I've been uncomfortable with what I perceive as my students reluctance—or perhaps inability—to see themselves as professionals, so let me try different terms. In their study of the ways young people are using new media to communicate, play, socialize, and learn (Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project), Ito, Horst, and others distinguish between friendship-driven networks and interest-driven networks. I think this may be a more useful distinction for us in this class than personal and professional networks.
So what are friendship-driven networks? Well, Facebook and your cell phone messaging seem to be mostly friendship-driven. You use those tools to connect to your friends. They are what I've called personal networks.
What are interest-driven networks? Those are networks that you build in the pursuit of your interests. Facebook might be a tool in your interest-driven networks, but most people seem to want to keep Facebook for friends. Your cell phone could definitely be a tool in building your interest-driven networks, though most of you still seem to be using cell phones for friendship-driven networks. What about gDocs? gMail? gSites? gBlogger? Hmm.
But the question still remains? Why is most of your networking energy still invested in friendship-driven networks? Why aren't you just as busy pursuing your interests? How many of you even know what your interests are? Is it your major? your hobby? your faith? your community? your family? your friends? Which, I suppose, brings us back to friendship-driven networks.
One of my past IDST students, Elliott Holmes, is currently studying in Germany. He said that I could share his most recent wiki with you. Note that he set it up to manage work within a business class that he's taking. Mr. Holmes is on the net a lot, mostly pursuing his interests (though he manages to keep in touch with his friends). He's connected to lots of people who can contribute much value to his interest-driven network, his PLN, and he works hard to give back as much value as he gets. His interest-driven network is growing, and he will be successful.
So what are your interests? Are you developing the networks that will drive your interests? Are you developing a value-creating engine that will propel you beyond college and into the wider world? Elliott is.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Interest-Driven Networks
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While I do have a huge friendship driven network, I'm starting to realize that I have more of an interest driven network than ever before. And I'm also discovering that I'm using Facebook to help me along. Several of my contacts on Facebook are there just because we share interests and I can use them to reach a specific goal. WGUR employees, for example. I'm interested in radio broadcasting, and I search the web constantly to learn more about it. Especially now that I have my own radio show. Not just this, but I use my gBlogger for the same purpose. I have a whole other website that I use to keep in touch with teachers overseas so that I can hear their advice and understand obstacles that they encountered by living in another country. This isn't much, but isn't it a start? How big should our interest driven network be at this time? What are some ways to push our networks to the maximum? Because while Web 2.0 is a huge resource, it's a little intimidating. I hope I'm not the only person that thinks this, but I really don't even know where I want to start. My interests are all over the place, should I just pick one or two? Or should I spread out, encompass all of them in my network? I'm guessing that my questions will get answered over the course of this class. :)
Also, I wish to speak to us being reluctant to call ourselves professionals. Most of us are because the so-called professionals in our lives don't view us as such. They may look down upon us or treat us as inferior. I know that a lot of my professors don't see their classes as a group of professionals. Not yet. It kind of leaks out onto our views of ourselves, I'm afraid.
My interests include many things. A big part of my interests are my friends and family. I love interacting with people in many different ways. I love using face book and texting to communicate with my friends. I love communicating with my extended family through talking on the phone.
When I started in college I began to take on a new and very important interest. This was an interest in business. I am fascinated with business and the many aspects that go along with business. I love learning about the Stock Market and how it works. This communications class while benefit me and help contribute to my major. I believe networking is very important aspect of business and is one key to success in the area of business.
I do admit that the majority of my networks are personal netorks, those that I share with my friends and family, but I am starting to make more connections with other people based on my interests. For example, last semester in my Biology class I sat next to a girl that I found out was a Psychology major. It just so happened that I was too. Through connecting with her I was introduced to the Psychology Club here at GCSU which then connected me to Central State Hospital where I am now beginning to volunteer in the Psychiatric department. I am pursuing my dreams and goals more aggressively now, especially since I am beginning to actualy get into my major classes, and I realize that making this kinds of connections in the professional world is vital to achieving my ultimate goal of becoming a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist (I haven't yet decided which route I want to take, MD or Ph.D.). I realize that having big dreams comes and achieving those dreams requires a lot of work but that work can be complemented with the aid of some connections in the same field as my interests. I guess I felt I was too young to begin actively pursuing a "career." I thought I would have some epiphany along the way that would point me in what direction I am supposed to take in life. But I now reazlize that I must pursue all opportunities in order to find out myself where I belong instead of waiting for some "sign." In pursuing these opportunities I must have a very strong professional network in which to introduce me to new ideas that I would have never come in contact with on my own.
After reading this post, I realized that my only network that I have and care for a lot is my personal network, Facebook. I do think that I should be more connected to other interest networks. Some of my interests do occur on facebook, because those are my friends and family, and they are a big part of my life. But other than that, another interest of mine is my proffesion, nursing. I believe if I become more connected to nursing-type networks, that I will be more successful later on when I do start looking for jobs. Another interest of mine is ofcourse soccer. I am connected to a network on soccer, such as the soccer forum and even the website for soccer on the gcsu network. I believe that by taking this class and learning more about communicating and being more connected to networks will make me become more successful as I get older.
"Necessity is the mother of invention."
Socialnetworks are the first networks for most people. Yes, students bound for the wild world need to stay connected so invention rears its head and Facebook profiles arise.
But this medium is new. The network is not. What did our parents friendship-networks look like? (anyone want to tell me what Benkler says?)
But what is my professional network? Thats a hard one to define. Yes, I can point to it on my computer (its my bookmarks tool bar at the top of my internet screen).
Fundamentally my professional network consists of my tools. Like a carpenter has his workbench, I have my Gmail account - keeps my resume and important contacts accessible from any computer. I can have documents scanned and sent to me from home (4600 miles away) in about a second. It also lets me know I can get in contact with people I need from any internet capable computer in any city in the world (whether Paris, over the break, or Hamburg last month).
I also have my wikis which serve as tools and platforms for my groups to start to work from. (my business wiki you can link to above).
Other bookmarks in that P.N. are news (NPR), social (FB), banks, Mycats, Blogs (boing boing), fun movies (surfthechannel.com), ect.
I am a citizen of one of one of the privileged nations in the world. I go to a great school and have been given a great privilege/ responsibility to use those resources. My desire to explore our world will never stop. Again necessity is the mother of invention and my professional network developed because I needed these tools to be quickly accessible.
As you will learn through this course; the internet is a new and extremely useful tool - exploit it for your benefit. Please get connected on campus - the fundamental network is the human one - the virtual one makes the former one function and profitable. The main thing though is to find what interest you, the rest, and the necessity of a pro. NW. will follow.
-Elliot
I believe that for most people facebook is for friends and not much else, but for me, facebook has helped me and my friend Andrew George in more ways thatn one. We both had a radio show last semester and shall have one this semester as well, and on our show we can pretty much do whatever we would like. We chose to do our show as mostly a talk show with musical breaks, but we wanted it to be more than that.
Over the course of one semester we had four call in interviews with "famous" people and every single one of them was because of professional networking. My friend Andrew found one of the guys on Myspace I believe, which is becoming more professional as time passes. He simply messaged him on myspace and got an interview. I found someone on facebook, messaged him, worked out the details, and the next thing you know the guitarist from Sevendust is on our radio show. One of the interviews even found US, It was a band from GA that was going to be playing at Buffington's. The found us and asked if we could promote them on our show, we told them we would be honored and that they should have an interview. At the show, the lead singer asked how many of the audience heard about them from our show and about half of them raised their hands.
So Facebook and Myspace were made to be personal networks but as time progresses the seem to be transforming more and more into Professional networks.
How many of you even know what your interests are? That's a typical question that a lot of people answer with a cookie cutter response like "hanging out with friends, sleeping in, watching television" I think that the answer is as it is because of the fact that our networks, both social and technological, are so close. Close is the wrong word- they are so interconnected. How else would I know to watch House with my friends if I did not agree to it via facebook invite, or get a text reminding me from my best friend?
Is it your major? my major, psychology, deals less with a network, but more of how the network has impacted a person. What has it done to them? Has it hurt them, have they let it consume them, how are they using it, etc.
my networks, for now, are based mostly off of my friends, but I am keeping up with other things, like Elliot is via stock quotes, the news, other blogs, possible job opportunities, etc.
I don't really use friendship networks like Facebook or MySpace so I can actually say I interest network more than I friendship network. I have interest which I think is more important than chatting online or texting on the cell phone. I love history so I use the internet to research most of the time. My family and I recently did our family tree in which the internet made it very possible to complete. If I think about it guess this project was the involving both friendship networking and interest networking. I was in contact with a person who helped the family tree come together 1200 miles away for six months through emails. We found we both had a lot in common. We both loved history. So it seems both types of networking can be intertwined. My major is nursing and more specifically I'm interested in psychiatric nursing. I can see how friendship networking can be a real plus in the nursing field. It is so much to learn. Posting ideas for study strageties, support groups, and time management is a great idea for a wiki.
The reason I put so much emphasis on my friendship driven network is because that is all that matters to me. When I prioritize the things in my life, I place my friends way ahead of myself. Thus, I don't spend my time talking with strangers about my interests. I am perfectly content with going about my hobbies by myself or with my friends. This leads to my lack of pursuing my interests socially. I write, keep track of sports, and all my other interests with my friends. If I am not pursuing it with my friends, then I am doing it by myself. Basically, I do not want to be propelled into the wider world because I do not want to miss out on anything that matters most to me.
On a different note, I fully agree with Jess about the consequences of our professor's (and other professionals) actions. Their lack of respect for us and the way they treat us makes us feel as though we are the opposite of professional. I do want to clarify that not all professors are this way, but as a general rule the majority are.
I have a big friendship driven networked and have started to realize that I need to start branching out away from just using facebook. I never even realized I could do so much on Google and I hope to start using it in my classes to help me out. I have many interests though. Sports, family and friends are my main personal interests but what I wish to do in the future is become a stock broker. My friends and I set up a completion between us to see who can win in the stock market games online. I believe this will help me out in the future and its not just a personal thing to do. I am also planning on joining the economics club next year because I am a economics major. This is not the same type of networking we discuss in this class but I believe joining that club would be a great way to network with people who share my same interests.
I honestly think that friendship-driven networks and interest-driven networks are connected...almost the same thing. When you mention Facebook and my cellphone...I use both for my friendship connections and what I'm interested about. I don't think I'm yet pursuing my interest...the networks that will define it and that will propel me beyond college. I think I'm starting right now and will eventually learn more about it....
Reading this article made me realize that Facebook is not just a social networking system. Sure we(college student) do use it to keep in touch with friends and for other social things, it can become a vital tool. Being the intramural program assistant, one of my jobs is to call team captains if there has been an abrupt change to their schedule. I have to admit, this is my least favorite task because it is so hard to get in touch with college students who are constantly in class, texting, using their cell phones, forwarding calls, or just ignoring the call because of an unfamiliar number. This can be very frustrating after awhile because I want to make sure the participants know what is going on; therefore, I have resulted to Facebook. I usually Facebook captains if I can find them to inform them that a change has been made or anything else that has come up. It is a vital part of our intramural program here at GCSU. We also have our own facebook group for participants. Although I used Facebook for work, I guess it really doesn't answer the interest driven network question. I feel it is hard for college students to start interest driven networks when we are still trying to figure out ourselves. It is said that college is where you grow the most as an individual. And I have to admit this is true because I have learned a lot about myself at college and being away from my parents. With that being said, you have to figure yourself out first before you can start to pursue others who have similar interest. If you don't know yourself, how are you going to connect with others. Now I am fortunate enough to decide my major, which helps me a little because it pertains to one of my interest. I mean it might not be a big deal, but many students change their majors three or four times and I only changed it once. I am now a psychology major. My interest is to help others be emotionally happy because life is a hard road and its even harder if you are not happy with yourself. Although psychology is my interest, there are many fields in psychology to explore, making it hard to pin point a single interest. I guess in the end as time goes on people will figure out who they are as a person and what their interest are, and once they reach the "light bulb" moment, more interest driven networks will develop, but right now we just want to talk to our friends and be social. But that is a positive thing because friends help us find ourselves, making everything interconnected.
It's difficult to see ourselves as professionals when we are still in college. Honestly, I'm not sure if I even want to see myself as a professional. I'm just a freshmen; and though college comes with many responsibilities, by no means am I mature enough to be labeled as a professional. Less than a year ago I was living at home with my parents. Now, I'm starting to learn what it takes to live alone and be able to balance a social life with a successful education. I still have quite some time to figure out how to be a professional. Even though I've been working since I was 15 years old, waitressing does not really does not really gain much respect in the business world. Though there are some who manage to be extremely successful without a college education, I know that school is a process I must go through in order to become an effective businesswoman.
Though I have done very little so far in pursuing my interest-driven network, I feel like I have a couple more years before I start to stress about expanding my interest networks. Between facebook, cell phone texting, and other social networks, I am quite the expert on the personal aspects of networks. Those are the only interests that I am sure about at this time in my life. Once I start figuring out what exactly I want to do with my life, I will begin to investigate various interest networks.
Sometimes I feel like the reason I'm not connecting or building my networks (whether friendship or interest driven) is not due to lack of interest or effort on my part, but rather ignorance on my behalf, or the behalf of others. For example, when it comes to friendship driven networks such as facebook I am learning that while more and more people HAVE a facebook, less and less people USE it on a regular basis. Many of my friends are beginning to loose interest in such networks now that the "newness" has worn off. I think this really applies to EVERYTHING in life. Think about it, when you and your friends first got cell phones you actually used them to TALK. Not only did we use them to talk, we talked ALL the time (crazy concept huh?). Email also used to be HUGE, and I remember a time where I couldn't wait to get home, and wait for the internet to dial up so I could get on AIM and check my email. Now I only use my AIM screen name to occasionally video chat and though I check my email everyday its sadly 97% spam or a lonely screen reading "0 New Messages". The cycled continued when Myspace hit it big. Email and AIM became a thing of the past and everyone spent so much time creating the coolest profile layout around. Eventually, Facebook knocked myspace out of the main frame and now it seems to be slowly loosing momentum. So as we continue in this lull we try to find new ways to connect while waiting for the newest thing to bump Facebook out of the spotlight (Think "video killed the radio star people). The problem with this though I make attempts to connect with others through online journals, emails, blogs, facebook groups, etc. it often feels like people don't want to put the effort back in to check these wonders of yesteryear or learn to use unfamiliar networking tools such as blogs or wikis.
On the other hand, while I know there are probably a TON of sites out there that would allow me to connect with people who share the same interests as I do (and we're not talking EHarmony and Match.com here) with such a vast network to tap into I often feel overwhelmed. Since I don't know where to start, I often just give up because I feel like i don't have the time to even begin looking.
Another valid point Dr. Hamon brought up was do I even know what my interests are? Am I sincerely interested in my major. . . not necessarily. Do I know what I want to do for my career? Yes. But what are my interests, truly? I always hate these types of questions because you always think you know what your interests are until you are asked questions like these. It always makes you think, what do i REALLY like to do? Am I just doing something because I fit into this age group, and this stereotype or do I really LOVE doing this?
I really think that to begin to build your network you must first begin to answer these questions, and questions like them. . . Let the soul searching begin.
For the most part, I use Internet sites for more personal reasons other than socializing. Although I do use Facebook regularly, I am honestly starting to get somewhat burned out on it. I do go on occasionally just to look around at pictures and look up old friends, but after a few minutes, I just get bored of it nowadays. Recently, I have become very interested in Marketing and Advertising, rather than sitting on the computer for hours on end, looking at Facebook pictures.
I suppose my interest-driven network is bigger than I thought. gDocs, gMail, gSites, and gBlogger are all most certainly a part of this network. These networks drive my interests—my interests in this class and most importantly my interest in getting a satisfactory grade. But even beyond that, this class and all these wonderful tools are helping me connect with those who share the same interests as me. Right now, my main interest is my major. I am a biology major, and I am trying to do everything I can to hopefully get into medical school. I have been developing networks with other pre-med students through blogs. We are able to hyper-connect with each other, and discuss any questions/thoughts we have. Though facebook is primarily a friendship-driven network for me, I also use it to connect with my classmates. So it is somewhat of an interest-driven network, too. I am sure that the closer I approach the “real world” my friendship-driven network will slowly change into a more interest-driven one.
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