Comment on Week 1: Lessons, Expectations, and Roles by hrheingold

What a thoughtful and nuanced post, Mia! I’ll do my best to facilitate the kind of experience you are looking forward to. In regard to “Finally, a thought on the role of social media: Although we can clearly define platforms and examples of social media in our day to day lives, social media’s full impact on society is not easy to understand and the roles that social media plays are numerous.” I have to reinforce your statement. So many generalizations about social media fail to encompass context — is it a disabled person or a terrorist that we’re talking about? What is the relationship between that person’s media use and their physical activities? What is the relationship between their intention and our reading? These are just a few of the questions that come to mind when trying to evaluate the individual or societal effect of some social media behavior. As I mentioned in the first class meeting, I don’t think it’s useful to strive for definite answers here; rather, we should seek to gain perspectives, vocabulary, disciplinary tools for viewing and evaluating social media issues.

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