Mike Blog

• If your PLN can be used to help professional development post-course?

Through the conversation between Amber and Jesse, we can see that in the healthcare industry, social media such as Twitter can help people who are not in this field open up healthy dialogue, especially during the pandemic, social networks are flooded with a lot of false information.  Professional doctor’s account timely dispelling of rumors eases people’s nervousness. However, for doctors or nurses working in this industry, they will prefer to read peer-reviewed articles, which really helps them update information and expand their horizons instead of social media （“when suddenly people feel that comfort behind a keyboard that they are an expert in  even thought they truly aren’t qualified” ）. But my opinion is a little different from Amber. Although I also read professionally published articles, for a business student, social media platforms can help me get to know some “real” businessmen instead of cases in Ivy publishing. Either small and medium enterprises or the world’s top 100 companies will share some successful experiences on the Internet. If I have a chance to know a local businessman in Vancouver or Victoria from Twitter, I may visit his company and learn his success methods face to face.

• Can your PLN be relied on to open professional opportunities and on which platform does your emerging expertise get good exposure?

PLN is a good platform to open up professional opportunities. For technical talents, recruitment platforms such as LinkedIn or indeed can help us be discovered by more employers. Many headhunting companies also look for the professionals they need on social platforms. As a medical student, if you are about to graduate and your social account is popular with lots of followers because of sharing medical-related knowledge, there is no doubt that you will have a greater chance of being hired than classmates.  According to Giudice, Carayannies and Della Peruta,  there is no doubt that the role of knowledge in the development of society, economy, the countries and all institutions from the information society to the network society is due to the existence of ICT (information and communication technology) (2013). Knowledge and information have begun to be regarded as strategic economic resources, such as factors that determine competitiveness. Many countries have invested heavily in information and communication technology as well as in intangible assets, such as education, research and development (R&D). Those investment help developing countries improve knowledge-based industries （Giudice, Carayannies & Della Peruta， 2013）. If you have an idea or a semi-formed product looking for investment, a crowdfunding website is undoubtedly a good choice. Publish your ideas and projects on crowdfunding sites such as kickstarter, and then share the link on your PLN with  hashtag ,  which may help your emerging expertise get good exposure.  Or if your idea posted on PLN that gets enough attention, technical companies will take the initiative to find you and invite you to participating in development.

• Can you leverage your PLN in future endeavours? With consideration to the reading and video interview, how do you ensure that you expand your PLN via social media platforms into spaces that may be outside of your comfort zone?

On the one hand, for a manager, PLN can narrow the distance with employees, help managers understand employees’ feedback, and discover creative ideas in social media. On the other hand, they can see different insights in social media platforms, because in the physical world they live and work in the same environment for a long time,  their thinking and actions may fall into limitations and stereotypes.  Social networking can always help people find their shortcoming. An example is IBM’s most typical application of social networking-“Innovation Jams”, which is a large-scale network discussion forum attended by IBM employees, partners, and customers worldwide to promote corporate innovation. Based on some of the ideas presented at the meeting, IBM has initiated a number of new initiatives to improve current products and business methods (Haniotis, 2011). To expand PLN via social media platforms into spaces that may be outside of our comfort zone, we need to recognize the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet. There are always talents who are more capable than us in various fields in social platforms. We should remain humble to receive new ideas and doubts, and constantly find accounts that are worthy of our attention (validated source) even though it is not related to our professionals but help in other fields. Meanwhile, we also need to stay sober and not be easily influenced by opinions on the Internet.  We can accept different insights outside of our comfort zone but always build own core values in PLN that could not be shaked.

Reference

A Global PLN – Supporting One Another – Course YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/RiWaXNfnHAg

Del Giudice, M., Carayannis, E. G., & Della Peruta, M. R. (2013). Social media and emerging economies: Technological, cultural and economic implications (2014th ed.). Cham: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-02490-5

Haniotis, J. (2011). Innovation jams: Lessons in agile product development — an experience report. Paper presented at the 223-229. doi:10.1109/AGILE.2011.49

Community communications go beyond blogs and social media shares, how does a PLN help and hinder the development of thoughts and ideas in public discourse – especially when addressing our differences?

What we must admit is that racial discrimination is still an issue that cannot be ignored today, as HARRISON MOONEY mentioned in the interview what his childhood experienced and what he felt in the workplace as a black writer. Globalized social media can allow people to hear more different voices, such as finding a black hockey fan. Meanwhile, because of the convergence of one community, people who have been communicating in that for a long time are not able to realize their own prejudices and common problems due to the idea consistency, different voices from social networks can help them discover these.  I once participated in the discussion about Marvel’s movie “Avengers: Endgame” hashtags on Twitter, and found many hidden clues that I didn’t realize when watching the movie, and my friend was not interested in superheroes, he could also pop filter bubble through # Avengers Endgame.

How can a PLN be curated to minimize bias and expand knowledge of the lives of others?

According to Ciampaglia and Menczer (2018), there are three bias exsiting in the social network: bias in the brain, society and machine. A cognitive shortcut occurs when a person determines whether to share the story displayed on their social media. People are very influenced by the emotional connotation of the title, although this is not a good indicator of the accuracy of the article. Another source of prejudice comes from society. When people interact directly with their peers, the social prejudices that guide them to choose friends affect the information they see such as name identity. The third bias is applied by both social media platforms and search engines.   These personalization algorithms are written to select the most attractive and relevant content for each user. However, it may ultimately intensify users’ perceptions and social prejudices making them more susceptible to manipulation.

To minimize those bias and expand knowledge of the lives of others, we have to maintain an open and inclusive attitude in PLN. Most users just choose people around them and recommendations as the objects of attention, but this is prone to prejudice. It does not mean to give up friends in reality. A professional PLN should choose carefully who will affect our thinking. For example, when Harrison changed from a sports reporter to a daily news journalist , his following also changed from the sports field to  social news providers and commentators who give inspire and different perspective on the same news. Also, when we have a different view with another user and prepare to argue with him/her, we should always think about their background and the environment that they live. This allows us to have a different perspective when considering problems instead of having to prove or argue that we are right.

How does the identity of who you are, fit into your PLN? Do you include professional and personal boundaries?

When building our PLN, we should consider whether to associate work with a digital identity , or think that the identity on social platform should be anonymous. In the Boston bombing, with the help of the Internet, the police found the suspect, but Reddit also made an innocent student become a victim of doxxing who just shared his photo online (Meikle, 2016).  In my opionin, we should have different levels of realistic identity disclosure for different social platforms. For example, for LinkedIn, we need a true description of our education and work background so that HR can understand us. For Twitter or Facebook, whether we are willing to completely separate work and life determines whether we want to establish both professional account and personal account. Harrison’s profile picture and photos on PLN helped him see more voices from the black community and reduced discrimination. While on the other hand, he is more likely to be attacked by extreme racists, because his work and life trajectories are exposed online and are easy to track. However, if we build PLN into a completely professional account like a robot, it may reduce conviction and cohesion to other users. People will think that behind this account is not a real person and less interested. In general, everyone should be aware of information disclosure on social platforms no matther it is professional or personal.

Reference

Reporting in a Connected Culture with Harrison Mooney – Course YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/elKNQpz0RrI

Ciampaglia, L. G., & Menczer, F. Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally. (2018, ). The Billings Gazette (Billings, Mont. : Daily)

Meikle, G. (2016). Social media: Communication, sharing and visibility. New York: Routledge. Chapter 4.

Open dialogues about media literacy and factual information can create conflict, why does this happen?

According to Jesse and Julie Smith’s conversation, the conflict between media literacy and factual information happens because that somebody doesn’t accept facts. It is like the Familiarity Backfire Effect, which is to protect people’s own opinions from external information when people passively accept information bombardment. Slowly, the Backfire Effect will make people less and less suspicious of themselves, and take their own opinions as a matter of course.

What is the benefit of having a PLN that values media literacy?

Having a PLN that values media literacy can help us determine how we view ourselves and how we view people who aren’t like us.  In today’s internet age, it is no longer that information is pushed to us but we pull news from thousands of information. We consume media in order to satisfy certain emotional and intellectual needs (Jesse and Julie Smith). Having a PLN with good media literacy will reduce the bias and make us view the message that we disagree. News is kind of a business and we should not be manipulated by it or the organization behind it. Having a PLN that values media literacy can achieve that.

What is media literacy?

Media Literacy is a person’s attitude and ability to recognize, judge, and use media. It refers to people’s ability to choose, understand, question, evaluate, create, produce, and speculate when facing various information in the media (Trilling & Fadel, 2009). “Media literacy education” or “media education” is different from media professional education for training media professionals. The main object of education is all citizens. The goal of education is to cultivate the ability of all people to critically think and produce media information. In other words, the media literacy learning process focuses on problem exploration, but does not give a “standard answer”. The answer is left to different individuals and communities to find on their own.

Why is it important?

Social media has become part of our everyday. A survey shows that most adults read no more than one headline before reposting an article, and more than 75% of adults cannot identify fake news . Also, 23% of respondents regards Facebook as major  sources of news（Silverman & Singer-Vine, 2016). Due to the surplus of information on the Internet, we need to systematically learn to distinguish their true and false, and find what we really need among those messages. Especially for parents, they urgently want a book or knowledge to teach their children how to perform better in social media and not be misled by violence and misinformation. Media literacy convinces people that fact finding in this fire hose of information is up to us (users).

Why is it dismissed?

On the one hand, some educators believe that the work of these critical media educators is actually a kind of ideological manipulation, allowing the media to accept a form of “critical analysis” whose role is not only in the obedience and consent of orders. It concluded that this brutal practice will inevitably fail because it condemns the love of children (Kline, Stewart & Murphy, 2006). On the other hand, most of people consider media literacy educators as librarians. They think it is a tool that teaches how to use meida just like how to find a proper book in library while it is actually not. It is a subject to teach critical thinking.

Why should you aim for varied views but factual consensus in your PLN?

Based on previous course, it is beneficial to maintain an inclusive and diverse environment in  our PLN to accept different perspectives. Those views help us understand how other people in this world think, which minimum the bias. However, all various views should be published under factual consensus such as “the sun rises from the east.” The fact is a statement that can be proven.  Both Trump’s supporters and opponents can publish conflicting views, but they all agree that Trump was elected  as the president of the United States in 2016. Therefore, we should aim for varied views but factual consensus in PLN.

Reference

Media Literacy – Course YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/Z_T9RghwJlI

Trilling, B., Fadel, C., Partnership for 21st Century Skills, & Books24x7, I. (2009). 21st century skills: Learning for life in our times (1st ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Silverman, C., & Singer-Vine, J. 2016 Dec. 6th. Most Americans Who See Fake News Believe It, New Survey Says. BuzzFeedNews. Retrieved from: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/fake-news-survey

Kline, S., Stewart, K., & Murphy, D. (2006). Media literacy in the risk society: Toward a risk reduction strategy. Canadian Journal of Education, 29(1), 131-153. doi:10.2307/20054150

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?

According to Clark and Aufderheide (2011), it is widely popular to set up platforms for sharing, remixing as well as commenting on both amateur and technical media. Based on the conversation from Jesse and Mike Russell , a diverse and inclusive PLN in social media sharing that understands where you are coming from with messaging that impacts the community will attract more users who are interested in the same information. Also, according to the humorous or serious commentary, people in the community can easily understand what kind of person we are and what we are doing. Russel would use his own account comment to humanize some roles that traditionally were very traditionally were very cold or stoic. At the same time, it will increase our influence and affinity in the community.

Explore how using technology can provide realtime engagement and include answers to the following. 

●  How does social media help engage in community-based communications?

●  How does social media challenge community-based communications?

On the one hand, establishing a social media community compared to in-person communication can help reduce tension. Through everyone’s PLN, we can also understand the personal style inside the community. By adding tags or creating groups, social media can easily achieve realtime engagement. Also, community-based communications using social media will save the costs of renting a physical activity room and time that everyone arrive there.  I knwo a social media called QQ building a anonymous speaking mechanism that you don’t know who post what words within a group. It sometimes help people publish their real thoughts. However anonymous speaking also lead to aggressive expressions and waste of time. We have to admit that social media community communications  is not as efficient as in person communications. Communication is not only about 他the language communications,  but also everyone’s action and expressions’ communication, which are limited by social media. Another challenge is privacy. Even in a private group or using a unique tag, it is still possible to be revealed. Therefore, I would not recommend discussing company secrets or personal privacy in social media.

Within community engagement, are their extended rules from the employer that you should consider?

we must consider cultural sensitivity in PLN, not only for career development but also for the maintenance of the social media platform. Users all over the world are browsing this platform. In my opinion, the establishment of PLN is more to use community resources to learn and sharing learning resources to help others in the network learn, not for meeting someone or company on purpose, as Angie Kermer said. Meanwhile, we have  maintain a humble attitude inside the community when sharing and absorbing. Personal style is acceptable and attractive like humor, but it should be comfortable for the whole community, and should not be excessive. First of all, I think personal beliefs and professional expectations must be related, and the two will not completely contradict each other. It is difficult for a peace-loving person to choose a company that makes weapons. Therefore, I feel that when we organize a PLN, we need to express more personal beliefs that meet professional expectations. For example, if I want to become an HR manager in the future, then I might express some beliefs about the importance of interpersonal relationships. When we are recognized by the community, we can pass on some professional knowledge to public based on career. Compared with official accounts, PLN can be more friendly to comment and reply.

Reference

Clark J., Aufderheide P. (2011) A New Vision for Public Media. In: Jansen S.C., Pooley J., Taub-Pervizpour L. (eds) Media and Social Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1057/9780230119796_5

Infinite Dial 20 created by Edison Research in 2020 pointed out that 75% of the U.S. population is familiar with the word “podcasting”. (Ross, 2020) Also, according to a study by Pew Research, “the median length of the most popular YouTube video is 2 minutes and 1 second, while the median length of the most-viewed TV news report is even shorter: 41 seconds.” (Douglas, 2018) . This kind of time length is unable to conduct in-depth discussions on complex issues, and the media is flooded with various eye-catching titles. Podcasting may break this practice. A large number of people who think news reports are superficial will be more inclined to podcast programs that delve into the topic. And podcasting has also become a media channel that can make a difference in the subdivided and deep fields.

I want to create an interview podcast that I can talk with business celebrities in BC or even in Canada. One of my favorite podcasts in this space is “The Tim Ferriss Show” (Apple Podcasts). The host is Tim Ferriss who is the author of “The 4-Hour Workweek”. This is the first commercial/interview type of podcast on the Apple Podcast. It has over 400 million downloads and is very popular. Guests who participated in this show include NBA star Lebron James, Bridgewater Foundation founder Ray Dalio, Silicon Valley elder Peter Thiel and other celebrities. Considering from both his and Mo Amir @Vancolor’s successful experience, the subject of the podcast must be of interest to ourselves. You cannot attract listeners with content that you are not interested in. Besides, as a podcast, it must have its own characteristics and at the same time be inclusive. It could be funny, be sharp, or be serious. Social media will help establish podcast’s style. For example, we can post the core views of each episode of podcast on Twitter spreading among the Twitter communities, and finally form a community of your own podcast channel involving listeners and their comments.

Before building a podcast, we can also develop PLN to improve our reputation, such as improving the LinkedIn profile to gain trust of invited guests. Also, on other social platforms like Twitter, I will post some professional-related ideas. Those users who follow me or agree my thoughts will be potential audience in the future.  Facebook is another useful platform to build healthy relationship because the people around us have a wealth of information (Woods, 2013) and unimaginable relationships. When I saw the photo posted by one of my friends on Facebook, I realized that the mayor of Richmond is his neighbor.

At last, privacy is one of the most important concerns when attracting audiences from social platforms. What we need to remember is that the host is sharing stories and opinions instead of sharing their privacy. It’s better to create an official account about the podcast to publish the topic of each episode and participate in online discussions. Meanwhile, the host should pay attention to own speech on his/her private account as the audience is likely to search and follow. And once individuals who become influential in a social space, all his information will be scooped, from primary school grades to social relationships. All his words and actions will be amplified and over-interpreted. What they can do is to stay away from social networks appropriately such as Selena Gomez and Sarah Koenig (Podcast Serial’s producer).

Reference

Ross, Winn. “2020 Podcast Stats & Facts (New Research From Oct 2020)”. Retrieved from: https://www.podcastinsights.com/podcast-statistics/

Douglas, Karr. “Podcasting Continues to Grow in Popularity and Monetization”. Sep 12,2018. Retrieved from: https://martech.zone/podcasting-popularity-statistics/

Woods, Bianca. “Building your own PLN: seeking new insights and ideas? Expand your personal learning network.” T+D, vol. 67, no. 11, Nov. 2013, p. 70+. Gale OneFile: Business, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A348998538/ITBC?u=uvictoria&sid=ITBC&xid=9daf4a31. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

Like education, more and more companies pay attention to diversity and inclusion when establishing their company culture and mission. On the one hand, excellent people are more likely to stay in a place that allows them to develop personality and potential. The more diversified and inclusive a company is, the more successful it is in attracting and retaining high performance employees. According to Korn Ferry （2015）, 84% of responders said that the lack of diversity and inclusion within company causes turnover. On the other hand, everyone has unconscious biases that limit our thinking. Only by ensuring that there are diverse employees who can consider from different views at all times can the company continue to create innovative ideas and products ahead of competitors.

In addition to the advantages of human resources, diversity and inclusion also help the business build its image of brand especially under the internet environment. If a company’s post on social media related to customer segmentation and employment strategy is slightly deviated, the problem will immediately be magnified a million times. In particular, diversity and inclusion are the most vulnerable areas in the image of the enterprise. Once a problem occurs, it is likely to cause irreparable damage. Also, towards director’s offline action or words, consumers may spread online and initiate boycotts. For example, the industry’s leading The American retailer Nordstrom (Nordstrom) decided to remove Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand products. This decision stemmed from the #GrabYourWallet activity on social media against her father’s contempt towards women.

In order to further create a diverse and inclusive working environment, company leaders need to spend time understanding each of their employees from recruitment to departure. Then they will know what strengths each staff has, and maximize their strengths to improve the efficiency of the operating process. Social media is a good tool to monitor or regularly check employees’ mental status and potentials. As we discussed before, the HR department could eliminate candidates who have made discriminatory comments on social media platform. Also, if current workers make similar comments online, the company can take actions such as warnings and dismissal to maintain the company’s inclusiveness.

Finally, for businesses, when considering product design, they need to have an inclusive attitude toward “all” consumers.  It can be noticed that many brands have published related products to support LGBT groups on social media, which represent their corporate culture of inclusion and equality. As Moore and Schnellert (2016;2017) said, education should think about inclusion based on personal, social and intellectual purpose. Business also need to establish inclusion combining personality, organization and ability. And it’s not only in a physical space, but also in the virtual reality such as social media platform.

Reference

Executive survey finds a lack of focus on diversity and inclusion key factor in employee turnover. (2015, ). Business Wire. Retrieved from：https://go-gale-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/ps/i.do?p=ITBC&u=uvictoria&id=GALE|A403610004&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon

Moore, S., & Schnellert, L. (2016;2017;). One without the other: Stories of unity through diversity and inclusion. Winnipeg, Manitoba: Portage & Main Press.

This is my own Visitor & Resident Map where we can see that I use many our univserity platforms as institutional sources.

Also, as a  part-time employee of company, I use Wechat to communicate with cutomers and share some of my personal life status.

• What digital platforms are students currently using to develop their professional network?

From my personal point of view, LinkedIn and Dropbox are two most commonly used digital platforms to develop students’ professional network. I will post my academic experience on LinkedIn’s profile. LinkedIn is also a good platform to look for many of the best job opportunities in the industry (van Dijck, 2013). Besides, I will upload assignments required by the course to Dropbox and share them with my classmates. On the other hand,  as an economics student, I like to view and comment on some economic forums such as The GREAT Reddit Bureau of Economic Research and Economics Forum | Debate.org. Compared with social media, these forums are more professional and targeted. The advice found here is more accurate, and it is easy to get to know the experts in the specific field.

• What can you (as a student) consider to expand your professional learning network?

At first, as a student, we need to improve our ability to independently search for information from digital platforms, and change from receiving information passively to actively searching for information. Then we can find out the submerged quality information and apply it. Secondly, students should establish their own closed online learning network. Many drawbacks that we discuss in previous blogs basically exist on the open social network platform, while own closed online discussion and learning platform rarely has such problems. Mattermost Group, Forum and Facebook group all have this feature that people outside the “circle” (such as interest or specialized subject) need to be recommended and reviewed by at least one insider to enter the social “circle”. It is necessary for students to establish a professional learning network based on the research orientation of common interests, and have their own set of access mechanisms to ensure efficient and high-quality discussions. Finally, we must not only develop a professional network in our own field, but also take advantage of the extensive social networking features of the Internet to obtain various aspects of knowledgepects and get in touch with professional people from all other fields.

• In your network, how can you create a digital identity/reputation?

When creating our own digital identity, we need to distinguish between personal and professional network. If it is a personal network, your digital identity can be based on your hobbies such as basketball or Harry Potter enthusiast. You can share stories and insights of life, as well as some artistic photos. For personal digital identity, people can determine the percentage of “Visitor” or “Resident”. However, when building a digital identity on professional platforms such as LinkedIn, we have to consider ourselves as a personal brand. We need to describe our information, school background, internship experience and job responsibilities as accurate as possible. In addition, we may use some funny avatars to attract attention in personal social media, but for professional identity, this kind of  avatar will make your potential employer think that your attitude at work is too frivolous. At last,  whether it is a personal or professional identity, use your online information as your public relations tool to show your achievements and creativity, never avenge and attack others.

• Consider what a local employer would do if you applied for a job with them – can they search the content, is it of benefit to the career path, does it hinder the opportunity of employment?

Accoring to CareerBuilder survey (2018), 70% of recruiters use social media to check candidates during the recruitment process, and about 48% of managers use social media to moniter on current workers.  Most employers say that they use social networks to check candidates’ unprofessional behavior, such as complaining about their former employer or discussing drug use. Many of job seekers think their personal account activities are privacy and they can decide who can see what. This is totally wrong because once an employer enters your name in Google Search, they will see all activities including  inappropriate remarks even though it is not posted on your professional account. And those job seekers don’t even know they lose the opportunity of employment due to the bad personal identity. In short, people should not ignore the impact of digital identity on real life because of its virtuality and multiplicity. Digital identities on all social platforms should be healthy and positive. Do not use privacy policy as protection for discrimination and attacks.

Reference

van Dijck, J. (2013). ‘You have one identity’: Performing the self on facebook and LinkedIn. Media, Culture & Society, 35(2), 199-215. doi:10.1177/0163443712468605

More than half of employers have found content on social media that caused them NOT to hire a candidate, according to recent CareerBuilder survey. (2018, ). PR Newswire

• What is a digital identity?

According to Eric Stoller （University of Derby）, digital identity is a concept based on internet, which consists of all available information on a person or organization from the network community . A person or organization may have different digital identities in different communities. These digital identities are composed of some characteristics or digital attributes. For example, a person is a military enthusiast as a Twitter user while in Instagram, his tag is “animal protector” who always posts some endangered animal.   A digital identity may also be associated with other digital identities, such as e-mail. Although these identity-related attributes can help determine a person’s identity to a certain extent, these attributes can be changed, hidden, or even discarded. Some people show completely different personalities on the Internet and actual life. As digital identities gradually become people’s identity marks on the Internet, more and more experts focus on the authenticity, security, and confirmation of digital identities. Therefore, the technical characteristics of blockchain such as distributed storage, tamper-proofing, traceability and asymmetric encryption provide new solutions for identity authentication and information protection (Takemiya&Vanieiev, 2018).

• How do personal versus professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use?

Professional identities on social media shows employee or organization’s work-related experience while personal account focus on private life including personal interests.  A doctor will only post medial knowledge and stories happened in the hospital on professional account and share happy time with family on personal account (Mahboob et al., 2019). However, in my opinion, personal and professional approaches to digital identity are not isolated. Many people open two accounts in the social media platform such as Facebook for different purpose. However, even though you and your colleagues only follow each other on professional accounts, they may still find your personal account through related users or keywords. Many employers also consider employees’ hobbies and passions outside of work when recruiting. In fact, 34% of employers check their candidates’ profiles on social media, not just LinkedIn and GOOGLE+ (Smith, 2013). During the 2012 presidential debate, a manager of the KitchenAid social media teams suddenly posted offensive tweets about President Obama from KitchenAid’s Twitter account (over 24000 followers) instead of his own (Kuhl, 2013). In today’s internet world, there is not much distinction between personal and professional accounts on social media. Obviously professional accounts are more official and have more restrictions, but it is not appropriate to post extreme or offensive comments on personal accounts either.

• How do digital identities converge in networked publics – what are the impacts and/or benefits?

The emergence of digital identity is profoundly changing the way of economy and society. Compared with traditional identity systems, it will greatly improve the overall social efficiency, maximize the release of user value, and benefit governments, service providers, users and other parties.  For example, China has issued an electronic ID card. When the physical ID card is lost, people do not need to reissue it immediately. They can take a flight or train by electric ID card.  At first, digital identity was just a vague concept that people identify the user’s special character according to an account of social media.  With the development of technology and the security of network information, people can use digital identities such as email to book tickets and communicate with the government. Now, the service provider can use the user identity information recorded in the system to customize products and services based on user attributes and purposes. Also, the content published by professional identities on social media platform show the business or organization’s value and target. I believe that the application of digital identities in the future will become more popular and more secure with the popularity of the Internet and the development of advanced technologies.

photo copyright@ Blockchain has found application in cybersecurity. (Image Source: Sociable)

Reference

Takemiya, M., & Vanieiev, B. (2018). Sora identity: Secure, digital identity on the blockchain. Paper presented at the, 2 582-587. doi:10.1109/COMPSAC.2018.10299

Mahboob, U., Jawed, S., & Yasmeen, R. (2019). Digital professional identity: Dear internet! Who am I? Education for Health, 32(1), 33. doi:10.4103/efh.efh_232_17

Smith, J (2013). How Social Media Can Help (Or Hurt) You In Your Job Search. Forbes. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/04/16/how-social-media-can-help-or-hurt-your-job-search/#73e459c87ae2

Kuhl, J. (2013). Social media rules. State Legislatures, 39(6), 30.