How Has My View of Social Media Changed Over This Course?

Let’s see. Reddit? Although it has its uses, I’m ok without it.

Tagging and bookmarking are important and need to be succinct to get the point across.

Wikis are awesome but flawed.

Folksonomies? Everyone seems to hate them. That was a surprise.

But really, the thing that I came away with is that I doubt my knowledge more than I should. I really do “understand” this “internet” thing. There were less surprises than I thought there was going to be. I tend to think of myself as a newbie in most situations and always feel awkward, but I have been doing this for a while – and it is not new to me. So, that was kind of refreshing.

I also found that if social media went away tomorrow – I would be ok with it. As much as I use it and rely on it for school and contact with the world, if it were to disappear all of a sudden, I wouldn’t mourn its demise. I might even feel more comfortable in my life if it did. It feels like an obligation these days.

Twitter has always been a source of great information, and now, when I open up the app to check what’s going on, the news is baaaaaaaddddd. Other than reading about the gifted/bibliotherapy resources, it’s just news/politics/racism/help the world is dying and I shut the app and bake some bread and try to rise my brain out with real life. Its immediacy definitely has its drawbacks and it is current with the state of affairs of a world that I see flailing in turbulence around me. So I read books with my kids. (Ramona Quimby, Age 8 is very helpful. So is the Stinky Cheese Man, or a Very Special House.)

I guess by taking a class to examine the rudiments and motivations of social media I have come away even less enthralled with the structure as a whole. I’m not disappearing from it today or anything, but I find myself pulling away from it.