Task 1b - Professional communication technologies

Facebook; 

So after doing my back ground reading I found myself doodling notes along side articles that I had printed - mainly focusing on relating certain aspect to me and my everyday activities which usually occur on the phenomenon that is Facebook.


I'm sure that most of you will agree that when Facebook first came along and into our little lives it was confusing and 'not as good as' Bebo or My Space, however with time it has evolved and to be honest I would struggle to live without it! (Hope that's not too tragic to admit!) 
In Hamiltons notes it talks about how participation is a function, and just that sentence alone makes so much sense to me -  Mark Zuckerberg's idea caught on starting from just 1500 registered members through his university, helping create a way for students to interact..... 1 billion users later and he has one of Web 2.0's biggest success stories. I could go on for days talking about the way Facebook can be used but I want to focus mainly on interaction between others and how I have personally benefited from its uses. 


I remember using my Facebook account religiously when I embarked on my first ever professional dance contract with Carnival cruise lines. It was great as I had all my friends that I wanted to keep in contact with at home, and with a bit of free wifi I would be able to keep in touch with those via pictures or private messages - a cooler way of emailing I used to think! What a lot of people will talk about is how Facebook is constantly changing, wether it be the layout of the News feed or how you can add, tagg or delete posts with ease.  In the memo map it shows how number 2 in the centre is 'control your own data'. This for me is why I think Facebook is so popular because you have complete control on what is shown to others, who can see your profile or pictures and you even have the power to block and report other people which is so important in this day and age. 


Facebook provides so much more than just interaction with friends - it has gone on to allow platforms for people to promote businesses through the way of creating a page which you can control the viewers. I can happily relate to this success as I have used this myself to make a page promoting my pilates classes in the south. I can honestly say it helped me boost my numbers, meet new people, and give me more confidence in starting something new on my own. See below the link to my page that I am using as my example; 


https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pilates-For-You/110651575809969?ref=hl


As a social network, Facebook is something that a lot of people see as a positive for interaction with people they may not have necessarily interacted with in a classroom or a boardroom. Getting to know someones personality may be as simple as 'liking' the same thing, or sharing a post which is of interest to you. These two features opened so many doors and I believe it is pure genius when you actually think about it - YouTube videos of dancers, singers, funny stunts, scary stunts are constantly filling up my feed, and the usual talk in the office the next day is ' did you see that video of....' and without Facebook we may not have even seen it. I would like to use an example of this which happened today whilst sculling through my feed. A friend of mine shared a video which demonstrated cooking Coca Cola. The lady pours a whole bottle into a pan and heats the liquid up to find all the water will evaporate to leave a substance which looks like nothing more than thick tar, explaining that the remainders of the bottle in the pan is pure sugar. Put me off having a Coca Cola... YES! 


As my reading progressed and I got into the more deeper issues that people can face whilst setting up a Facebook account, I soon understood how important ethical considerations for using the web are. Kuehns article on 'Getting into trouble on Facebook' outlines the troubles superiors such as teachers or work bosses may come across. I have a few friends who are primary and secondary school teachers and from speaking to them directly they can not 'enjoy' the social media scene with ease as others may like to do - they have to always be aware of how dangerous and vulnerable the situations may be if caught crossing any sort of boundary. I guess it its common knowledge to some but to others who may be new to it could find it hard to get to grips with. With my experience working with children through dance I have always been conscious of making and maintaining professional working relationship with them but the moment I see a friend request from one of them you soon realise that ranting about your life on your status may not be such a good idea! This is not my style but you all have one or two friends on Facebook that feel its appropriate to explain there every emotion about a private matter to the whole of the web... that sort of thing is just asking for trouble!


Using the Web 2.0 for learning;


The programme has already allowed me to branch out of my comfort zone, and introduced me into the wonderful world of blogging and like I mentioned in one of my previous blogs I am really enjoying it. Taking the time to put your ideas and point across to others is a way of communication which I have not previously done before. As I was talking about Facebook you can see I am used to that, communicating through posting videos, pictures, 'liking' something etc but to write down your thoughts in this format is a learning curve which I feel will continue to help me through my professional life after the BAPP course. 


As I touched on before, social media for me is a way of interacting with others and exploring new and interesting things. My new found love being Instagram which has a mass following based upon images. A picture can scream a thousand words which is what I love - as I previously mentioned visually I capture things more than reading an essay on it. In the world of arts, whatever it might be you can always indulge in an image and make what you want of it. Having said that keeping up to date with Kim Kardashians hair styles can hardly be educational but thats what I love about the variety!!!


Youtube has broken ground for so many people across the world and the beauty of this is that anyone can use it! As ill get to know in the next couple of days for my task 1c. Again its a first like the blogging for me to be making a Youtube video but I'm excited to create something new and to share with you lovely lot!


What have I learnt from Web 2.0? Well, I was confused at the start because I had never even heard the term before, but once I did my back ground reading I soon realised its something I use everyday on a personal and professional level. It will always evolve and better what we already have and I think we are extremely lucky to be living in a time where almost everything is accessible by the touch of a button!

Hope you enjoyed my blog!

S x