S/R2:  “Examining Digital Literacy Practices on Social Network Sites”

Karina Juarez, 07/26/18

Buck, Amber. “Examining Digital Literacy Practices on Social Network Sites.” Research in the   Teaching of English, vol. 47, no. 1, 2012, pp. 9–38. JSTOR, JSTOR,    www.jstor.org/stable/41583603.

SUMMARY:

This article by Amber Buck is a study where she follows an undergraduate student, named Ronnie, among his various social platforms, to attempt to understand his digital literacy practices.  According to Lankshear and Knobel (2008) digital literacy is defined as, “a shorthand for the myriad social practices and conceptions of engaging in meaning making mediated by texts that are produced, received, distributed, exchanged, etc., via digital codification” (10).  It is important that digital literacy practices be seen within larger systems of literate activity and larger literacy ecologies.  Additionally, Buck states that “web-based services allow individuals to (1) Construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system (2) Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” (11). In her study of Ronnie’s social network sites she discovered that he describes himself as a “publisher” who creates online content for others.  Ronnie states, “I try to keep my followers greater than the number of people I’m following” (14).  She also follows his interactions on Facebook where she discovers that the interactive aspect of Ronnie’s identity representation on Facebook was a filtered form of his Twitter account.  For example, he updated Facebook with progress on his graduate school application, and writes, “Excited to see if Ronnie will get into grad school at UIUC? Stayed tuned to see how the story unfolds” (17).  Through his interactions on Twitter and Facebook, Ronnie has presented a specific view of himself on a specific social network site for his imagined audience.  

RESPONSE:

            This article is an interesting study and one that I can relate to as someone who uses Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis.  Ronnie did mention that he likes to keep his followers greater than the number of people he follows, and he seems to be greatly concerned about issues of authorship and ownership.  When I use Facebook, I don’t include @username or #DigitalIdentity; in my view, hashtags are meant to be for Twitter, and I’m conscious of the audience that my Facebook or Twitter posts are creating.  It is noteworthy that Ronnie views himself as a “publisher”; I don’t know of many teenagers or young adults who are so aware of the audience that their writing on social networks creates.  Obviously, Ronnie is aware of the (digital) contexts in which he is composing and he also seems to be very aware of his identity as a “publisher”. He is a rhetorically smart student who is aware of the conventions of rhetoric, and he chooses to filter out the content of his posts for a specific audience.  I think that students need to be more like Ronnie, and be aware of the audience that their digital literacy practices are creating, and think about how their knowledge of genre and discourse conventions have the capability to create specific audiences.  

QUOTATIONS:  

“Our continued disciplinary emphasis on static text, and our reliance on theories derived from print text not only puts us out of step with students and the larger culture, but also blinds us to many of the rhetorical affordances of new media” (11). 

“While users present their identities online in ways connected to their offline, embodied selves and often connect with people from their offline networks online, they may present different aspects of themselves for different ‘communities of practice,’ and engage in sophisticated literacy practices” (15).

“Ronnie’s anxiety over ownership of his information and his continual attempts to control its presentation demonstrate the constant work individuals like Ronnie engage to manage their life and identity on social network sites” (32).