During the past weeks we discussed a number of reasons that compel academics to be present online. We've also discussed challenges they might face when they do so. In these conversations, it's easy to embrace the belief that technology determines various outcomes. As contemporary narratives pertaining to impact, productivity, automation, efficiency, algorithms, follower counts, citation counts, impact factors, branding, and so on infuse academic lives, it's easy to think of technologies merely as instruments that are used toward the achievement of particular professional outcomes.

This week, I'd like us to consider the notion that social media and online networks are not neutral. Instead, I'd like us to consider the notion that online social networks function as places where academics express and experience care, as places where academics make themselves vulnerable, but also as places where the darker side of humanity is reflected. We've covered the use of social media as instruments to achieve scholarly goals. Let's now turn our attention to the idea that social media and online communities mirror our societies. In other words, instead of thinking of social media as leading to particular outcomes, let's consider that social media reflect society.

The overwhelming majority of the research on social media and online networks has focused on how academics use these tools in their teaching and research. Little attention has been paid to how these technologies are used by academics to share challenges they face, to express their vulnerabilities, and to experience care online. In recent work, I argued that social media become places of gathering, places where "distributed individuals build ties, bonds and solidarity, even when they may have not met each other face-to-face" (Veletsianos, 2013). Shared values or causes bring academics together, but it's often the case that teachers and students might feel isolated in their schools or universities, and find community and support online (Wesely, 2013; Ford, Veletsianos, & Resta, 2014).

A culture of sharing is finding increasing acceptance online and in such sharing, we often find examples of individuals caring for one another. For example, the Reddit community is known for a number of acts of kindness. Academic acts of kindness, support, and caring can also be found online: The academic kindness tumblr lists a number of examples. Indeed, academic caring for one another online may also take many forms. Examples include:

expressing support (e.g., via comments, private messages, amplifying voices via retweeting/reblogging)
taking various actions to rectify injustices (e.g., sharing information with individuals who have the power to make change).
supporting students via various means (e.g., Michael Barbour often helps doctoral students who ask for his input and shares his advice on his blog - here's one example).

Vulnerability online may take many forms. Examples include:

sharing personal struggles (e.g., with debilitating diseases)
sharing professional struggles

Open practices (e.g., the creation of open content, the teaching of open courses, and so on) may also reflect a form of caring. For example, Alec Couros writes that open teachers advocate for gift cultures, a term which refers to sharing or giving without an expectation of anything in return, potentially leading to a gift economy being developed that depends on "the paying-forward of interactions and meaningful collaborations." In other words, while a number of motives guide individual's involvement in communities (Batson, Ahmad, & Tsang, 2002), gift economics depend on altruism and kindness.

"Open Teaching - Thinning the Walls" CC image by Alec Couros

Yet, on social media, we often encounter the darker side of humanity. As technologies are mediated by economic, political, and social factors, they often reflect the cultures that we live in, along with a number of important issues that we all need to pay attention to including online harassment, threats, abuse, misogyny, and attempts at silencing. Kathy Sierra recently wrote about the harrowing experiences she has had online- here's an analysis of that essay appearing in the Guardian. Eloquently, Audrey Watters reports on the threats against women online and argues that this is an educational technology issue because threatened women are educators, "because of the expectations that we all are supposed interact online – for professional, personal, and academic purposes... because we must address the culture of misogyny that permeates so much of the technology industry, particularly as we bring more and more of [it]...into education." As I've argued elsewhere, technology is not neutral - technologies have embedded values and norms and we need to remain vigilant of the potential that social media and online networks might reinforce existing inequities. We should recognize that practices developing in conjunction with emergent technologies (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Google) will be influenced by the embedded values of those technologies and that not all of these influences will be positive.

Activities

This week's activities will involve wrestling with two aspects of the Web that appear to be in opposing ends: care/vulnerability and abuse. There are numerous ways to explore these issues as they pertain to networked scholarship, and a number of suggestions to do so follow:

First, Bonnie Stewart will be joining us for a live expert chat. Please join us live on November 6th at 10:30am Pacific when our esteemed guest and I will discuss issues pertaining to caring and vulnerability. Please visit the live event page to watch and participate in the event. To figure out the corresponding time in your local time zone, visit this website. If you can't join the live session, I will be posting the video recording for later viewing. Feel free to send me any questions that you'd like to me to ask if you are not able to make it.

Second, read "Social media is a conversation, not a press release" by Zeyner Tufecki, who examines the case surrounding an article "on metastastic breast cancer sufferer Lisa Adams’ social media presence."

Third, examine Sherry Turkle's perspective that technology is distancing us from one another. You can either read this article in the New York Times or watch her TED talk that appears below.

Fourth, the discussion thread for the week invites you to discuss what caught your attention in this week's activities and readings. Respond to the prompts I posted there or reply to others who have already responded. Share with us "aha" moments and thoughts. Add issues that surprised you and topics that you found fascinating (or depressing!). The topics that we are investigating this week are sensitive, so please take extra care when composing your posts and use respectful language.

Finally, the course hashtag is still available (#scholar14) and if you are on Twitter, feel free to contribute resources, thoughts, and comments using it.

References:

Batson, C. D., Ahmad, N., & Tsang, J. A. (2002). Four motives for community involvement. Journal of Social Issues, 58(3), 429-445.

Ford, K., Veletsianos, G., Resta, P. (2014). The Structure and Characteristics of #PhDChat, an Emergent Online Social Network. Journal of Interactive Media in Education. Retrieved on April 11, 2014 from http://jime.open.ac.uk/jime/article/view/2014-08

Veletsianos, G. (2013). Open Practices and Identity: Evidence from Researchers and Educators’ Social Media Participation. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44(3), 639-651.

Wesely, P.M. (2013). Investigating the community of practice of world language educators on Twitter. Journal of Teacher Education, 64(4), 305-318.