Navigating the 21st Century: An Exploration of Self and Audience
As we have learned from class in the past few weeks, we must pay attention to numerous details when writing online. To look further into these details and concepts I read two chapters from Web Writing: Why & How for Liberal Arts Teaching & Learning and analyzed the type of writing styles they used as students and how the keywords are connected to more web writing with larger populations. The two chapters I read were titled: “Tweet Me a Story” and “Getting Uncomfortable: Identity Exploration in a Multi-class Blog”. Both chapters discuss the importance of finding your identity on the web and connecting to audience with that particular identity. A liberal arts education allows students to explore these identities in daily life and portray them online to attract specific readers and share their thoughts and ideas to audiences of all different types.
“Tweet Me a Story” in Web Writing was especially interesting because it took a somewhat new concept in the web writing world, Twitter, and explained how students used it for a class project. When students are asked to write blog posts, usually a length is required or students write more than a few short sentences. One interesting point I got from the article was that although tweeting is a microblogging experience and many people associate it with short remarks, which are often silly facts, this resource for online writing is much like writing a paper or a blog. When tweeting about an event, students met with a professor about the lead tweet to catch readers’ attention; this is similar to a title or the first line of a paper that sparks interest. Then, the following tweets vary in information much like paragraphs.
At first people may think that Twitter is easy and thoughtless, but in reality one must take into consideration many things when tweeting to a public audience. That being said, audience is key; many followers can feel a connection to someone who is tweeting about topics they are interested in, and present a tone that they enjoy and think reflects themselves. This is not to say that someone should tweet to please people with a tone that is not their one, but they should come across with a tone that has a purpose. If you want to tweet like a comedian and are looking for followers who enjoy humor, a tone without humor or sarcasm may be one to steer clear of. Twitter also allows you to take a tone that you normally would not and present yourself with a different identity if you wish to do so. The number of followers may provide some information to the Tweeter about the impact that their tweets have on people, and what type of people are attracted to their style of writing taking into consideration both content and tone. Tweets that attract a specific group of followers are what Twitter bases success off of; if you tweet and have 0 followers, you fail to create conversation and connect with readers using an agreeable tone.
“An Exploration of Social Identity” written by Herdagdelen, Zuo, Gard-Murray, Bar-Yam is an article that focuses on the characteristics of spontaneous social groups that are formed through Twitter based on self-identification, social priorities and a collective social response. Herdagdelen et al. states that, “The study of social media can reveal how individual actions combine to become the collective dynamics of society. Characterizing the groups that form spontaneously may reveal both how individuals self-identify and how they will act together.” In society today, we have so many options of the kinds of people we want to connect with that are interested in the same topics as us. Students may connect with students in Spain doing a similar project as them, or tweet about a current sports game with someone across the country. Herdagdelen et al. observed how people on twitter flock to a particular news article tweeted about whether it was local, global, or about the US. In the past, before technology, people grouped themselves based on geographic location and interest. People found their identities through social interactions with people around them, but that is not the case anymore. Twitter allows you to connect to almost anyone in the world with an account and, “research has confirmed that twitter users with similar interests tend to connect to each other”.
As talked about in “Tweet Me a Story”, the content and tone is important to the audience reading what you are writing. Connections and conversation are not just made through small personal talk anymore, but through the Internet and blogging. A good blog post, or tweet, invites readers in with something that is on their comfort level of reading difficulty, is able to create conversation, and includes media to engage readers. An Exploration of Social Identity saw that this was happening simply by looking at one newspaper source being tweeted by many users. Followers felt a connection with the type of article tweeted about, the area it covered, and most likely because they felt they could contribute to a conversation.
The chapter “Getting Uncomfortable: Identity Exploration in a Multi-class Blog” in the Web Writing book addressed the gap that is present between students of different backgrounds in the classroom and how they can tackle this feeling (Wright, 2013). The chapter talks about colorblindness today and how student’s reactions to race in the classroom. Through writing blogs and commenting on others, students developed their own identity and perspective on issues relating to race and other topics. Writing on the web allows for a continuous exploration of identity that engages an audience to respond and create discussion. Someone responding to a blog does not need to have identical interests as the person writing it; controversial questioning and conversation allows both the reader and responder to express their identity even more through taking a side on their particular opinion.
Students in this classroom took part in the “Identity Exploration Assignment” where they wrote on the web and engaged with texts about identity development and reflecting on their own identity position and membership to a particular group. Students were encouraged to respond and were especially encouraged to “write to learn” rather than “learning to write” (Wright, 2013). The teachers hoped that through this assignment students would, “become aware of their own identity development, and [to] understand that developmental growth can be accomplished by feeling of anger guilty, and discomfort.” (Wright, 2013) Activities including web writing help create conversation and to encourage students to write in a public space so that they know that their work is not only public, but also serious. When it is known that an audience is present and listening, work seems more serious and the author knows they must come across clearly with a point to their writing.
“An Exploration of the Relationships Between Blogging Practices, Blogging Motives and Identity Exploration” by Williamson and Knowles review a very interesting topic of identity exploration through blogging and blogging motives of emerging adults with a hypothesis that, “bloggers in the emerging adulthood stage of life would be more likely to have self-focused motives and engage in identity exploration than bloggers who had reached adulthood. Additional research has stated that, “The rapid emergence and widespread use of the Internet has prompted numerous studies investigating topics such as the effect of the Internet on individual well-being, online relationship formation, and the exploration or creation of the self identity online” (Williamson & Knowles, 2007). The authors propose that the Internet plays a significant role in an emerging adult’s life, and such an online environment can push an emerging adult into adulthood through identity exploration and then can be seen my an audience. Through tasks of writing about self-identity and well-being, people everywhere are encouraged to explore their thoughts and feelings by consistently posting on blogs. Two categories were identified for social interaction on the web: self-concerns and self-motivations (Williamson & Knowles, 2007).
Bloggers in this particular study wrote about a variety of topics as seen in Figure 1.
The authors comment that, “Taken together with the blogging topic findings, this implied that while blogs have a personal focus, limits are imposed on the personal information revealed” (Williamson & Knowles, 2007). In the end, research showed that although many people did not find blogging to help with self-identity exploration, many (95%) felt that a sense of self was represented through their blogs (Williamson & Knowles, 2007). With results like this many people may ask, “what’s the difference between a sense of self and self-identity?” I feel that self-identity takes more than blog writing, and the students who participated in the Identity Project in Web Writing did exercises in self-exploration and observing others identity. I think that reflecting just on your own identity creates a sense of self, but to admit to completing an adventure of self-identity formation is a large achievement to say you have completed. A blog is a continuous project; it does not have a one date where it is complete and the author can no longer add more. Like a blog, identity is continuous as well. As bloggers we choose what is published, what we talk about, and about the information revealed through our posts which all reflect some part of our identity.
Web writing is a great place to start to learn about yourself, but it can not end there. Why are blogs a continuous project? The answer is simply because we are on a constant journey to find ourselves. Web writing can be an immediate source of self-identification for some, but just a notification of self in writing topics for others. As seen in Figure 1, there are many topics that someone can write about. If we were to write in depth about each of these on a blog we may only begin our journey of self-identity. At a college with a Liberal Arts education, I have found myself writing for a variety of classes on different topics. As I get ready to graduate in May I can not say that I have found myself, but by writing and learning about a plethora of topics rather than focusing on one I have seen that we can not be one dimensional and find our identities, we must take part in multi-dimensional learning and interacting to form a sense of self.
“Identity in Twitter’s Hashtag Culture: A Sport-Media-consumption Case Study” is an article that talks about Twitter as a medium that allows sport consumers to connect in instant conversation and interact over the course of sporting events (Smith and Smith, 2012). People follow sports teams and take part in conversation during games over devices such as Twitter, and through that fans portray a sense of identity based on the team they are rooting for and representing. The author suggests that Twitter helps create new relationships and conversation between fans that would not otherwise be possible (Smith & Smith, 2012). Many people feel that when they identify with a sports team that it is reflective of their character and they become personally invested in “their” team. Twitter may be like wearing a team jersey, you support and root for your team for others to see and make it known to your audience who you cheer for. Writing online during sports events not only helps with identity, but instead of an audience cheering with you at a game, an audience online can state opinions and facts about the current sporting event that in turn creates conversation, whether someone agrees or not. Conversation such as this may create opposing sides to interact more than usual and reflect more about themselves by stating strong personal opinions against a contrasting opinion.
Classes about digital writing can offer an endless amount of benefits to students participating in the new phenomenon. Positive benefits could be due to the continuous exploration of identity and non-stop writing possibilities of the Internet; it encourages conversation, self-exploration, web surfing, idea formation, and opinion configuration, to name a few. As stated before hand, self-identity and exploration used to be formed through geographical set groups so ideas and conversation were limited to what was going on in a particular area. Now the web creates many conversation opportunities, encouraging people of all ages to share thoughts, opinions, and feelings.
President Roseman stated in her inauguration speech, “Today, our mission is to prepare young people so they can successfully navigate the mid-21st century” showing the importance that students keep up to date with writing in the 21st century. Web writing has become more popular recently through social networking, microblogging, and blogging. Our class benefits from discussing these types of contributions to web writing, but also by participating in them. A conversation is happening everywhere online, and to be informed and part of these conversations we must speak our voices. If we want to engage the world we have to start with ourselves through the self-identity exploration and creating conversation with others. By participating in various events, traveling, and talking to people unlike ourselves we get a sense of who we are through others. One may never start the process of self-exploration if they do not talk to others. If we want to contact the world in the most effective and influential way at the moment we must use the Internet.
At Dickinson I have taken a wide variety of classes, majored in Psychology, been a member and captain of the swim team, have participated in multi cultural events both abroad and in Carlisle, and have been a leader in clubs. A liberal arts education is more than just taking a few classes outside of your major, but it is engaging the world and campus. It is about writing about each topic if Figure 1 rather than just exploring one. Engaging the world may mean all of these things, but what we must address is that the world is our audience and through our own exploration we need an audience that too is ready to engage the world and respond positively or negatively to our opinions and thoughts. Web writing is the next big step to engaging the world because of convenience and the potential it has to reach more than our demographic area. As students in the 21st century we must take part in this conversation and use such a broad audience to help continue our exploration of self.
Sources
Herdagdelen, A., Zuo, W., Gard-Murray, A., Bar-Yam. Y., (2012). An Exploration of Social Identity: The Geography and Politics of News-Sharing Communities in Twitter.
Smith, L., & Smith, K. D. (2012). Identity in Twitter’s Hashtag Culture: A Sport-Media-Consumption Case Study. International Journal of Sport Communication, 5(4), 539-557.
Moore, T. (2013, Sept 28). Historic Inauguration. Retrieved from: Dickinson.edu/about/28thpresident/Inauguration.
Williamson, D., & Knowles, A. (2007). An exploration of the relationships between blogging practices, blogging motives and identity exploration. InRecord of the Communications Policy & Research Forum 2007 Retrieved from http://www.networkinsight.org/verve/_resources/CPRF07record.pdf
Wright, Leigh. “Getting Uncomfortable: Identity Exploration in a Multi-class Blog.” Web Writing. Web Writing, 15 Sep 2013. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/engagement/wright-2013/>.
Wright, Leigh. “Tweet Me A Story.” Web Writing. Web Writing, 15 Sep 2013. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/engagement/wright-2013/>.