Blog 4

The quotes from the article that have caught my attention or I feel are important, as well as the reasoning behind them, are as follows:

 

Intro section (9-12)

“As soon as he wakes up, Ronnie, An undergraduate student at large, sends a tweet from his phone which lets his roommates know he is awake” (page 9)

 

This quote is important because right away this article is showing how dedicated of a social media user Ronnie is and that this media may be a huge way that he constructs his identity.

 

“he ends his evenings studying in the library on campus, listening to music through the website last.FM.” (page 9)

 

This is important because this shows that even though social media may be a big part of life that doesn’t mean that people can’t balance it sufficiently with normal daily activities, such as school or studying and so this is something I may want to bring to my partners attention as I write this paper, as neither of them really use social media.

 

Methods 12-13

 

“the information discussed gave an overall sense of how Ronnie perceived his own identity representation online” (page 13)

 

This is important because it is potentially something I think my partners should discuss in their screen casts so that I can add it into my paper.

 

“Ronnie is of Irish and Chinese descent, plays the bass in the orchestra, is an avid blogger, experienced with web design and coding and is an informatics minor” (page 13)

 

These are some very descriptive traits about Ronnie that really help to shape his identity and I think important traits such as these would be important for me to look for in my partners Facebook pages in order to help shape their social networking identity.

 

Results 13-30

 

“he rotated between profile pictures that portrayed himself as a musician… close up artistic shots, to one of his face painted in school colors” (page 16)

 

This is important because it really describes in his pictures how he wants others to see him or how he wants his identity portrayed.  This makes me think that I should pay special attention to the profile pictures of my two partners in order to help me draw conclusions about their identity.

 

“Ronnie’s Facebook was filtered and focused on college related activities” (page 17)

 

Similarly to how the profile pictures portray him Ronnie is also using his filter and selection of one major topic to discuss on his page, college, as a way of creating a public identity for himself for his online friends to see.  In addition to this, in this way of making Facebook more professional and focused he is creating different identities for himself depending on what type of social media he is currently using.

 

Discussion 30-34

 

“so many people just kind of go with what’s on Facebook and trust it” (page 31)

 

This is a very important point and goes along with taking everything you see at face value on social media.  For example my partner is involved in some Jewish groups, whether he is indeed Jewish or not is yet to be determined but it would be a good thing to ask in my interview and address in my paper.

 

“I don’t mind the information being out there.  I guess having it in Facebooks hands kinda bugs me” (page 31)

 

This is important because a user knowing people have a lot of access to the information that they post on social media may influence the amount of things they post on it therefor potentially influencing their identity.

 

Conclusion 34-36

 

“Ronnie represents an extreme case of social network site use” (page 34)

 

I love this claim because it puts into perspective that it’s important to realize that not everyone is this active on social media and that its okay not to be, this may or may not mean that they are creating any more or less of a social media identity.

 

“managing information on these services and navigating their complicated settings requires sophisticated literary skills” (page 35)

 

This claim really hit me because it really shows how media pertains to this class and project, really providing a “why are we doing this?” explanation.  This really shows how social media and networking really connect to what is learned in an English class.