When John Finch brought up how we were using social media to examine social media i began thinking, where do we draw the line today?
This question brings up another question, how do we define social media? Maybe you just googled it, what was the first site that came up? Wikipedia? Yahoo Answers? Urban Dictionary? Guess what, those are all social media sites, sites in which anyone can create and account by just submitting an email address and begin adding comments or editing articles or definitions. Is defining social media by using social media valid? Personally, just because of the ever chaning nature of social media i think that defining it in almost any way is not just valid in the method in which it is defined but it would be hard to discount the definition itself unless it was extremely off topic.
Ok, for the sake of argument let's say that we've defined social media, i'm not taking a stab at it here, let's just say that we have. Now identify examples of social media. Facebook, twitter, youtube, now we've taken care of the obvious ones, but what else? I'm not a regular Much Music viewer but I have noticed a show on their network in which viewers can not only send in messages that are displayed on screen but can actually vote on and decide the programming of the music videos that are shown. With whatever definition of social media that you came up with; does that match? There is also a growing pattern amoung television networks of having votes on their websites in order to decide their programming, there are forums on their websites on which discussion can get quite heated about which episodes should be shown. People are coming together, debating, and eventually deciding the programming for a major network. Is that social media or is the concept of social media restricted to the discussion on the forums? If so then should the results of the social media, what you may or may not have just limitted to the discussion on the forums, not be counted as social media as they came about as a direct result of the social media?
So many more examples of this exist i'll let you look for more of them yourself, they're easier to find than you might think. But when you are looking for them, or even if you're out enjoying a movie The Social Network perhaps, try and draw a line between social media and the rest of the world, where is it? Is it even there? Or is it an ever shrinking smudge that gets just a little bit smaller everytime someone clicks "tweet"?
Interesting post on just how borad of a subject social media is. Totally agree with 'where do we draw the line between social media and the rest of the world'. The world we live in today is overwhelmed with examples of social media. Also interesting comments you make on the definition of social media. It certainly can encompass many different and diverse examples. With all your discussion of the definition of social media and the examples that exist, what is your take on the use of social media in the classroom? Do you see it as something that provides potential or do you take a different standpoint?
ReplyDeleteOoooooookay, so after reading your post approximately 3 times I feel ready to comment, I think.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely it is difficult to define "social media", but that is because we are living in not only the information-age, but the digital information-age, and this literally changes everything on a daily basis. Thinking back to computer classes I had taken in high school, these programs are already outdated 8 times over. I think the reality of it is, is that social media encompasses the majority of our daily lives. The problem becomes whether or not we are prepared to be a discerning audience when viewing all of this information. In my opinion, THAT is what we should be teaching our students. What do you think? I love the idea of using different types of social in the classroom, but I think it is most important to help students filter through all the "garbage" that is available. Also, to teach students about abuse vs. misuse.