EME6414 Summer 2025 Blog

One of the articles I read this week was Dr. Dennen's 2014 article, "Becoming a blogger: Trajectories, norms, and activities in a community of practice." Similar to all the other articles I have read so far for this class, I found myself comparing the findings to today's world. I really feel like social media took an upswing around 2016 and has only continued since then. Let's jump into it!  In her article, Dennen (2014) details how bloggers engaged in a community of practice. They moved from peripheral observers to central contributors not just by writing, but by commenting, linking, and learning the unspoken rules of the space. The Internet today is similar but different. Blogging still exists, but platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube dominate, with creators and influencers shaping content in real-time for followers they may never personally know. This is where I really want to hone in on for today's post.  There are levels to influencers now. There...

In a traditional, physical sense, I would say that communities require people to personally know one another whereas networks do not require personal connections. Online "communities," however, complicate things. You can interact with someone for years without ever meeting them in person and still feel like you know them. But you don't know them...you only know that they share an interest with you. So how should we distinguish these phenomena then? I think one way that could help us navigate this conversation is to think about shared purpose and reciprocity. LinkedIn, I would argue, is a network that links people together. Users are posting about the same material and using the same hashtags (for the most part). At least from my perspective, there's no real interaction or shared goal besides visibility or affiliation. To me, LinkedIn seems more like a broadcast system than a true community. Communities, both online and physical, have a sense of mutual engagement. Com...

I thought the third discussion topic from this week would be a good place for me to start my week's blogs. It also hits home for me. Free riders, as Clay Shirky describes, are people who benefit from online content while not contributing themselves. "Lurkers," people who observe and rarely or never interact with other users, can be lumped into this category. While they’re sometimes criticized, I think lurkers an inherent part of how the Internet works, now more than ever. I’ve always been more of a lurker. I used to post stories and photos on Instagram (see my second blog post), but over time, I started feeling anxious about like counts and who was watching. That pressure eventually made posting feel more exhausting than rewarding. These days, I mostly scroll through Reddit, X, and YouTube, especially to follow esports and professional wrestling. Even on Reddit, where I’ve posted a bit more, I’ve probably made fewer than 50 comments in total. In my experience, lurking hap...

For my third and final blog post this week, I wanted to talk about the youth in the world today and produsage.  The youth today don't just consume content; they remix, produce, and share it constantly (actively and passively). This means that the youth (and everyone else) have the agency to create and participate at their fingertips. While this is great, I can't help but feel that something has been lost (maybe forever).  Activities that were once done just for the sake of doing them (i.e., dancing, eating, thinking) are now often done with an audience (real or imagined) in mind. In today's world, I would argue we don’t just experience things; we frame them for visibility, content, or social capital. Even when no camera is present, our behavior can be shaped by the anticipation of being seen or shared. I saw a thread of tweets earlier this week that kind of shocked me to my core (I encourage you to look at it). One of them read: "You don't just "dance," y...

For our Networked Life reading, I decided to read Chapter 9, “Networked Information.” While the whole chapter was a great read, the section The Changing Information and Media Ecology has been sticking with me the most. There were parts that made me think it was written this year, and others that reminded me how different the internet is today. Rainie and Wellman (2012) cited a 2004 Pew finding that “the most active Internet users are also the most aware of all kinds of political arguments. They are especially attracted to material that conforms to their point of view.” They continue, “the people who use the Internet the most...are also the most likely to be aware of points of view that challenge theirs.” I can see that being true in 2004, but maybe not as much today. Back then, the internet was clunky. You had to be intentional with how you used it, or you wouldn’t get very far. The most active users were seeking out connection and information (often across viewpoints). How true is...

I'm halfway through reading the Bruns (2011) article and before I started the C5C half of the article, I felt the need to make a blog post about it. It's quite incredible (to me, at least) that this article was written in 2011. Reading through the first half,  I felt like it was written within the past 5 years. Now, more than ever, I believe the Internet users are true "produsers." There's so much opportunity now for collaboration on anything and everything! I wonder if Bruns (and others) had any idea of what potential Web 2.0 and produsers had back then. How would Bruns react to reading his article now? One part I really liked in the first half of the article was on page five. Bruns (2011) writes, "it [produsage]  also has historical connections to pre-commercial models of scientific research and other ideals of open intellectual engagement in academia as well as the civil society beyond." This quote stuck out to me. What does the Internet and produsage...

 For my last blog post of week 1, I wanted to talk about a critique of X/Twitter (X from here on). I am not sure when it happened (though it was in recent past), but the powers that be at X decided that likes were going to be private. I don't know what exactly caused them to do this, but the more I think about it, I'm really curious to know why they did it. For as long as I was using X (since ~2015/16), likes have been public, and that was a feature, not a bug. It's something that you accepted when you used X. Some people thought little of it, some thought greatly of it. I have noticed that since the change, I have liked much more things than I did prior. I guess I feel more safe/secure to like whatever comes up on my feed? Interestingly, though, I rarely go and look at my "likes." I feel like if there is one of my "likes" that I really wanted to see, I would have to scroll through so much to get to it (talk about a first world problem). I also wouldn...

 Oh man this is throwing it WAY back to my time in 7th grade (2011/2012). Facebook dominated 6th grade and was still quite popular but Instagram was on the rise. The really fortunate kids in my grade had iPhones. I was not one of them so I had to settle with my iPod.  I remember being SO hesitant and afraid to make an Instagram account. The thought of making an account, sending friend requests, waiting to see if people considered me their friends, and then MAYBE posting photos or videos of myself was nerve-wracking. This was different to Xbox Live and video games where people gathered to play specific games (which I was much accustomed to); this was connecting with other people for connection's sake. What would I post about? How would people react? How many likes would I get? Eventually, I did muster up the courage to send friend requests. I kept it to mainly the people I interacted with the most at school and waited for others I didn't know to send me requests first. As for m...

 Hello, world (any Mr. Robot fans reading this?). This is my first blog post for my EME6414 class in the Summer 2025 semester. Years ago, I made it a point to journal routinely so this is a familiar yet foreign feeling to me since it has been some time. For my first post I wanted to reflect on my state of mind as the summer progresses. I am taking EME6414 and EME5250 this summer. This will be my 3rd consecutive semester as a student while working full-time for FSU. The gravity of starting a doctoral program is starting to become more and more real. I've made a good transition into being this new type of student (before I was a full-time undergrad and master's, respectively), although I think this summer will be more challenging than the previous 2 semesters. I'm confident I can do the work but it's kind of anxiety-inducing each time you start a semester and see the headlines for the assignments/expectations down the line. Does anybody else relate?? I'd say my goal f...