Module 2: Initial Blog Post

Individuals create systems of communication Research has shown that the meanings of social networks site practices and features differs across sites and individuals (Boyd, 361). Using Mediais to develop and maintain social networks which is an established practices (Kendal (362) This first article outlines YouTube users’; these users post videos clips of themselves or current events which they find interesting in hope that others YouTube users will also find interesting by befriending other accounts of liking and sharing videos. By sharing videos people are creating associated identities based on the videos that they are viewing. This type of social networking allows people to virtually communicate through ones profile whether it is private, public or semi-public these profiles communicate meaning with other members of the website. This not only exists within the YouTube website but across all types of social networking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest. People are constantly sharing information of current events and constant updates of events occurring in their lives by befriending and sharing information with people connected to their personal Social Medias.

   What criteria do you use when you decide to share information I base the information that I am revealing about myself based on the privacy of the website and example would be Facebook because only your friends are allowed to access your information so I reveal my name the school I am attending and updated posts of the things I am doing or planning on doing. When I decide to present myself I present myself in a manner as if I was to be having a face-to-face conversation with the other person not leaving anything out about myself that other may or may not already know. Although in a discrete manner because it allows others to create perception of the type of individual that I am, the social medias that I am apart of include Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google plus these social media sources allow me to be able to express myself in a social manner that allows friends and followers to be a part of current life milestones and current events.

Knowing that Social Media are always under surveillance searching for trends in patterns within human communication it help me to be aware of the things that I am posting and also not to be to revealing of things I am sharing within my community of friends. These social media websites allow me to shape my social image.   

Lange, P. (2007) "Publicly private and privately public: Social networking on YouTube". Journal Of Computer-Mediated Communication. 13, 1

Albrechtslund, A. (2008) "Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance." First Monday. 13,3

Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship  danah m. boyd Nicole B. Ellison Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication Volume 13, Issue 1, pages 210–230, October 2007