EME6414 Journal

This is a follow-up on my last blog post, as I came across this article in The Atlantic shortly after writing the post about the death of my friend's mother and how friends reacted on social media. Fair warning, the article is tough to swallow at times and discusses an uneasy subject in a frank manner, though I do believe that is the point. The author of the article lost a sister and discusses the reactions of 'friends' on social media. She felt smothered by those publicly grieving for a sister whom she was still very much privately grieving. (One 'friend' even announced the passing on Facebook before the family could alert extended family/close friends.) The article touches (far more eloquently) on some of the points I noted in my last blog, including an interesting take on the difference between mourning and grief and the gray space that exists in between. Mourning can be suited to social media, where friends and family can step in from around the world to co...

Today's blog is rather somber in nature, but I've lately done a lot of thinking about how we grieve in the digital age. My best friend since the age of 9 lost her mother to a sudden and quick bout of cancer three months ago. The timing for such a loss is never good, but in this case, it was particularly hard, as my friend, at age 24, was getting married two weeks later. My friend is a private person and likely would not have mentioned the loss on social media, had it not been for the barrage of timeline posts and messages she suddenly received. While all the messages and posts were no doubt sent with good intentions, to my friend, and largely to me, it felt strange. It was odd in a way that is hard to articulate to see folks come out of the woodwork and send messages of condolence after not having spoken to my friend (or even met her mother) for many years. She did appreciate the support and expressed that appreciation to me, but in a way, it felt like people were jumping o...

I have lost control over a Facebook group intended for community building and informal learning. More aptly, we've lost the tiny bit of control we once had of the group. The closed group was set up after numerous requests from parents (seriously, there was impressive insistence involved) for a parent/student group for those studying abroad in a certain location. The parents actually set the group up, but invited my team of employees to join and essentially act as facilitators/moderators/content providers. But it's gone off the rail. Because I wasn't the originator of the group, I wasn't totally comfortable with stepping in at the beginning and setting ground rules, but that was a mistake. What we were told was going to be a group for FAQs and general 'what to expect when your student is abroad' has turned into selfie-sharing, million question, angst-ridden mayhem. No one reads down the group to see if their questions have already been answered, parents are s...

I've spent the weekend wrapping up the produsage assignment and spent much of last week struggling with choosing a hashtag for my community of practice on Twitter. First, I tried to choose one that we would 'own' and that hadn't been used before. I originally wanted to use #IPPA, but after searching that, learned that's that is a tag for something currently in the political spectrum (I got out of there fast). Secondly, I had to consider length, as I don't want the tag taking up too much of the 140 character limit. So #IPProgramAssistants was out because it seems simply too long. After much consideration, I wound up with #IPprogramassts. I still think it looks a little funny, but it gets the job done. I hadn't previously realized how much thought goes into tags! Social bookmarking is no joke!

I wrote in an earlier blog post this week about a freshman orientation my office hosted recently. At this event, we decided to make our own Snapchat filter and event story. (If you can't beat 'em, join 'em). We decided to create our own filter for both marketing purposes and to embrace the trends (and to maybe address the issue of students constantly looking at their phones by incorporating social media into our orientation presentations). Our decision was similar to the points brought up in this NPR article about teachers are using Snapchat in the classroom. A psychology professor takes snaps of real life applications of what he teaches so that students can view them as they study for tests. He also records videos with narration about concepts he's teaching about in the classroom.  In our presentations, we encouraged students take photos with each other during the event as well as pull out their phones to snap videos and photos of moments they thought provided ...

We've spoken in class lately about disconnecting and the value it can have. I've been thinking about how disconnecting is really an art form these days (it's so tricky sometimes). For me, the hardest part is in thinking I'm being rude if I miss a message or a post someone has tagged me in. Rationally, I know it's not a big deal if I respond to something a few days later if I want to disconnect, but I feel weird sort of anxiety about it (largely over someone having the perception that I'm ignoring them when in fact I'm ignoring everyone [but I'm not sure that makes it much better!]) I like Snapchat recently because it's the one social media where I feel I can interact and "be" with others without the pressure to respond, which is handy if I need a break from technology. If I want someone to know I'm thinking of them on twitter or Facebook, I might write a post on their wall or tag them in a tweet. But I'd then generally expect th...