Ash

FINAL BLOG POST!!!!!!

Virtual communication... LOVE IT, it saves me so much time! I do not know what this world would do without it. Throughout this course, I have learned so much more about virtual communication, and ... WOW. I'm using it right now to explain to all of you, just how great of a thing it is to have.

Virtual Communities... this one is tricky. I love them but am still trying to get used to all of the new ones I have been introduced to because of this class. I have spent so much more time exploring all the ins and outs of virtual communities during this course, I feel like a whole new world has been opened up. You can literally be anyone you want in these worlds, meet new people, open new doors for yourself and your future, and so much more. Virtual communities are one of those things that are going to continue to shape our future every day. We are growing as a world, and that growth is virtual.

Everything that I have learned during my time in this course has been astronomical and will stick with me forever and ever. I may not be completely set on using virtual worlds every day for the rest of my life, but if the world were to ever shut down again and keep everyone stuck at home, I know I could go online to feel connected still.

Virtual communication, realities, and communities are only going to keep building and I am so lucky to have had this class to help me better understand how they work and how to properly use them for good.

Thank you all for joining along on this crazy journey!

My virtual world identity and my real-world identity are fairly similar, for the most part.

Let's be honest, I tend to appear much happier online than I am in real life. I want everyone to think I am having the time of life, so I obviously only post when something good or fun is happening. For the most part, when I am online, it is very once sided. I do not get on and post every time I am upset, or stressed, or busy working my butt off. NOOOOOO, "oh, I'm on vacation for the first time this year?" *post on a virtual world* "holiday?" *post* "stressed about life?" *gets on a virtual world acting happy as can be*.

I feel as if I have an endless number of networks, I am a part of, virtual and non-virtual ones. Here is a list of the biggest networks I am connected to at the moment and how connected I am to them...

Facebook - High Connection - I am a part of four different Facebook groups, in the summer, I am more connected here than at other times during the year due to my work group. The majority of my connections here are human based because I communicate with others. Even if I am not having full conversations, I use technology to like, love, or dislike something.

Instagram - Medium Connection - On Instagram, I have a lot of ties through all of the accounts that I follow. While all of the ties through followers and following are ran by humans, not all the pictures are of actual people. Some are motivational quotes, memes, people, or even pictures of dogs or food. I use technology to like, comment or share when I am in this network. Through Instagram networking, I have had the chance to enter contests and win prizes. Actants are very important on here because there are constant influencers from humans, whether it is from likes, seeing others' posts, or motivational quotes.

Bartending - Extremely High Connection - My biggest non-virtual network, my job. I love bartending because I get the best networking. Obviously, this is an in-person job with a lot of human actants that influence me to be better. There are also environmental actants present in this network because it is changing every day. I am constantly interacting with different people from different backgrounds, and this also leads to society and technology actors. Having an understanding for my customers and what they want and like, how they talk, and what they mean is very important in this network.

School - Hight Connection - During some of my other classes in different semesters, I have had stronger connections. This semester, for example, is more of society and technology actors because I have to understand my professors and classmates more than I usually would because it is all online. There are always actants in this network, human elements with my classmates, communicating and sharing ideas with each other, and non-human elements are understanding the work and reading the books needed to fully understand the course. Technological innovations and the coalition of actants are also very important actors of networks in school because there are bigger purposes of human and non-human elements, like graduating, and learning more than what you think you are going to learn. Social uses of technological innovations in the network of school would be using what you learn in the classroom and taking it outside into the real world.

I try my best to keep my real and virtual identities as similar as possible. I do not want to meet someone online pretending to be someone I am not, and then end up meeting them in person to be a completely different person.

I have been catfished, and it is not fun.

When I am in my virtual identity, I tend to be more proper on certain websites, depending on who my audience is, than I am in my real identity. On other virtual accounts, I use a lot of shortcuts when I am communicating, and not as proper as I am on others.

Of course, when I am using my virtual identities, I am always a lot more positive than I am in real life. I try to keep all the sad, depressing, and emotional feelings for my true identity and keep my social media more fun and outgoing.

Classes in the Spring...

To begin, in all of my classes, I went in with a high personal identity, I was very to myself at the begging of all my classes. I just wanted to get my work done and leave. In almost all of my spring classes, I had large group projects to do. There was no more "keeping to myself". After that I gained a sense of Social Identity within my groups, I was a member of something.

During every class during my spring semester, there were times when I had Cognitive Salience. That is something that just happens naturally to me in any situation. Everyone in college is different and has their own beliefs, including myself. I wanted to always be aware of my perspectives, as well as others.

Impressions...

I have not had the privilege of meeting any of my fellow classmates before being in this class, that I know of. While it is difficult enough to form any type of impression online, forming them in an online class is even harder in my opinion.

I feel like all of my classmates here have made some phenomenal and very interesting posts during our blogs so far. I have loved reading and learning about everyone's virtual experiences.

Another social media app?? Another way to connect!!

I have found that maintaining relationships on social media, is now the new normal. If there was one specific social media app that I find the most useful when trying to get closer to someone, it is Snapchat.

It starts off with just a normal "mass snap" that is sent to everyone, and then you just sneak in that one old friend you've been trying to reconnect with for quite some time. Now, they may not always respond, but if they do, then there's your chance at redemption.

I had a falling out with a friend a couple years back, and we didn't speak for months. Neither one of us had reached out to one another, until one day I took what I thought, was a hilarious Snapchat and sent it to all my close friends, and I added the friend I had a falling out with on that list of people who were going to receive my Snap. That one Snapchat started a 20+ day streak of just catching up and sharing the events that happened throughout our days. We have been friends ever since.

I feel as if people in my generation grew up around so many social media websites and apps, we almost forget that social media is not the only way of reaching out. While it is helpful, it should not be our only way of communicating and maintaining friendships, but it sure has been useful in the past.

When it comes to research there are so many routes, I'd like to go with this. I am very interested in the effects of human behavior on social networking sites and really exploring if it is for better or worse.

For this topic, choice, I want to specially get into the good and bad comparisons of human behavior in social networking, almost like a cause-and-effect method.

If for some reason this topic choice does not work out, then I am also interested in exploring the negative effects of exploring virtual worlds. I would want to focus this topic specifically on the negative effects to show people that not everything online is perfect. There are negative effects to being in virtual worlds and I would want to prove that in my research.

Social media, you can either flourish in it, or fail trying.

The number of friendships I have gained over social media alone is honestly unbelievable. Throughout school alone, I've started relationships with people strictly over social media by accepting random follower requests.

Even the friendships I have gained after meeting someone face-to-face, we have maintained our relationship through social media. For example, with friends I have made in-person with classmates, when the class is over, we will still communicate with each other via Snapchat, Instagram, or texting.

When it comes to ending friendships, I never want to lose a friend, but it is 2022 and people change, it's life sadly. If I were to ever end a friendship or relationship, it would not be over social media. I feel as if that person deserves the respect of me ending it in person. Even then, I still have them on social media to support their life choices. I never want any relationship of mine to end on bad terms because you never know what could happen in life.

Social media will always be a great joy and a burden of mine. I have gained and grown in many relationships because of it, as well as failed.

Media Richness - What & How People Communicate

I have had the opportunity to grow up with social media, and while it has almost always been in my life, there have been a lot of changes to it. New social media apps are being developed all the time, and I am sure they are going to keep continuing to develop. Every time we learn how to use a new app, there's an even newer one right behind it, it's like the iPhones. Due to the multitude of different apps available, I feel as if I get a good amount of media richness throughout all of them. I feel as if I get good feedback when I post on Instagram & Facebook, Natural Language on LinkedIn, and great symbolic expression and personal focus on Snapchat and Be-Real. On TikTok I feel like it is either hit or miss, I either get all the media richness or none. With Snapchat, I get the feeling of a more face-to-face, just over the phone, when I am constantly Snapchatting with someone or a group of people throughout the day because I get to see what they are doing through pictures.

Over COVID though, my media richness was really lacking, so my friends and I would plan different nights throughout the weeks to have a Zoom night. We found different games that we could play online while still seeing everyone's faces at the same time. It was almost like being all together again.

There is only so much media richness one can have, so sometimes a break from it is essential in life. I am so thankful for these apps helping me keep up with all my friends and family when we are not actually together, but I love a good face-to-face interaction.

Good Evening,

I am here to explain to you...

Oh wait, this is blog on Tumblr.

Let's be honest here, we all have multiple sets of virtual communication skills that change, based on the app we are using, or who we are communicating with. I know I do! When I am emailing or communicating with someone for work or for school, I am proper, respectful, grammatically correct, and get straight to the point. When I am texting my friends or using social media apps like Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, etc., it is almost like it's a free-for-all. 

While I know that having virtual communication skills are important, I believe that knowing when to use them, and how to use them properly are what's most important. 

Explaining your point in virtual communication can get quite frustrating sometimes, so thankfully I have learned how to do so over the past many years. Another vital virtual communication skill I have is over-sharing. While some people may find this annoying, I feel as if it needed in virtual communications. Over-sharing also helps when you are trying to get your point across, kind of like I'm doing right now. 

Anyways, I could keep going on but you get the point. I am sure there is still lots for me to learn when virtually communicating and hopefully this class will help me gain those unknown skills!

Thanks for reading, bye for now!

Ash

Isolation? Let's think back to March 2020, we dreaded those private, isolated days spent alone wondering "what the heck am I going to do to pass this time?"

I think that we can all agree that there can be some benefits to isolation after what we all had to experience during COVID-19. Self-growth, learning of new hobbies, time spent with family, and so much more. But do not get it twisted, too much isolation is never a good thing, it could drive people crazy.

Isolation in the virtual community is a great way to give your mind a mental break but it is physically impossible to break away from it fully.

Community is any type of social system that you are a part of. Isolation vs. community can go hand in hand. If you decide to isolate yourself completely from the virtual world, it could be very hard mentally. With the correct support from the community that you are a part of, it could help you tremendously when it comes to isolation, or it could break you even more. This is why it is important to have a solid balance of the two.

You could learn more about isolation here Learn about Emotional and Social Isolation, Treatment for Isolation (goodtherapy.org)

Hi all! Blog #1 coming right up!

I am a Senior in college studying Professional Communications and Marketing Management. Thanks to COVID-19, this is not my first hybrid/online course, so I know what it takes to keep up with online courses. When I am not working or in class, I love spending time with my family and friends, especially when it comes to beach days. Other than that, I love traveling, whether it be for new explorations or music festivals. For my future career goals, I hope to one day work with a sports or music agency as a PR Coordinator/Marketing & Event Coordinator.