Social Media & Participatory Culture Blog #2
#CI3342 #SocialMediaLearning
Participatory culture theory means how social media users not only involve social media into their lives, but they participate in it through their content creations and feedback given shifted from an individual level to community level. The first article mentions how, “…culture absorbs and responds to the explosion of new media technologies that make it possible for average consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content in powerful new ways.” (Jenkins, Puroshotma, Clinton, Weigel, & Robison, 2009) This shows how participatory culture with technology and social media is more than just creating content. Through your content you are not only expressing yourself but adding to your community in an impactful way. In the second reading it explained how, “…all of this material is clearly created by users, and it can become content that is useful to other people…” (Hinton & Hjorth, 2013) This quote from the second reading complements my point made from the first reading. By making the social media content usage, you are not just creating content for the sole purpose of expressing yourself, but you are creating it for it to be useful to others and that adds to the point of community I mentioned.
I found it interesting how on the first reading it mentioned how even though social media and digital literacies are creating a new set of skills to use it in a positive impactful way. I found it interesting because though it does mention that skillset, it does not take away how old skills are important as well. It mentioned how, “Youth must expand their required competencies, not push aside old skills to make room for the new.” (Jenkins, Puroshotma, Clinton, Weigel, & Robison, 2009) Not only is this interesting, but it is significantly important. It is important because it shows how social media is not shifting away from skills like reading and writing to only technological/digital skills. It is important to have those old skills of reading and writing and through technology/digital expand those skills in an engaging way.
My own participation on social media relies on sharing/gathering information for entertainment purposes, content creating and also gathering news information. I also like to connect with family and others around the world. What inspires or motivates me to participate on social media is that I am able to have access to a lot of information, and I can use it for learning purposes. It has also motivated me that I can share my content without having to give much personal information. Also, I like to connect with others to not only learn but to share my own experiences in hope to be helpful to others.
Some examples of what I share online depend on the social media platform I am using. For example, on Facebook, I became part of a poetry group. In that group, I am able to read others’ poetry as well as share mine and get/give feedback. The group is composed of people who like poetry in Spanish since it is all in Spanish. It is not only for people who like poetry but for those who want to share their own. I have made many friends who always give me feedback and I do as well to their poetry. In this group, there have been people who share their poetry with an emphasis of bringing awareness to serious topics like suicide, toxic relationships, etc.… Many of us share that content to our friends list and it spreads bringing awareness to others, and many have captioned it with links for resources. This is an example of participatory culture in social media usage.