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.