Title: The Power of Social Networking Sites: their place on campus and in society when MySpace, Face book
1The Power of Social Networking Sites their place
on campus and in society(when MySpace, Face book
Twitter becomes our space!)
- Cherie Dargan
- English Round Table, April 2009
2Overview
- Define Social Networking Sites micro blogging
and look briefly at the most popular ones (Face
Book Twitter), and the larger trends they
represent (mobile computing) - Present a few ideas about how people and
organizations are using these toolsand a few
assignment ideas. Are you using them? - Look at how policies are evolving towards them on
campuswhat is happening on your campus? - Give you a few recommendations for some good
books, websites, and resources to learn more. -
3We live in a wired world (and campus)
- Free wireless access great marketing tool for
restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, public
librariesand campus libraries buildings - Twitter most popular tool for micro blogging.
Messages limited to 140 characters, often from
mobile phone, typically in response to prompt,
What are you doing right now? - You can sign up to follow other peoples
tweets, and they can follow you. You can also
send personal messages, and flag favorite tweets.
4Wired world, cont.
- Social Networking sites Myspace used to be
number one, but Face book has taken its place. - Face book has added a status box at the top of
the page that looks like Twitter and there is an
application that makes it possible to Tweet a new
message update your Face book page - Larger trend mobile computing and micro
blogging reflect busy people connected 24/7
5How are people and organizations using these
tools?
- To engage people in discussing topics, sharing
ideas, interacting online (a church in Seattle) - To let people follow others and get quick
updates on their activities (Rachel Maddow,
Barack Obama) - To keep people updated on breaking news (CNN,
Rick Sanchez, Courier, DM Register, KWWL) - To support peoples efforts working on common
goals (Weight Watchers, Hungry Girl) - To mobilize people to act (or vote or buy or show
up someplace) many examples in Clay Shirkys
book - To strengthen interpersonal relationships (Demi
Moore and Ashton Kuchter twitter each other!)
6Book recommendation Clay Shirkys Here Comes
Everybody (2008)
- He talks about the larger trends of mobile
computing and how people are using Twitter, text
messaging, and Face book to organize political
protests, flash mobs, and social action. - He has a great story about getting back a stolen
cell phone. -
-
7Clay Shirky
- Revolution doesnt happen when society adopts
new technology, it happens when society adopts
new behaviors. - the ability of people to share, cooperate, and
act together is being improved dramatically by
our social tools. (Epilogue, 321)
8Social Networking Site (SNS)
- A SNS is a website where users add content and
interact in an online community, posting messages
and photos, exploring shared interests and making
new friends. Examples MySpace, Facebook,
LinkedIn, etc. - SNS sites are part of Web 2.0, which Netlingo
describes as the second-generation Web, or
collaborative Web. It emerged in 2005. - http//netlingo.com is a great resource for
internet terms
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11A few statistics about Facebook
- Facebook just had its 5th birthday. It is the
number one SNS. It makes profits of 10-50
million every year (from advertising) -
- The demographics are changing. Between June 2008
and January 2009, number of people 35 to 54
quadrupled, and people over 55 tripled according
to a report by iStrategylabs. -
- They cite Facebook as having 175 million users.
Most of the users are under 35 but only about 41
percent are college age. - Source Older Members adds to Facebook Surge.
Waterloo Courier. March 8, 2009.
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15CNN and Facebook teamed up for the Inauguration
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18Scenes from a recent conference
- As I sat in one of the sessions, googling the
speaker to find her blog, the person in front of
me was twittering--so I opened a window for
twitter as well! -
- The conference posted its schedule and some
announcements on its Facebook page.
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21Micro blogging tools
- Micro blogging tools let you post short chunks of
content, using preformatted templates. The two
most popular Twitter and Tumblr. - http//twitter.com/professorpost
- Tumblr I used Tumblr as a journaling tool for
students in my Technology in the classroom
course, and they liked it. - http//cherieedtech.tumblr.com/
- Cheries Tumblr page
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27Why use them?
- Tumblr gives you a way to share content, collect
great quotes, show off pictures, report progress,
collaborate with others, and present quick
thoughts. - Twitter gives you a tool to share your reactions,
document experiences, reflect, and connect with
othersfinding out what they think, comparing
reactions, sharing an experience, and capturing
the moment like a cyber/verbal snapshot.
28A few facts about Twitter
- Twitter is just three years old. Many people
twitter from their cell phone or Smartphone.
Twitter "tweets" (individual messages) are
limited to 140 characters - Wikipedia lists Twitter as the third largest SNS,
with Facebook as the first and MySpace as second.
They estimate that there are 6 million users of
Twitter, with 55 million monthly visits - Another source said that approximately three
million twitter messages are sent each day
29A few facts about Twitter, cont.
- Articles now refer to the Twitosphere (remember
when blogs were new and we read about the
blogosphere?) to refer to the people online on
Twitter - I was amazed at how many cartoons mentioned
twittering - Almost every media outlet, politician, and VIP
has a twitter presence. - You can read about twittering in blogs,
newspapers, books, and even PEOPLE magazine.
Jennifer Aniston may have broken up with her
boyfriend John Mayer because he was so hooked on
Twitter that he wasn't paying enough attention to
her! -
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38SNS Micro blogging tools on campus
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40From banned to blessed
- Several years ago students and staff could access
Face Book on campus however, it became
problematic in labs and computer classrooms - Then campus IT began to block Face Book however,
there were ways around it, and we could still get
to many other SNS microblogging sites like
Twitter Tumblr - Now we use Facebook to recruit new students and
post links to it on our official HCC webpage
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44What is the policy on your campus?
- Banned totally?
- No ban anyone can get on?
- Banned on the wired network however, we can get
on wireless laptops (this was the situation at
HCC earlier this year)? - No official policy?
- School using it to recruit students?
45How can you use Twitter Facebook?
- Organize a group -- like Mike's Library group,
with 400 plus members - Post pictures from a recent trip -- like my son,
Jon, who went to Vegas with his wife and her
parents over Spring Break - Catch up on news from your friends
- Read about what some of your local politicians
are doing - Get more information about a special event or
activity, as with the Library Tech Conference
Face book page. - Find some of your professional organizations
publications (NCTE/CCCC and Chronicle of Higher
Ed!)
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51How can you use Twitter Facebook, cont.
- Mike uses it to let his librarians know where he
is working that day -- as well as share insights,
wisdom and commentary -
- I use them as places to share great articles or
websites (if you see a link for sharing, Twitter
is showing up as a choice. Click on it it opens
a new Twitter message and dumps the URL into the
text box) -
- I also use them to get support for my efforts in
Weight Watchers, to follow newsmakers like Rick
Sanchez and Rachel Maddow, get news updates, and
find out what politicians are doing at a
statewide or national level -
-
52Should you use SNS in the classroom? Some ideas
for assignments
- I would not encourage students to create a page
for a class assignment, and I generally only
friend former students - HOWEVER, many students have an account already
and there are many ways to use SNS to teach a
variety of things. You could ask them to analyze
typical pages - --From a college recruiters perspective. Do you
want to give this person a scholarship? - --From a prospective employers perspective.
Would you interview this person? - --From a general perspective. How do we judge a
persons page? What creates a positive
impression? What makes us cringe, frown, or have
a negative response?
53More assignment ideas
- Analyze how groups are using Facebook to promote
a cause and gather support - Analyze how groups are using Facebook to promote
a special event or activity, such as a breast
cancer walk, Earth Day - How is the larger trend of social networking
changing how we communicate and collaborate
across the miles? - How is mobile computing shaping us? Do we want to
be connected 24/7? - Research how job hunters are using Face book
other sites, as well as how companies are using
it to advertise and promote their products and
services.
54Questions for discussion
- 1) Are micro blogs and SNS like Twitter and
Facebook a waste of time and resources? Are we so
obsessed with the web that we are isolating
ourselves from family and friends in the "real
world" in order to have a life online? - 2) Are Twitter and Face book encouraging people
to be even more self involved, posting the silly
trivia of their day? - 3) Are features like the 140 character limit of
Twitter and Face book's brief postings on the
other persons wall making us fragmented in
our thinking and communication style? - 4) Are we losing our sense of privacy by
posting so publically? -
55More questions for discussion
- 5) How are our reading skills and habits being
affected by posting short messages on Face book
or Twitter are we more distracted and less able
to focus on creating or processing longer chunks
of text? -
- 6) As more people use Face book and Twitter, are
the lines between our personal and professional
lives blurring? - 7) How do we help our students determine what is
and is not appropriate to post on their Face book
pages? - 7) Shirky points out that the line is also
blurring between cyberspace and IRL, as people
make plans on FB Twitter to meet up
56Topics for MA and PhD researchfrom danah boyds
website
- Silverman, S. C. (2007). Creating community
online The effects of online social networking
communities on college students' experiences. How
can student affairs professionals best respond to
this emergent phenomenon.. Ph.D. dissertation,
University of Southern California. - Vanden Boogart, M. R. (2006). Uncovering the
social impacts of face book on a college campus.
Unpublished Master of Science Thesis, Kansas
State University, Manhattan, Kansas. - Vie, S. (2007). Engaging others in online social
networking sites Rhetorical practices in MySpace
and Face book. Ph.D. dissertation, University of
Arizona.
57Topics for MA and PhD researchfrom danah boyds
website
- Vitak, Jessica. (2008). Facebook "Friends" How
Online Identities Impact Offline Relationships.
Master's Thesis. Georgetown University
Communication, Culture Technology. - Williams, I. M. (2008). The Effects of
Anticipated Future Interaction and Self
Disclosure on Facebook. Masters thesis, Texas
Tech University.
58Resources for learning more about SNS and Micro
blogging tools
- Researcher danah boyd (did her doctoral
dissertation on identity, teens and SNS (its
posted online) - http//www.danah.org/papers/
- Writer Lev Grossman. Why Facebook Is for Old
Fogies. Time - Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009
- http//www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1
879169,00.html - Face Book In Reality - idiotsofants.com and BBC's
The Wall. This video pokes fun at Facebook, and
shows how silly it would be in real life to
have someone show up at your front door, asking
if you want to be their friend. - http//www.youtube.com/watch?vnrlSkU0TFLs
59Resources for learning more about SNS and Micro
blogging tools, cont.
- The Pew Internet Research Project
- http//www.pewinternet.org/Media-Mentions/2009/Fac
ebook-takes-strides-toward-Twitter-territory.aspx - Writer Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody The
power of organizing without organizations.
Penguin Books, 2008. - http//www.shirky.com/ (his website)
- http//www.herecomeseverybody.org/ (his books
blog) - Scott Simon speaks with NPR's Social Media
Strategist Andy Carvin about Face book's fifth
birthday. Feb. 7, 2009 - http//www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story
Id100377329
60Microblogging and SNS
- http//tumblr.com
- http//twitter.com
- http//facebook.com
- http//cherieedtech.tumblr.com/
- Cheries Tumblr page
-
- http//twitter.com/professorpost
- Cheries Twitter page
-
- http//twitter.com/MikeDargan
- My husbands page
61For the cartoons
- I will post the entire PPT on my HCC website.
- I will also post a shorter one with only the
cartoons. - http//www.hawkeyecollege.edu/faculty/cpost/
- Cherie Dargan, cdargan_at_hawkeyecollege.edu
- Hawkeye Community CollegeWaterloo, IA