What does it mean to network using social media?
Networking on social media involves a network of individuals interacting with each other online (Future Learn). As people’s lives are interwoven, people need to stay connected with their family, friends, and co-workers to keep updated on their latest status for work or personal purposes. Social media allow individuals to share ideas, learn, and interact with others. These networks connect people and devices with information and services (shown in the image below) (Future Learn).
How are we motivated to participate in networked publics?
The creation of the world wide web (www) has made it easier for people to use technology to find information, chat, and share ideas (Future Learn). A Personal Learning Network (PLN) is formed by each individual with a network of trusted connections, which interacts with the individual on a regular basis (Gutierrez). These networks allow individuals to build, maintain, and activate their connections (Gutierrez). They can add new people to their networks to learn more about them, keep in touch with current connections, and relate to and learn from one another through a new medium (Gutierrez). These PLNs include social media sites like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Linkedin, and Snapchat… The purpose to use each platform varies, where each network caters to the individuals’ needs. For example, Linkedin is only used for professional purposes to stay connected with colleagues, job recruiters, or employers. These PLNs allow users to easier get advice or help whenever they need it, as there is always someone available in one’s online network. Furthermore, these PLNs can span across the country or globe, where users can interact with people that live halfway across the world. In addition, users of PLN are able to stay up-to-date on current information from news outlets, Twitter, or other social media platforms. They are also able to learn lots of interesting information through live stream videos or videos uploaded onto YouTube.
What are the risks & rewards of public communications?
With the convenience of social networks, anyone’s information can be easily accessed by others, especially when users’ accounts are not private. Even if an account is private, it is still susceptible to data leakage; where hackers steal people’s personal information in exchange for ransom or used it for identity theft. Moreover, people need to make sure their posts are appropriate in case future employees look at them. Posts that are related to drinking, partying, drugs, or include swearwords should be avoided, especially when an account is public.
On the other hand, public communication can allow users to get access to useful data and connect people across different time zones. People can quickly communicate with people that live far away through applications like Messenger, Whatsapp, and email. Moreover, they are also about to chat via video calls using apps like Skype, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams.
What is a digital identity?
Digital identity is a person’s presence online and how they use the tool to interact with others (Stroller). Although this identity is stored online, it reflects and relates to an individual in real life. This can be as simple as someone’s social media profile, which includes their face, name, family, or friends. This information reveals something about an individual and who they are. On the other hand, it can also be an ID card that identifies an individual to provide access to services online. For example, a national ID card system is used in Estonia to identify their citizen and provide them digital access to e-services such as e-Tax, i-Voting, blockchain, and e-Health Record (Metadium).
How do personal versus professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use?
When creating a social media account and posting content on it, it is common to have two types of accounts: personal and professional. This helps teachers and other professionals to separate their personal life and work life, where they connect with people from their work separately from people that consider friends and family. For example, one of my lab instructors announced to the class that students can connect with his Linkedin or ResearchGate profile, but they should not request to add him on Facebook (until the student graduates). He emphasized that there is a UVic policy that discourages instructors to connect with students on their personal social media accounts. By separating both types of accounts, the instructor can share different types of content and tailor their language to distinct audiences. For example, on a personal account, an individual can share that they are getting married, whereas on a professional account the user will more likely post information relating to a career switch or achievement.
How do digital identities converge in networked publics – what are the impacts and/or benefits?
In North America, our digital identities often is only limited to our social media or other online digital accounts. However, in some countries like India and Estonia, digital identities are used for prescription refill, document signing, and online tax filing (World Economic Forum). Through using their digital identities, citizens in Estonia are able to fill their taxes, access their health records, and vote electronically (Metadium). This provides citizens the ability to quickly access different digital tools and information anywhere they have access to public networks. Moreover, the government is able to track users’ interactions online, this ensure individuals act appropriately online as their digital identity is linked to their identity offline.
References:
Future Learn. “What Is a Personal Learning Network (PLN)?” FutureLearn, www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/learning-network-age/0/steps/24644.
Gutierrez, Karla. What Are Personal Learning Networks?, 21 June 2016, www.shiftelearning.com/blog/personal-learning-networks.
Metadium. “How Estonia Is Pioneering the Digital Identity Space.” Medium, Metadium, 16 July 2019, medium.com/metadium/how-estonia-is-pioneering-the-digital-identity-space-4008c709fbb8.
Stoller, E. – What is Digital Identity? YouTube, uploaded by University of Derby, 25 Nov, 2016, 0:06, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0RryRbJza0&ab_channel=UniversityofDerby
World Economic Forum. “Davos 2019 – Press Conference The Value Of Digital Identity For The Global Economy And Society”. Youtube.Com, 5 February 2019, 13:05-13:22, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-V7lyxrOmw. Accessed 19 May 2021.
nemeko98
May 24, 2021 — 11:58 pm
Hi Helen! I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I was very interested in your discussion about how digital identities vary across the world, especially your discussion about India and Estonia. I think you made some great points in this post, as it is important to take these into account when we are discussing digital identity, as in North America we typically view digital identity as being associated with social media, as you also mentioned.