Blog #4

         In the introduction section of her essay, Buck states, “Using ethnographic case study data, this article examines how one undergraduate student integrated his use of social network sites into his everyday literacy practices to represent his identity.”  Right after explaining who Ronnie is and giving some general statistics, she explains exactly what she’ll be discussing in the remainder of the essay.  Also in the introduction, Buck says, “…They (social media sites) play a large role in how he interacts with others in his personal and professional life as well as how he presents himself to different audiences.”  I thought it was an interesting idea that Ronnie presented himself in a different way to different audiences.

Near the beginning of her methods section, Buck says “In order to trace Ronnie’s literate activity across social network sites, I combined data collection methods that allowed me to follow dispersed literate activity across different spaces and over time.” She has basically informed the reader of what she had done in order to obtain information about Ronnie and his social media use.  Buck then explains the sources when she says, “In order to study Ronnie’s literacy practices on social network sites, I followed his online activity…and I collected data from the following four sources…” Aside from the time-use diary, I will be using the same sources for my essay as well, which are research interviews, online texts, and a profile tour.

         In her results section, Buck quoted one of Ronnie’s tweets when he said, “Exhausted from a busy day excited for what’s to come.”  I think this is important, along with the other quotes from Ronnie, because the reader then gets a chance to see the actual posts that have been made, which gives them a better understanding of how he is using social media.  Later on in he results sections, Buck says, “Through these tweets, Ronnie showed himself to be busy and social, involved in musical performances, video games, and social activities with friends and family.”  I think this was a good inference to make on Buck’s part and I hope to be able to make good inferences about my partner as well.
         In the discussion section, and basically throughout the essay, Buck cites references.  For example, she says, “Oudshoorn and Pinch (2003) note the importance of studying users’ connections to and take-up of technologies and to study those technologies within “their context of use” (p. 2). “  I think it’s a good idea to have outside references because they might be helpful.  Also in the discussion, Buck states, “What is most interesting about Ronnie’s case is that he had no concerns about his information being online and publicly visible.”  I found this interesting and figured I could ask my own partner about how she feels about her information being online.
         The very first section of the conclusion part of the essay is “Ronnie represents a rather extreme case of social network site use, both through the number of sites he used and the amount of activity he engaged in on each site.”  I thought it was important that Buck pointed out the fact that Ronnie’s social media use was way more than average.  Although not everyone is an avid user like him, it helped get a look at social media use in general.  Also in her conclusion, Buck says, “The online activity that individuals engage in on social network sites does not just stay online; students integrate social network sites into their daily literacy practices.” I found this interesting because I’ve never really thought of social media having a big impact on our daily literacy practices.

Blog #3

1) Why do you use social media sites?

2) What are your favorite things about social media?

3) Do you prefer a certain social media site and why?

4) Do your posts usually contain more words or pictures?

5) What are typical things you post about on social media?

6) How do you try to present yourself on social media?

7) Does the way you present yourself differ from site to site?

8) How do you think people perceive you based on what you post?

9) Do your posts change based on what you think the audience wants to read?

10) How frequently do you post things?

11) Do you view social media sites more out of boredom or for other reasons?

12) Is the number of friends/followers important to you and why?

Blog #2

        The three writers of the articles have used social media to create a sort of identity for themselves.  By choosing not to post the “fake” picture on Facebook, Erin Zammett Ruddy chose to keep herself an honest person and to not seem fake, even on social media.  Kima Jones and Bev Gooden have used social media in order to spread a message and form more of a group identity.  Kima Jones discussed how she, as well as many others, uses Twitter to spread her writing to others.  Apparently, many people of minority, including Kima, use social media as a tool to spread their writing because it is typically harder for them to do so otherwise.  Bev Gooden created #WhyIStayed on Twitter initially to answer the question of “why does she stay?” from her personal experience, but it then grew into something bigger.  She created a sort of identity for women who stayed in abusive relationships.  As she said in the article, she was not supporting staying in an abusive relationship.  Rather, she and these other women were answering the question of why they stayed, as well as allowing others to know they are definitely not alone.

         Harris might say these three authors are creating discourse communities based on the way they speak.  For example, Kima Jones and the other people of Twitter communicate through poetry, sending strong messages through words that not everyone is willing to hear.  Harris says “…They (theorists) have helped us to see that it is only through being part of some ongoing discourse that we can, as individual writers, have things like points to make and purposes to achieve.”  By speaking to people of their own discourse community, these individual writers are able to put their words on social media, creating a stronger message and making points with a whole group of people.  When explaining David Bartholomae’s quote, Harris says “We do not write simply as individuals, but we do not write simply as members of a community either.”  Each person on social media, including the authors of the three articles, has something to say, important or not.  Everyone will have points that other people agree with and they will also have points that no one else will agree with at all.  This is essentially why no one is completely a member of the writing community, but also not completely an individual writer.

         The only online community I am really a part of is Facebook, though I rarely use it anyway.  This community is marked by discourse because although you can write a lot if you choose, people’s posts and comments are typically shorter.  That is how Facebook is—shorter, more direct comments are usually expected.

Blog #1

            I’m Kylie Haseloh.  I’m a freshman with a major in pre-veterinary medicine, but will probably change that.  Originally, I’m from Nebraska, but I have moved a lot over the years.  Though I’ve had to meet new people multiple times, I’ve been really shy for as a long as I can remember, but it seems to be getting better.

         Being shy is partially why I don’t like when other people review my papers.  I don’t particularly like others to judge something that I’m not very good at.  When I was younger, I was super good in English classes, with writing and all.  Over the past couple years, however, my talent in writing has gone out the door.  Now I find myself sitting at the computer for an hour before I can even type an introduction to a paper.  This, of course, is partially due to me getting distracted by the Internet all the time, but mostly because I can’t put my thoughts into words.

         If I were to describe myself as a writer, I would say that I am definitely not a natural, and although I have trouble putting my thoughts into words, I get there eventually.  Well, most of the time.  I usually just write for school when I am given an assignment.  Though when I'm feeling creative, I’m the kind of writer who writes whatever they can’t say out loud in hopes that someone will read it.  That’s one thing I like about writing.  You can put down whatever you find difficult to say out loud.

        These things can be directed towards no one in particular, or anyone, such as a community for example.  I think of a community as a group of people, big or small, who have shared interests, values, ideas, etc.  I suppose schools could be thought of as communities.  I belonged to the Lincoln Southwest High School community for four years, and now I’m in the UNL community.  They are their own communities because they are groups of students and faculty members who are all in the same place for similar reasons.  Professors come to teach, students come to learn.  Essentially, we are all having the experience of being a part of a school.

        In communities, I think language is important, even though it doesn’t always appear to be.  If the people of a certain community don’t all understand the same language, it is going to be difficult for them to become closer.  It will be difficult for the community members to really share and discuss interests and ideas.