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Week 3 Reflections & Musings

I had to step back from social media a bit this week, and it was a welcome break. The constant news of COVID-19, economic downturn, and Black Lives Matter protests was too much on my personal Twitter account. Even working on the community norms assignment the past few days has grated my nerves, my online teacher communities have been filled with arguments over whether or not we should return to campus in the fall, some very strong opinions about how ineffective online learning is, and general anxiety about next school year. It was also my birthday this week, so a mental break was a birthday gift to myself. 

However, I decided to brave reading through the class blogs this morning with my coffee, and I am glad that I did. I had a beautiful "ah-ha" moment this morning when a few different things in this class clicked together. 

Bayraider's Blog discussed his experience with Reddit and how it was not a good fit, due to the content and comments lacking actual substantive discourse. I can relate to that. My Facebook teacher community, for the community norms assignment, had a post where the comments quickly devolved into personal attacks and political blows. My personal Facebook has been filled with very passionate friends advocating, discussing, and analyzing every aspect of the Black Lives Matter protests. Comment threads there spin quickly out of control. I understand that we are all experiencing this, and pretty much only this since we are stuck at home, but can we throw some puppy pictures in again for some balance, please?

This is when I read Lee's comment discussing her experience in setting up Reddit to make sure she saw the content she wanted and could tolerate seeing! We discussed this in the class blog this week, how feeding the algorithm shapes your social media experience, and how drastically different the experience can be for two people. Perhaps I need to start consuming different content on my social media accounts. 

I can start that on Monday, it is time for a second cup of coffee...

Comments

  1. JFoxxMay 31, 2020 at 9:49 AM

    Thank you Dan!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Danielle DavisMay 31, 2020 at 9:57 AM

    Hi JFoxx. I'm glad to know that I wasn't the only one who had a difficult time wading the waters of the internet this week. It was really rough for me to experience this week's events as Black woman, because these conversations tend to be inescapable based on the communities and networks in which I've invested. I think these networks are important contributors to my PLN but my mental health is more important. I wondered how many people thought about how different experiences are on social media during times like these.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LeeJune 3, 2020 at 4:33 PM

    Hey, it's my birthday this week, too!!! Yea us!!

    ReplyDelete

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