Category: participation

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participation

A re-evaluation of participation

So, I made a decision at the start of this class concerning my participation. My decision began with mentioning and linking to my social justice blog. I know we’ve had some chats about doing things online that you wish you could take back… But this is only partially that situation. Ultimately, I think it was a valuable experiment. It was a good reminder for me not to mention social justice in class (or, really, in real life).

As we discussed participation in social media this past week it became increasingly clear that the internet, contrary to what most people think, a direct reflection of reality. Well… I think the better way to understand it is as an extension of reality. There is no demarcation between online and in-person communities — communities of any kind exist in the imagination of human beings.

And in these imagined communities (quite real for all their social construction) the systematic exclusion and erasure of people of colour, neuro-divergent people, trans people, gender non-conforming people, queers, bisexuals, differently abled, etc., is a fact of life. I’ve known this my entire life. I’ve also known that my participation in these communities is always contingent on my buying into how these communities are constructed. Meaning that I must accept being excluded or, when included, erased.

Trying to change this reality, by attempting to truly participate, comes at a high emotional cost. One I’m not willing to pay for the sake of 3 credits in school. So, I give up and cede the field. From now on, my participation in social media (within the confines of this class) will be sanitized. I’ve played this game for 9 years (in terms of going to school) and I’ll keep playing it for this last year, because I have my eye on the prize: graduating and succeeding in this field. For, while I’m deciding to maintain my biyuti, I have every intention of not only changing the information profession, but the world.

So, “farewell, Activist Abe” and “hello, Student Abraham.”

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participation

Social Justice 2.0

Activism has taken an interesting step in its evolution with the arrival of social media. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is in Feminist blogosphere, perhaps the largest 2.0 community in the social justice movement.

Some examples of conceptions of social justice 2.0:

  • Feminism 2.0: Read this and this (this one is particularly interesting since it was published in 2005) for more information. FYI, feminism 2.0 is also known as third-wave feminism.
  • Racism 2.0 (more about a modern type of racism with no relation to social media)
  • Gay 2.0 (although this is more about hooking up using social media as opposed to social justice…)
  • Gender 2.0 (list of current non-cis gender identities and expressions)
  • Sex 2.0 (which is about sex activism, of a kind, on the internet)

The conclusions from my search that I can draw are: social media is the primary determinant for something being labelled x 2.0. With this in mind, more thoughts will be posted in the discussion forum.

 

 

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participation

Focusing back on social media…

I could do this in the Downside of 2.0 thread but I want to address a downside while also responding to several people.

I agree with Elizabeth when she writes:

What I hope will happen is that (we) social media users will be able to monitor ourselves and each other in a respectful fashion.

And I agree with Fiona when she writes:

Back home, when the self in real life is so heavily policed, the online world becomes a fantasy land for people to be the person they want to be and sometimes they overcompensate and at its worse, it’s nasty and mean-spirited, childish and resentful.

I wish Elizabeth’s thoughts become reality. I slightly disagree with Fiona in the sense that, at its worse, the anonymity of the internet allows the hidden under belly of some people to be shown.

An example, check out the comments on this article. Brutal and so full of racism, privilege denial, etc. But I find it instructive in one sense to know that my feelings about racism in Canada aren’t wrong: they are just hidden underneath the stereotypical Canadian veneer of politeness.

The downside to 2.0 and increased participation, learning what people really think about you.

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participation

Professional and Personal

So far, in Libr559m there has been two discussions which touch on related areas. One was on the use of 3rd party social media background checks by employers and another was on limiting the personal use of social media to adhere to professional standards. Laid out like this, it is easy to see how these are two sides of the same coin. This post by a classmate discusses this from the latter perspective.

I mentioned in my introduction that I maintain a blog discussing things about social justice. Obviously, from the Vista discussions, it is probably quite clear to everybody that this has been my approach to many of the discussions within the class. In many ways, I think it is incredibly important to remember. This will be discussed in greater detail when I finally finish my post on performance…

In the meantime, I’d like to point out that it is a privilege to be judged solely by your actions. It isn’t a privilege that many people share. I may not have mentioned before but I’m one of the 2010 recipients of the Association of Research Library’s Diversity scholarships, because people of colour are severely under-represented in the field of academic librarianship (less than 15% but I can’t find the ARL survey right now).

I *wish* I’d just have my professional career impacted by my possible social media activities, it would be quite a few steps ahead for me. But even if I maintained nothing but the most perfect professional decorum, I’d still have a much harder time getting equal opportunity. I could still find myself terminated for reasons unrelated to my job performance. And some of these reasons are even legal in Canada right now (see here, here, and here).

Of course, this is all to say, is this is all the same system. Unless you are involved in illegal activity anything you do in your personal life should not only have no bearing on your career but should also (from a justice perspective) not even be considered something that has to be held distinct. I recently say a Tyra Banks YouTube clip where a Subway worker was fired for doing porn. Porn and sandwiches have nothing to do with each other, but someone recognized the guy (who was trying to find non-sex related work). But the point is, is that there is nothing wrong with sex work (if freely chosen). There is also nothing wrong with coarse language, criticizing your employers, venting frustrations, sexting, etc.

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