so you're not quite a media socialite....
Neither am i. But I've changed my mind about social media, anyway.
I've always been a bit confused by people that get really excited about Social Media. You know the people I mean: the constant tweeters and re-tweeters, and those that tell/show you what they are eating for lunch on instagram, facebook, and vine....those that let you know when they're fighting with their mom. I don't get it, personally, but I have changed my mind in a big way about Social Media, mostly in realizing what it COULD be. There are many, many people out there that are using Social Media and Web 2.0 as tools for positive social change, sharing ideas, collaborating, and learning together. This doesn't mean I'm not still a skeptic, but I have developed a healthy interest in the potential of Social Media, if enough people could just stop using it to whine, gossip, and waste time then it could be a pretty good addition to the world. Not the best thing or the only thing, but a good thing. Of course with an awareness of moderation and careful deliberation.
Yes, there is a danger that SOCIAL MEDIA is MAKING THE WORLD DUMB, but WE CAN CHANGE THAT. WE CAN TAP INTO These RESOURCES WITHOUT FALLING PREY TO THEM. ITS TIME FOR US TO RETHINK THE POSSIBILITIES OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND WEB 2.0.
"It is possible, I have long believed, to temper one's ardor with critical thinking, and that it is not healthy to have to choose only between being a complete supporter and a total skeptic." EXCERPT FROM HOWARD RHEINGOLD'S "INTRODUCTION TO NETSMARTS"
"In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates bemoaned the development of writing. He feared that, as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge they used to carry inside their heads, they would, in the words of one of the dialogue’s characters, “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful.” And because they would be able to “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction,” they would “be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant.” They would be “filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom.” Socrates wasn’t wrong—the new technology did often have the effects he feared—but he was shortsighted. He couldn’t foresee the many ways that writing and reading would serve to spread information, spur fresh ideas, and expand human knowledge (if not wisdom)." EXCERPT FROM NICHOLAS CARR'S "IS GOOGLE MAKING US STUDIP?"
This site was built as a reflection on my experiences in a class called "Social Media and Web 2.0"
by Jamille Brayshaw
as Part of the New Media and Global Education Graduate Program at Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
Cover image: Hiking in Solcava, Slovenia (Photo Credit: Erin Brayshaw)