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?

Klout

Well, I created a Klout account. After hearing Kelsey and Ashley's presentation, I just had to try it out.

So far, nothing interesting has happened, since it's just updating to include my multitude of accounts. I hadn't realized how many things I'm involved in until I had to include them on my Klout profile. I was surprised that Pinterest isn't an option, and bummed that Ravelry isn't. Not that the Ravelry thing surprises me.

Speaking of, when adding topics to my list on there, I was sad to see that "yarn" wasn't an option. Knitting and crochet were represented, but not yarn. I love talking about yarn! Super bummer.

Whatever, Klout. Yarn is totally an awesome topic. Here's a picture to prove it. By the way, if anyone wanted to get me anything from the shop linked in the caption below, I'd love it.

I don't care if you work with yarn or not, this stuff is pretty! Image from Alcidina on Etsy.

Performance, Play, and Transmedia Navigation

For my Writing in the Digital Age class, we're reading an article by Henry Jenkins called "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century." The title is quite a mouthful, but the work itself is surprisingly accessible and interesting.

One of the things Jenkins talks about are the "new skills" that we now need in order to function in a media-driven society. Eleven skills are listed, but the three that interest me the most are play, performance, and transmedia navigation. Jenkins definitions for these terms are as follows:

Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving 

Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery 

Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities

These are interesting to me because I like to have my hands in a lot of different platforms at the same time, and find the differences between different mediums fascinating. I'm particularly fond of examining what makes certain things work versus certain other things on multiple sites.

Lets take, for example, my Twitter feed versus my Facebook profile. Though both are very personal for me -- I don't keep them for work -- they feel quite different. They feel this way because I utilize the performance that Jenkins writes about. I adopt different identities for these two sites, and view this as a kind of play.

Not only this, but I like thinking about the transmedia navigation that Jenkins mentions. Following current events on multiple platforms is an adventure, because each platform highlights different aspects of the same event in a different way. And somehow, I can keep track of all these different feeds seamlessly.

Nobody taught me these skills, but I find Jenkins' proposal to begin teaching these skills intriguing. How would we go about creating classes for these skills? Can we teach these skills, or must one simply be willing to experiment and make mistakes in order to learn how to navigate the various media they come into contact with?