Yes, you can be on social media as homework!

For Tues, Jan 31 complete Authoethnographic Social Media Research Profile (handout by email / on Connect) and watch Eli Pariser’s TED Talk, “Beware Online ‘Filter Bubbles’” & read this blog “Facebook has decided it is time I had a baby“.

For Thurs, Feb 2, read the following sites: Humans of New York, PostSecret, and StoryCorps. FYI: PostSecret in particular will have some “adult content.”

Come ready to talk about the questions below AND 2+ specific examples of posts from each site.

For each site, read and take notes on:

• their site history or “About” page
• What clues do you get about the site’s imagined audiences and purposes?
• a few of the stories / postcards: be sure to get a variety of topics, dates, subjects. Do you notice any patterns about the featured stories?
• which ones get the most comments (and what kinds of comments), reposts, likes, etc., and any patterns that emerge
• what clues do you get about the site’s values, world-views, ideologies, or beliefs?

Think about:

• Who gets to speak, and what they talk about on these sites?
• How are stories communicated? (Think about genres, about what motivates storytelling, editing, etc.)
• What does the existence, and indeed, the success of these pages suggest to you about contemporary life narratives?

You could also check out each one’s social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc): does the social media platform change any aspects of what gets shared and how?