– week 2-

What Does it Mean to Network Using Social Media?

I think networking with social media involves connecting and building relationships with new and current friends, colleagues, family, and businesses – via online social media platforms. Though I think this is the main idea of social networking, I do think it can varie from person to person on what they think this topic means to them. For example: different students majoring in different subjects can use networking for various things. Business students might use social networking to help brand themselves to future employeres and comapnies, perhaps to build connections with certain business they may want to pursue in the future. As for an art major they may use social networking to catch other artists eyes and potential buyers in the industry. Social networking can simply mean a variety of things depending on who you are talking to. 

How Are We Motivated to Participate in Networked Publics

Media networks have become public spaces for communication. Social media gives us a way to freely express how we are feeling and what we are passionate towards, without having to do so face to face. These active digital platforms can motivate people to participate in network publics without requiring face-to-face interaction. Humans typically like there ideas and opinions to be valued, listened to and shared. Modern day platforms such as facebook, instagram and snapchat allows society to interact digitally and express what they are passionate towards. When your passionate towards something specific you engage more- automatically causing motivation for what ever you may be interested in. For example, on instagram my search feed consists of surf, so whenever im browsing through recommended videos most of my videos that appear on my feed are surf related because im engaged with that type of content. If a soccer or basketball video appeared on my feed I wouldn’t watch it because im not passionate or engaged with that type of content. Being passionate towards something leads to motivation because your engaged with whats going on. 

What Are The Risks & Rewards of Public Communications?

Public online communications have made it possible for people to connect, share, and collaborate on topics from across the globe. Being able to access and find information along with building worldwide friendships has never been made so easy and accessible to everyone. Public communications throughout the years has allowed us to be more involved in different cultures, allowed us to see different human perspectives and angles of creativity, and has overall opened a door to more learning opportunities. It has also allowed us to fundraise, protest, and stand up for what we believe in. Public communications does come with great rewards, and without it dont think we would be where we are today as a society. Though public communications is great there are great risks when getting involved with the social world. The first problem I see as a major issue is cyberbullying, I think most people that are on a digital platform have faced some sort of cyber bullying at some point in time. You’re exposing yourself to the internet which makes you automatically more vulnerable and lose some of your privacy. Another downfall with public communications that I think is already starting to become an arrsing issue in todays society, Is the lack of real life socializing. Kids are glued to their phone, and not being taught how to properly communicate with people in real life. This could cause major issues in the future when trying to apply to a job or get a serious career. I believe that having the ability to properly communicate with people in real life is a crucial key to success.