Professionalism on the Internet

Katharine's final presentation in Writing in the Digital Age focused on professionalism in digital writing. This concept is one that both excites and terrifies me.

I mean, on the one hand, we're more visible than ever before, which means it's easier to connect with others and share our experiences. On the other hand, if an employer deems a topic that we've talked about unsavory, then that can be held against us in the workplace.

I'm not one that does much that anyone would deem inappropriate, but I still think about this stuff. For example, I don't curse on the Internet, I don't talk about alcohol on any of my social media sites, and I don't get political as often as I want to. All for the sake of professional appearance.

A common argument I hear against making these kind of changes is that you don't want to work for someone who would hold those types of things against you anyway, and that's a fairly good argument, but not one that can always be followed. Sometimes, an employer wouldn't want to hold something against you, but it isn't always up to them. Often there are official rules and protocol to follow for the sake of the company at large, and I can appreciate that.

What are your thoughts on professionalism on the Internet?

Practicality of Digital Writing

Abby's final presentation for Writing in the Digital Age was a redefined rubric for the class focused more on practicality of projects, and less on the theories and motivations behind digital writings.

While I'm inclined to agree with this sentiment, being a big fan of practicality myself, I enjoyed talking about the theory behind digital communication. I like knowing, or at least thinking about, how and why things work. Plus, the beauty behind so much of what we've been talking about is that it's best figured out by just doing it!

That being said, Abby's presentation was beautifully said and we agreed on a lot of what we liked about the class.

Twitter as a Discussion Board

It's funny how many of my digital writing classmates's final presentations have featured Twitter. Before this past summer I had only the vaguest ideas about how Twitter was supposed to work, and now I have enough knowledge about it to find myself able to debate about its use in our class and its potential use in future classes.

Marc's comments about live-tweeting a class particularly got me thinking about Twitter and its implications. He suggested that there be one class period held completely on Twitter, with no face-to-face meeting. I think that idea is interesting, but a little overwhelming. I don't like sitting and reading Twitter for long periods of time, and find discussions on the site are often hard to follow. The occasional lag between a point and people's reactions often causes confusion because other comments get thrown in and it's hard to follow who is talking about what.

But it would still be interesting to see, if only to get a feel for how Twitter functions as an actual discussion tool.