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Week Eight: Experiencing Social Media as a Gen Z Student?

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While I worked on this Blog I learned so much about social media. I've learned to approach my social media life with more caution and thoughtfulness. I am a millennial and fall into many millennial troupes. Nostalgia is important to me and I feel caught between worlds. I remember when we got a home computer and I'd play games on it. Getting an old laptop from my dad in high school was a huge deal. I didn't get a smartphone until college.  I joined Facebook when I was in 10th grade and had to beg my mom to let me make an account. Huddling around the family computer and watching YouTube videos was how my family bonded. Getting Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok were all big things for me. Even though I feel pretty confident with social media I will still Google questions about current trends or how to use new features.  (Image Credit: Insight) I found this article about advertising  to millennials  using social media. It was interesting what parts of being a ...
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Week Seven: Media Literacy

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As I've studied librarianship one of the concepts I have seen emphasized again and again is information literacy. Information literacy covers many topics. Including evaluating if the information is based on facts and is from a trustworthy source. Media literacy is very closely tied to this. To me, media literacy is having the knowledge and tools to critically analyze the media you consume.  Renee Hobbs writes about digital literacy and its components. If you are interested in more details here is a link to a review of her book Digital and Media Literacy. Hobbs concludes there are five main components to digital literacy.  They are: Access Analyze Create Reflect  Act Hobbs offers insight into each one of these ideas. However, the overarching theme is to take time to think about the media you consume. Ask questions like, "Why is this message being conveyed over Tiktok?" or "What messages are in this ad that are not being said?" or "Is this information presen...
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Week Six Legal: A Closer Look at COPPA and CIPA

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Social media is a really fascinating topic because it is still new and changing rapidly. When new things are introduced into our society laws need to change and update. Laws are starting to catch up to social media. If you want a good initial read I would suggest this resource . It is an interesting read because it lays out some basics for this conversation. It also cites specific legal precedents that connect with social media. Such as " Stored Communications Act  (“SCA") prevents entities from accessing and storing certain private information"    This article talks specifically about using images legally and how to make sure they are cited properly. (Image Credit: DrAfter123) After looking at some of the general issues of legality and social media I wanted to explore specific protections for youth and libraries. The two guidelines that I started with was The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Both of...
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Week Five Digital Tattoos

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On TikTok there are creators who will find a persons location or personal information (like their birthday) based on very little information. Once I saw someone find a birthday because they found a friend of the person's Facebook and then saw that they ran marathons and then they searched through marathon records to find the year they were born. It was both interesting and terrifying.    One of those creators is @notkhanjunior and here is a video of her finding someone's birthday.  (Video Credit: @notkhanjunior ) Most of these creators do these videos to help people understand privacy on the internet. I remember the first time I saw one I was a little spooked because I am far more public with my information online than people they are looking at. This brings me to the term Digital Tattoos or Digital Footprints. This article   gives good information on Digital Tattoos and provides useful tools for any internet user. Here is a little guide to start thinking about...
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Week Four Internet Safety and Library Policy

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Hello! For this week I have been thinking about even if you are extremely careful the internet is still a dangerous place. We have a responsibility to learn about the dangers for ourselves and also for the community we serve.  To start here  is an article that gives good basics of internet safety. As I first started to look at internet safety the acronym S.M.A.R.T kept popping up. This is meant for children but I think it is important for all internet users to keep in mind. See the image below for more details:  (Image Credit: AG Parts Education) After looking at this guide I wanted to look at more specifics to be safe. This is when I found a Google Guide . I highly recommend this resource because it hits so many important issues such as knowing how to secure your account and recognize when your accounts have been hacked.  (Image Credit: Eastcoastitnotes) One reason to review a guide like this is it can't hurt to check your knowledge right? As I read through the guid...
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Bonus Post! Exploring Parental Consent for Social Media

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  Social media can be intimidating. It has so many good and bad uses. I do not think its large scope should intimate people learning to use it as an educational tool. As a librarian I want to make sure that young and old library users have the knowledge they need to successfully navigate social media. One way to do this is through library programs and clubs. But if minors will be using social media in a library sponsored events parental (or from here on referred to as guardian) permission. Making sure that guardians not only give consent to use these tools but they understand the purpose behind programing like this is vital. In this sample guardian consent letter I am running a fictitious youth creators club. If I were to pitch this club to my library director I would describe how this would increase library engagement while also teaching valuable skills. This letter is specific for Youtube.  See below:   (Image by author) Now there are a few things I want to point o...
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Week 3 Algorithms Good? Bad? Ugly?

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Hello! As I've been thinking about social media, and the internet I started to get curious about about algorithms. This word pops up often in discussions about the internet. Personally, I do not think I had the strongest understanding of what "the algorithm" is at the beginning of this exploration. Before I started to explore what algorithms are I would describe them as sites recording patterns to better tailor ads and content to the user. This has helpful, benign, and also sinister implications. My understanding is that companies can very easily justify tracking data and activity for the algorithm because they can claim it enhances users' experiences. I started my research with this article . It is very interesting because it looks at the basics of algorithms and also how to manipulate it for yourself. (Photo Credit: Invisibly ) Now, I think it would be helpful to point out some other articles that discuss this topic. I read an article called " Everything you ne...
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