What are the benefits of a diverse and inclusive PLN in social media sharing that understands where you are coming from with messaging that impacts the community?
Using social media, we can broaden and diversify our PLNs through all sorts of easily accessible topics of conversation.
But what does a broad and diverse PLN entail? It includes a platform through which individuals of different backgrounds, experiences, and skills can interact and thus share and learn from these conversations. These experiences are exchanged within a social media sharing platform (ex. Twitter,) ultimately growing the network surrounding you through a plethora of engaging and challenging interactions.
- How does social media engage communications?
It is as easy as simply searching up your topic of interest. Then, users are exposed to the multiple public opinions of others and choose from options such as responding, sharing, or liking. Users tend to gravitate toward groups of people whom they share interests with. It is engaging in the way that there is no limit to that engagement; people may engage at any time, any place, and even choose to do so under any alias they choose (i.e., they could post anonymously.) Users also feel more accepted through these engagements, as a wide range of experiences are present. You can learn from beginners up to professionals: this allows people to engage at their own pace and decide to which extent they broaden their learning and networks.
- How does social media challenge communications?
Social media platforms heavily depend on algorithms to cycle media forward. In this case, the algorithm might present different media we do not necessarily have an interest in or, on the other hand, hide media from us that might suit our interest. Hiding the media we would enjoy limits our ability to communicate as the less the algorithm shows it to us, the fewer opportunities we have to interact with that media. Another example of challenging communication on social media is the mass amount of panic caused by it. Many users, including myself sometimes, forget that social media is not a valid and reliable source for news or other information. Users might believe something they read online, then continue this belief across their own PLNs across social media. People with opposing views or (who know the actual fact-checked truth) might come into conflict, and thus have unnecessary interactions that do nothing but actually challenge knowledgable and educational communications.
- Is it inclusive?
Social media allows us to amplify our opinions with a broader network of people. We are able to generate, share, and interact more accessibly, and this, in exchange, broadens our PLN both personally and professionally. I believe that it is inclusive; however, there is also a large margin which is not. With technology constantly improving and new forms of media becoming options to interact on, the diversity of communication is expanding on a grander scale. The more extensive and inclusive our PLNs are, the more people we can learn from and teach. However, it can also not be inclusive in ways such as opposing views being deemed problematic and shamed. Some voices are amplified, and others are shamed regarding the given topic and the particular perspective of those receiving it. Often, social media can be almost more exclusive than real-life PLNs. Users might find it easier to express their opinions and critiques behind an anonymous profile.
