EME6414 Week 1: How am I doing?
We are coming to the end of week 1 in EME6414, and...... wow, I'm super stressed! This has been a very interesting week for me, because I've learned a lot about Web 2.0, Social Media, and what it means to be a networked individual. At the same time, I have never attempted to juggle so many social media accounts before and I'm finding it overwhelming!
What I've Learned
From course readings this week, I've learned a lot about the history of the internet, mobile devices, social media, groups vs. communities vs. networks, the 'ingredients' of social media, the idea of produsage, and more. This has been a great overall view into the current state of the internet and human relationships.
I've spent a lot of time diving down the rabbit hole of Twitter this week. Before this week, my last tweet was in March 2017. I had only made a couple of tweets in the past; nearly all were re-tweets. This week I learned how to tweet my very first picture in the class Selfie Challenge! That was an exciting step. The other thing I learned was how to read responses to my tweets. I don't think I had ever realized it was possible to check that in the past. It took me a bit of fumbling around to figure it out, but I finally got it! Hooray! I also read a lot about twitter this week specifically, as you may have determined from one of my previous blog posts earlier this week.
I played with Instagram this week on a new account. I'm sure I'll learn more soon- maybe next week! Right now I've just posted a couple photos and liked a few posted by others.
Now this might sound weird, but I think it's both simultaneously easy and difficult to come up with blog post topics! I mentioned in a previous post that I was concerned about coming up with interesting things to say. I have found this to be true.... kind of. My ideas this week were sparked from our reading and conversations among other classmates. Getting the lightbulb to click on was the easy part. But when I sat down to do some research and learn more, it became difficult. How narrow or broad should my scope be? Would this aspect of the topic be interesting to people, or should I stick to the main point? Do I add photos? How should I credit the photos? I found myself changing my original topic, and then I ended up attempting to cram a lot of information into my blog posts, when maybe shorter posts with a part 2 may have been the better choice.
Why am I stressed?
For a few reasons! The biggest one is that I have never maintained such an online presence before. My regular routine is to check Facebook multiple times a day and Instagram once every 2-3 days, but that's about it. Now I have a blog, Twitter, and (more frequent) Instagram, and I'm stressing myself out trying to figure out what I could post about.
In my first blog post, I mentioned my concern for posting interesting content. I feel like it's all I'm thinking about now! How do people do this on a regular basis!? I'm even thinking about adding Google Reminders to myself to take pictures when I go to certain places so that I have content for later! Is that going overboard?
I'm also worried that I'm too boring. I've noticed a few views on these blog posts, but the only comments have been on my first post- not on my other two that were topic specific. Were they boring? How can I be more entertaining? What can I do to improve interaction? And also, the more internally reflective question, why do I feel like I need people to interact? I've browsed a lot of blog posts by classmates and haven't left a comment. That's probably exactly what they're doing with my posts. (Side note- I think I need to chill out with this one, hah!).
The last reason for my stress is that I joined two communities for our first assignment, on Facebook. I figured that since Facebook is the platform I'm most familiar and connected with, it would be the best place for me to begin my research. They are both Wedding Planning communities, and I chose to interact in the smaller community and observe in the larger community. I started off by screenshotting posts and my engagement, but that got overwhelming quickly. I've been checking both a lot because I want to make sure I'm learning as much as I can about both, but they are both very active, so it's a lot to handle! Hopefully I'm doing this right.
In all, I'm a little stressed but learning a lot. I'm hoping I'm doing things right so far, but I suppose time will tell! Meanwhile, if you're reading this and have any thoughts, suggestions, or tips, I'd love to hear them.
What I've Learned
From course readings this week, I've learned a lot about the history of the internet, mobile devices, social media, groups vs. communities vs. networks, the 'ingredients' of social media, the idea of produsage, and more. This has been a great overall view into the current state of the internet and human relationships.
I've spent a lot of time diving down the rabbit hole of Twitter this week. Before this week, my last tweet was in March 2017. I had only made a couple of tweets in the past; nearly all were re-tweets. This week I learned how to tweet my very first picture in the class Selfie Challenge! That was an exciting step. The other thing I learned was how to read responses to my tweets. I don't think I had ever realized it was possible to check that in the past. It took me a bit of fumbling around to figure it out, but I finally got it! Hooray! I also read a lot about twitter this week specifically, as you may have determined from one of my previous blog posts earlier this week.
I played with Instagram this week on a new account. I'm sure I'll learn more soon- maybe next week! Right now I've just posted a couple photos and liked a few posted by others.
Now this might sound weird, but I think it's both simultaneously easy and difficult to come up with blog post topics! I mentioned in a previous post that I was concerned about coming up with interesting things to say. I have found this to be true.... kind of. My ideas this week were sparked from our reading and conversations among other classmates. Getting the lightbulb to click on was the easy part. But when I sat down to do some research and learn more, it became difficult. How narrow or broad should my scope be? Would this aspect of the topic be interesting to people, or should I stick to the main point? Do I add photos? How should I credit the photos? I found myself changing my original topic, and then I ended up attempting to cram a lot of information into my blog posts, when maybe shorter posts with a part 2 may have been the better choice.
Why am I stressed?
For a few reasons! The biggest one is that I have never maintained such an online presence before. My regular routine is to check Facebook multiple times a day and Instagram once every 2-3 days, but that's about it. Now I have a blog, Twitter, and (more frequent) Instagram, and I'm stressing myself out trying to figure out what I could post about.
In my first blog post, I mentioned my concern for posting interesting content. I feel like it's all I'm thinking about now! How do people do this on a regular basis!? I'm even thinking about adding Google Reminders to myself to take pictures when I go to certain places so that I have content for later! Is that going overboard?
I'm also worried that I'm too boring. I've noticed a few views on these blog posts, but the only comments have been on my first post- not on my other two that were topic specific. Were they boring? How can I be more entertaining? What can I do to improve interaction? And also, the more internally reflective question, why do I feel like I need people to interact? I've browsed a lot of blog posts by classmates and haven't left a comment. That's probably exactly what they're doing with my posts. (Side note- I think I need to chill out with this one, hah!).
The last reason for my stress is that I joined two communities for our first assignment, on Facebook. I figured that since Facebook is the platform I'm most familiar and connected with, it would be the best place for me to begin my research. They are both Wedding Planning communities, and I chose to interact in the smaller community and observe in the larger community. I started off by screenshotting posts and my engagement, but that got overwhelming quickly. I've been checking both a lot because I want to make sure I'm learning as much as I can about both, but they are both very active, so it's a lot to handle! Hopefully I'm doing this right.
In all, I'm a little stressed but learning a lot. I'm hoping I'm doing things right so far, but I suppose time will tell! Meanwhile, if you're reading this and have any thoughts, suggestions, or tips, I'd love to hear them.
Trust me, you are not alone. I was nodding my head the whole time I was reading your post because I had the exact same feelings! I'm still trying to figure out how to review my Twitter activity history though : ) I know what you mean about coming up with blog post material and I am likewise baffled at how people manage to do this week after week. I found it somewhat exhausting producing those posts, mostly because there was so much out there to write about and I was having a hard time figuring out how to wrap it all up in a neat little package. I feel like I tend to write too much when I blog as well. I think my goal for next week will be to think small and focus on a single point that catches my attention. And don't worry about engagement, it's a tricky beast that's hard to pin down. Just keep writing; if you write it, they will comment! : ) Look forward to your posts in the coming weeks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement, Erick!! Yeah I definitely got carried away with my topics this week so I'm going to try to scale back a little.
DeleteFor Twitter, don't ignore the notifications button. I kept overlooking it and didn't realize how important it is to find all of the interactions. Instead I kept going to my profile and clicking on tweets posted by me. Then I'd try to click the speech bubbles because I'd see a "2" next to it, but it would open with a window to reply to myself! Argh! Finally after poking around for what felt like an eternity, I noticed the notifications button and read through the feed before I eventually came across the replies. It was not at all intuitive for me. Is that really the only way we can see replies?
In any case, let's both keep chugging on, I'm sure it will get easier for us!
This all sounds about right. It can be overwhelming, then you learn to manage it. Everyone will manage it differently. Everyone will read, post, and comment at different levels. Everyone will use different tools/networks.
DeleteI think more comments will be coming. Everyone is just sorting out how to blog right now. As folks emerge from the overwhelmed stage, we typically see more blog interaction happening in this class. But you do ask a good question: Where does this need to feel interesting and to promote interaction come from? It's something we all need to think about.