Blog 4

Intro

“As soon as he wakes up in the morning, Ronnie, an undergraduate student at a

large, Midwestern research university, sends a tweet from his phone, which lets

his roommates know he’s awake.” (9)

• I like how Buck uses the information that she has gathered from Ronnie to begin her paper in a way that relates Ronnie’s experience to how many other people may use social media. 

“Ronnie’s experiences represent common ones for undergraduate students

across the United States.” (10)

•  Furthering the idea from the first quote, Buck has a strong emphasis on how this study on Ronnie’s social media use is not only representative of his identity but the identity of many other undergraduate students in the nation as well.

Methods

“Collecting data from these various sources allowed me to develop a multifaceted

picture of literate activity in connection with social network sites.” (13)

•  I like that this quote highlights the importance of uses various sources while doing research.  For instance, I wouldn’t want to just observe my partner’s Facebook because I wouldn’t be equipped with the information that I received by interviewing her.

“The information discussed in the profile tour gave me an overall sense of how Ronnie perceived his own identity representation online, some history behind that representation, and his perspective on what those representations meant to him.” (13)

• Buck ties in the purpose of the research in the Methods section as well.  She doesn’t just step by step lay out what she did, but also includes why it matters and what was achieved by doing the research process the way she did.

Results

“Through these tweets, Ronnie showed himself to be an overcommitted and engaged

college student, preoccupied with a busy schedule and sleep-deprived in the

first and last tweets, always online, and managing school and leisure tasks online

through projects and side activities like fantasy hockey.” (16)

• I find it interesting that Buck includes her perception of the information that she sees on Ronnie’s social media.  She includes not only matter of fact observations, but also information that she received from talking to Ronnie.

“Ronnie envisioned different audiences with different concerns and interests

on both Facebook and Twitter and constructed his identity on both sites with

these audiences in mind.” (18)

• Similarly to the first quote, this represents the information that was provided by Ronnie, as Buck couldn’t have known what he thought about his audience when it came to social media use.  This shows me that the Results section can also include more than just our black and white observations.

Discussion

“Ronnie’s practices and the situations he confronts in representing himself

online make visible the issues that many others confront in their social network

site use, usually in more subtle ways, when engaging in common activities such as

sharing family and vacation photos or making comments on a political issue or

event.” (34)

•  Buck comes full circle in her discussion, as she discusses how Ronnie’s situation with social media is not exclusive, but is a representation of the struggles that many others face when dealing with social media.  Buck zooms out and gives us a fuller picture of the purpose of this study.

“For students like Ronnie, spending time on social network sites means developing digital literacies to negotiate the new rhetorical situations they encounter, where one status update is broadcast to many different friend groups and where social media companies frequently change privacy configurations.”

•       I think it’s imperative that Buck mentions that social media is a type of literacy and rhetoric.  This is an important aspect because it brings our attention to what we consider to be “texts” and how much of a role they play in our lives.