Live slides from a conversation with Alec Couros' EC&I831 class about the risks of social media participation for educators & scholars, as well as the very real connections and caring that can emerge in the process.

1. NETWORKED IDENTITY:
Networks of Care &! Vulnerability
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Bonnie Stewart
University of Prince Edward Island

3. What do you want to be when
you grow up?
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/1nker-­‐tailor/8378048032/

4. Wrong question.
!

5. What do you want to contribute?

8. Twitter =
currently the most open network

9. Networked identities differ from roles

10. Always Multiple
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thuanygabriela/4754591985/

11. Always Hybrid

12. Always Connected

13. What are those connections made of?
SIGNALS

14. Social networks are made of
people. And signals.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmesis/21126825/

15. • Persistant – automatically recorded & archived
• Replicable – can be duplicated with minimal cost
& effort
• Scalable – can be amplified & go viral
• Searchable – automatically tagged with metadata
- boyd (2010)
Digital Communication Signals

16. Vulnerabilities in how
signals are shared

17. Context Collapse
…that awkward moment when you remember you
friended your grandma on Facebook.
Or that your students – or your VP, or your new
boss – follow you on Twitter.

18. Quantified self

19. “The internet is on principle a system that
you reveal yourself to in order to fully
enjoy, which differentiates it from, say, a
music player. It is a TV that watches you.”
- Edward Snowden, in The Washington Post

20. Identity theft

21. (+ teasing from friends)

22. Vulnerabilities in how
signals are heard

25. Technical + societal vulnerabilities
+ scale =
BOOM h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/rowan72/8672846415/

26. “You’re doing it wrong”

27. “The more dangerous social-web-fueled
gamification of trolling is the unofficial troll/
hate leader-board. The attacks on you are
often less about scoring points
against you than that they’re trying to out-do
one another. They’re trying to
out-troll, out-hate, out-awful
the other trolls.”
- Sierra (2014)
“You do not deserve attention”

28. “You do not deserve to live”

29. Platforms
default to powerful voices

30. So, just stay home and hide?

32. Digital signals are
basic communications, in our time.

33. ‘He said, "I'm going to give you the same advice
that I give to everyone else with this problem: Stop
using social media and get rid of your computer.”
Nicole replied that she wasn't the one who had a
problem with the computer—it was Adam who had
that problem.’
- Beaumont (2014)

34. Resistance requires
reconceptualization

35. Networked Identities
l Aware of being
watched
l Aware of scale of
attention
l Build identity by
repetition
l Build ties by visible
communications

36. h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/10728008326
Networks of Care

37. Communications via limited-cues channels
allows selective self-presentation and
increased sense of commonality without the
interference of non-verbal cues, limited
cognitive resources, or
temporal constraints.
Hyperpersonal communications

38. Professional value

39. Learning value

40. Teaching value

41. Immersion value

42. Accountability value

43. Support value

44. Connection value

45. Recognition value

46. Visibility value

47. Caring value

50. “The attention economy…isn't just about
clicks and eyeballs, but also about the
ways in which we selectively tend towards
each other, and tend each other's thoughts
-- it's an economy of care, not just a map to
markets.”
- Bowles (2014)
Two sides of the attention economy

52. A way to contribute and
speak back

53. Networked contributions > individual

54. Be the signal
you want to see in the world

55. • Signal intentionally
• Signal to build up others, not just
yourself
• Signal broadly
• Signal patiently
• Signal what you want to
contribute

56. Understanding networked
identity signals = key literacy for
21st century citizens.

58. Thank you.
@bonstewart
bstewart@upei.ca