“Network literacy means linking to what other people have written and inviting
comments from others, it means understanding a kind of writing that is a social,
collaborative process rather than an act of an individual in solitary. It means learning
how to write with an awareness that anyone may read it: your mother, a future employer or the person whose work you’re writing about. Yes, it’s difficult.” (Emphasis added)
I found Adrian’s essay on Network Literacy insightful and relatable. Particularly resonant for me was his comparison between network and print literacy; researching and collating evidence from print media (such as books from the library) is, in essence, the same as keeping updated on the web and publishing to our blogs.
However I still find myself struggling with networking. To be honest I think it’s a bit of an age thing. When Myspace first became the norm I was probably about 13- or 14-years old and didn’t really understand the idea of a social network. I was more preoccupied with my image and online fabricated self-worth to actually use it for the right reasons. I spent hours and hours coding HTML to make my page reflect what I wanted myself to be (at that time: dark and mysterious). Although it was great for learning how to use HTML.
Then Facebook became the “cooler” platform. But even then, I was only 16 when I made my account. I’d sit on Facebook all day posting completely unimportant and self-absorbed statuses that, realistically, no one actually cared about. And I did it because I felt affirmation when I received likes.
If I’m going to be completely honest, I hadn’t even considered Facebook as a professional networking site until I started Uni. Even then, I was studying Arts at Melbourne and was too preoccupied with Foucault to actually think about the implications of my online activity. It wasn’t until I began this course last year that I realised just how important social networking is.
I only wish someone had told me earlier, although I can only go up from here.
