to “Why do I write,” has proven to be harder than I imagined. There’s a few ways to look at this question. At first glance, I think “I write because I’m an English major, I write because I’m told to do so,” but after thinking about this question in a different light I realized that I write for many other reasons. I write because it’s an escape, it’s a way of mentally leaving my body. When I write I don’t have to be Caitie, I can be anyone I want to. I write because if I put my ideas to paper, they’ll never leave me. Most importantly, I know that I’m not the most creative, or technically gifted writer. I know that I’ll never be a JD Salinger or a Kurt Vonnegut. With that said, writing brings me a feeling, an indescribable feeling – not joy, not sorrow or anything in between but something else, something that nothing else will ever do, I won’t ever make any money off my writings, and I’ll never become famous for them, but that unexplainable sensation it gives me makes up for that, and I guess that’s the best answer for why I write.

            While signing up for classes, I had no idea what Writing in Communities would really be about. In fact, I’m still not completely sure. After reading “The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing,” by Joseph Harris, many of my previous misconceptions and questions were cleared up. Harris does a great job of describing what a community really is through example. One of his opinions on communities, which I found especially enlightening, is the idea that you don’t truly know about your specific community, until you leave it, until you get an outside opinion on it, and see it through different eyes. Harris also explains the connection between communities and writing. I believe Harris is saying that a writer can only be as good as the community allows, because communities often put certain constraints on their members. Another fascinating point brought up in the reading is that, often times, writers adapt to whichever specific community they’re presently in, which can have quite an effect on the writer’s voice. This reading helped me make a better connection between writing and communities, I feel like I grasp a decent understanding of the two as one now. As for myself, I belong to several different communities. I’m from Nebraska, I go to the University, I work at the mall, I am a member of the Pre-Law club. Each of those are their own community, and have their own personalized sets of guidelines on how to behave. Those guidelines include what type of language to use, and how to write. At least, this is my understanding of the subject matter.