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Notable people use social media to connect with people, market brands, strengthen their fan base, acquire feedback on their work, express themselves, and create personal and public awareness.

Being in the public eye has lots of benefits. First, one gets to be recognized both locally and internationally, which tend to boost their self-esteem significantly, thus giving them the confidence to grow. Second, a public figure typically enjoys a huge supporting fan base. A majority of the fans of public figures are always willing to support them by sharing with them their moments of happiness and sadness and promoting their work. Third, a public figure tends to get better treatment wherever they go.

A public figure, such as a government official, is commonly susceptible to intrusive and unwanted attentions. This behavior is usually as a result of stalkers angrily accusing the public figure for resentful motivation, intimacy seeking motivation, or psychotic illness. Consequently, the stalking behavior inflicts psychological damage to both the victim and the perpetrator.

Having social media that is directly linked to employment is important because it helps save on time and costs since the accounts are usually readily customized for professional purposes. Additionally, such social media comprises many groups that are committed to specific professional topics, thus making it easy for job seekers to meet potential employers.

One can build PLN that can always be relied on by: joining an online community comprising people with the same interests where they can share ideas and contact people for direct feedback; maintaining the spirit of collaboration as a driving force, where they can work together and be resourceful; asking questions; acknowledging the contributions of people in their network; creating a landing page that eases access by visitors; and designing a personal and professional account.

Veteran storytellers reduce risk in sharing misinformation by employing the use of fact-checking services to promote information from reliable sources, trace misinformation, and filter out false news (Hirst, 2018). In addition, veteran storytellers look at social media critically and take time to confirm the shared information when skeptical. They also ensure that false information is removed from their online networks promptly by requesting the individuals responsible for the misinformation to delete the misleading post.

References

Hirst, M. (2018). Navigating social journalism: A handbook for media literacy and citizen journalism. Routledge.

Jawed, S., Mahboob, U., & Yasmeen, R. (2019). Digital professional identity: Dear Internet! Who am I?. Education for Health, 32(1), 33.

Orsatti, J., & Riemer, K. (2015). Identity-making: A multimodal approach for researching identity in social media.

Week 3 Blog

Digital identity

A digital identity comprises information about a person, an electronic device, or an organization existing online (Orsatti & Riemer, 2015). This information can be detected through the help of unique identifiers and can be used by advertisers and website owners to recognize and track users and subsequently personalize the target content based on user preference. A digital identity is usually created whenever an individual uses personal information on a website or creates shadow data while navigating online. Typically, a digital identity is perceived as contextual because users commonly provide selective information when required to validate their information.

How personal versus professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use

Since a digital identity is perceived as contextual, online users can customize their approaches when using social media based on the context of their interaction to meet a specific objective, which can either be personal or professional. To fulfill personal objectives, a social media user can adopt an informal communication approach, which can involve providing casual personal information or creating a pseudonymous profile to interact with other social media users. When using social media for personal use, the user can decide to reveal limited personal information including full name, date of birth, place of residence, town or city of residence, and country. On the other hand, to fulfill professional objective, a social media user can adopt formal communication approach, which can involve providing detailed professional information. When using social media for professional use, the user can decide to reveal detailed professional information including name, place of residence, contact details, personal experience, educational background, and professional skills such as communication skills, organizational skills, digital skills, and job-related skills.

How digital identities converge in networked publics and the benefits

Digital identities converge in the networked publics by influencing identity verification and authentication (Jawed, Mahboob, & Yasmeen, 2019). This usually involves the establishment of digital or logical security with passwords or tokens, where trust, security, and identification are prioritized. Today, identity has evolved to comprise both digital and physical identities converging to help merge the use of applications and devices for personal and business purposes. The benefits associated with digital identity include enhanced security, high levels of accuracy, faster turnaround times, low operational costs.

A social media expert, Eric Stoller, elucidated that digital identity, though ill-defined, is one’s presence online. That is, what someone posts, shares, how they interact with people online, and how they use digital tools for their individual benefits. Everything an individual does on the web represents their digital identity. Digital identity, therefore, is essentially any personal data existing online that can be traced back to the real you. For example, photos uploaded on social media, posts created or commented on, online bank accounts and even search engine histories.

An individual’s digital identity holds sizeable value.  For instance, an individual might post content on the web, that potential employers might see and instantaneously become attracted, giving the individual an added extra. On the hand, another individual who posts unruly content, risks having their careers ruined, or rather losing all potential employers or investors, owing to their inimical posts. In sum, Digital Identity is any set of an individual’s attributes which can be accessed by technical means and identify a specific individual within any set of individuals. Typically, there is no specific thing such as “a digital identity,” rather, several of them (IGI Global, n.d.)

There are two main approaches to digital identity, personal approach and professional approach, all of which affect social media use. Professional identity is, professional introspection of a person, based on beliefs, character traits and experiences. Professional identity, from a finance perspective for example, is how a financier defines himself in his profession. Digital Professional Identity therefore is professional identity that is developed via online social interactions by utilizing communication channels and online platforms (Mahboob et al., 2019, p. 33). Professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use positively. In view of the fact, professionals use social media to ameliorate their various professions, for instance, professional artists post their masterpieces on social media and online art rooms, where they obtain their clientele.

On the flip side, personal identity is the understanding of self that an individual obtains as he or she approaches dotage (Admin, 2015). Digital Personal identity therefore is simply an individual’s day-to-day interactions with the web. Personal approaches to digital identity affect social media use both positively and negatively. On the positive side, an individual may use social media as a platform to sell their product or adroitness. On the contrary, an individual may use social media to promote violence, cyber bullying, or internet tension. An individual may also, through their posts, demean themselves, locking themselves out of opportunities.

Networked publics is the gap created through networked technologies, and the pictured combination that arises from the convergence of individuals, their practices, and technology. (Boyd, 2010, p. 39). Networked publics, like other types of publics, have many similar functions. Digital Identities converge in network publics in that, a person’s identity, is envisioned differently across various mediums of communication be it personally, on the web or on phone. In a face-to-face situation, one can cautiously gauge the context to decide what actions to take, and how to present himself. Facebook, a networked public, is an online social networking site, described by multiple features which allow individuals to make public identities, comprehend a group of individuals with mutual connections, and move among those connections as they wish.

From the Davos 2019 press conference, Mary Snap outlines a major benefits of digital identities converging with networked publics. She asserts that networked publics provide a set of standards by which digital identities could be developed in many different cases using many different kinds of platforms and applications, thereby enabling the prevalence and use of digital identity.

References

Admin. (2015, August 15). Difference between personal identity and social identity. Compare the Difference Between Similar Terms. https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-personal-identity-and-vs-social-identity/

Boyd. (2010). Social network sites as networked publics: Affordances, dynamics, and implications. A Networked Self, 39-58. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203876527-8

IGI GLOBAL. (n.d.). What is digital identity. IGI Global: International Academic Publisher. https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/internet-identity-and-the-right-to-be-forgotten/7638

Mahboob, U., Jawed, S., & Yasmeen, R. (2019). Digital professional identity: Dear internet! Who am I? Education for Health, 32(1), 33. https://doi.org/10.4103/efh.efh_232_17

What digital platforms are students currently using to develop their professional network?

Students are currently using LinkedIn to develop their professional network. LinkedIn brings excellent benefits to students as it connects them to jobs as a soon they graduate from college by connecting them to professionals. Specifically, LinkedIn enables students to showcase their profile, connections and recommendations which is integral to career paths.

What can you (as a student) consider to expand your professional learning network?

I think using Quora will enable me expand my professional network. Quora is a knowledge sharing website that allows posting of any questions and answering by anyone. Through Quora, both specific and general questions can be asked. One can view the discussions presented by others and also engage in answering their questions.

In your network, how can you create a digital identity/reputation?

I believe that Facebook is an ideal social media platform for use to build my reputation and digital visibility. The left tool bar under Groups icon on Facebook has “Explore” and “More” areas that enables one to filter by category the topic of interest and find relevant groups that will enable me connect with other professionals.

Consider what a local employer would do if you applied for a job with them-can they search the content, is it of benefit to the career path, does it hinder the opportunity for employment

A local employer can search the content of the job I have applied via Linkedin as a way of conducting a background check. This is because they are not restricted to the information on the materials of job application. The process of searching may enable them to view my profile which goes them the first impression of who I am.  By doing so, it they might be concerned if they find any omissions or my employment history, identity verification, criminal records, education confirmation, and credit history, among others. Indeed, this benefits my career path as it helps me to realize that applying a job goes in hand with a good reputation and identity. Besides, it also demonstrates credibility in my industry and highlights my achievements which is positive to my career path. The process can either hinder or increase the chances of me getting employed cindering whether omissions were found or not

What does it mean to network using social media?

In the article ‘Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them’, a model structure of how networking on social media platforms is expounded upon (Kamakshi Rajagopal). It takes three major steps. These are namely: the building, maintenance and activating of one’s presence. Building a network has to do with the establishment of a community of other users with similar interests such as organizations and reputable users through interactions such as participating and commenting on progresses they have. It is then followed by the maintenance of such an interaction by regularly checking the trends in an industry, learning what is going on and scouting potentials for collaborations. Lastly, it has to do with the activation of said connections to seek after the opportunities that available within an industry or organization.

How do people learn and engage using mediated platforms?

       The process through which one learns personal networking is a life-long matter. This is done not in the formal structures of education such as sitting in classrooms to be taught or through endless book research, but it is achieved through learning amongst ourselves in groups, through watching of informative videos such as those posted on YouTube or through communities such as gaming and other social media platforms where knowledge is posted and shared. It is through these interconnected online network that learning occurs at a person’s rate and preferred mode. Whether through auditory or pictorial or verbal forms. In addition to all these, the platforms provide the access to engage and interact with others who have similar interests. Therefore, they serve as a medium of engagement between two or more individuals with similar goals (Southampton).

How are we motivated to participate in networked publics?

Individuals are inspired to join networking platforms with the incentive of getting for themselves many possible connections for advancing themselves. These need to advance one’s self drives them to join a community network so as to find out what professional benefits and opportunities they can have. It leads to decisions of who to maintain a connection with or discard within a public network. The factors that contribute to such choices include: the person’s experience in their profession, the personal attachment between the two individuals. If they personally know each other in real life, they would likely keep in touch or reach out to the on a social platform. In addition to these, the proximity of the personal connection of the people within a network is key. If they are geographically close to each other, they are more likely to connect on public platforms.

What are the risks and rewards of public communication?

The article ‘Networked Privacy’ discusses the major risks associated with social networking platforms (Boyd). It points out that the privacy of the data of users is not a guarantee hence, possess a security threat. It also gives the suggested image of who they may be. Therefore, the creation of a form of measuring stick through which one makes social comparisons that may be unhealthy. In addition to this, the data amassed by the social platforms are used to customize adverts hence people are being sold information or products cunningly. However, the benefits of public communication are many. These are: enhancement communication that result in more opportunities, establishment of an individual’s unique footprint on which they can be reached, the ability to keep in touch effectively with people one already knows and the offer of  opportunities for learning how to solve an issue (Kamakshi Rajagopal).

References

Boyd, Donah. “Networked Privacy .” Surveillance & Society (2012): 348-350. Document .

Kamakshi Rajagopal, Desirée Joosten-ten Brinke, Jan Van Bruggen, Peter B. Sloep. “Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them .” First Monday (January 2012). Document .

Learning in the Network Age. Dir. University of Southampton. University of Southampton. n.d. video.