As I started to read George Couros blog post "Has “Twitter” Changed or Has Our View?", my thoughts actually went to different social media and my feelings towards them lately. Then I moved on to Wesley A. Fryer's blog and his discussion on "Why You Should NOT Quit Facebook or Twitter", where my feelings bounced a different direction. And then I thought of a TedTalk that I had to watch for a course I took just a bit ago, "Connected, but alone?" with Sherry Turkle. My thoughts go in many different directions when I think about the benefits of social media but I feel my thoughts are changing again as I work on a personalized learning network(PLN) on Twitter.
I think the piece that often surprises people when I chat with them is that I love technology but I am the first to say it is not needed in all situations. I see myself as a lifetime learner and that is why I originally changed majors 24 years ago from natural resources to computer science. I love seeing the innovation, creativity and the constant change that technology can bring to the world. However, I am the first to say put the device down, I am not always the first to know something because I limit my time on Facebook, and I often explain there is something to say to about picking up the phone and calling someone instead of sending the text or email. In Sherry Turkle's TedTalk she discusses "that we sacrifice conversation for mere connection. We short-change ourselves. And over time, we seem to forget this, or we seem to stop caring." This is exactly how I have been feeling about social media. Finding myself wanting to be more present and disconnect more often. On the other hand, I feel I need to be connected and that my view is changing. I am seeing it in a different light.
As I have started to really dive into Twitter and start to embrace the idea of using it to work on my PLN, I can see a positive side to all of this. I can see how Twitter can help to expand conversations and create connections that reach further than our immediate community. Twitter can work in so many ways to help build a place to build a library of resources. For example, as I start to finish my final plans for a session for an upcoming professional development day at the district, I am excited to find new resources on Twitter that I will be able to share with the teachers. This is the piece that I feel brings it all back together though. It is the fact that it is great to build connections with others outside the community but then share the resources with those around you. This helps to bring it full circle and have the face to face conversations on the topics, conversations that are still so important. I am enjoying creating my PLN using Twitter and I am excited to see what connections I make, near and far. I have no plans to quit Twitter anytime soon, Facebook may take a little more convincing. It may be a time to say "See you later, Facebook".
Turkle, Sherry. (2012). Connected, but alone?[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together/transcript?language=en#t-438374
Thanks for mentioning the "conversations vs connection". We often say that our network connects us. And connecting is great! But, connecting without conversation, where does that leave us? Thanks for the nice post.
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