Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

According to Prensky, what category do you fall into, and how has this affected your learning?

According to Prensky, I fall into the category of 'Digital Immigrant' due to my upbringing involving a large amount of technology. My first big introduction to personal technology was through an iPad, which I got after breaking my leg in an accident. This introduction has shaped me quite drastically when compared to the lifestyles of 'Digital Immigrants'. The biggest difference being that a large portion of the latter years of my education have been spent online, starting from the end of my freshman year of highschool. My learning style is quite different from the average person even when compared to my own generation, as I thoroughly enjoy learning online.

Prensky mentions that students' thinking patterns have changed. How have they changed, and what are some examples of this?

One example of student's thinking patterns changing can be found in the younger generations attention span. With the advent of TikTok (and even the earlier Vine) most young brains are geared towards rapid bursts of information, however with that advantage of easy rememberance, there is also the downside that if the content doesn't hook you soon enough people just start to tune it out of just switch off.

Here is an article for those who want to learn more!

Knapp's Relational Model

 

I once had an online friendship with someone, we met through a mutual friend, with me knowing them from my middle school while they knew them from their high school. We had originally started playing games together, the standout being Valorant. We had gotten to the step of Intensifying as according to Knapp's Relational Model, however we started to drift apart as I lost interest in most of our shared games. It wasn't any fault of my friend, it's just that he stayed with hobbies while I moved on, leading to us not talking, to me just not using the Discord Server we used since I felt I had no need to. Ultimately when I got more interested in Valorant again I never thought to reach out as he just seemed to far away to contact. Our relationship hasn't reached the terminating stage, and I don't believe it will, I would place us instead at a perpetual Stagnation stage.

Oversharing Online

Hi everyone, hope you are all having an amazing day! In this post I am going to be discussing my various opinions and experiences that relate to social media in a Q&A format.

Question 1: Do different social networking sites offer other benefits and drawbacks (as opposed to Facebook)?

To set the stage and to provide a bit of background, I believe that Facebook's primary purpose as a social media site is to provide a space where people can talk to each other online, kind of like an public forum that can be edited to show only what you desire. The benefit of this approach is that it is pretty easy to build a community, however it has a drawback related to the social stigma among the younger demographic, as since Facebook is primarily used by older generations it is seen as 'not cool' by younger audiences. Due to this, I find that there are several networking sites that provide different benefits and drawbacks. Twitter for instance is great for networking as it works as a way for people to make announcements to a large audience while still allowing for 1 on 1 chatting. Twitter is also seen in a much more positive light by younger people when compared to Facebook. However, Twitter also hosts several communities that are very toxic, with the idea of 'canceling' coming from Twitter itself. Here is an infographic that discusses 

Question 2: Is there an ideal number of "friends" or connections individual have on Facebook that can improve their mental health?

My own opinion on this question is that while I don't use Facebook or other mass-connection social medias, I still believe that if I were to use one I would try to keep my connected individuals to be around 10. This amount is perfect for me as it allows for people to almost always have someone to talk to if everyone is somewhat active, while not being a threat geared towards overstimulation. However that number is what I like to call the 'inner shell', the 'outer shell' is made up of an endless amount as I am simply connected to them to see the content they produce in some form, whether it be videos, art, or memes.

Question 3: Do social networking sites have any responsibility in promoting mental health in their users? If so, how might they go about doing so?

I don't actually believe it is up to social media sites to promote mental health, as it is up to the individual to have the willpower and objectivity to see what they need in their life to help themselves mentally. However this doesn't mean social media sites should encourage mental decline, I believe it is quite the opposite. It is up to the various social media sites to make sure that their environments are not hostile to the overall mental health. At worst I believe they should strive to be neutral. This can be done through a myriad of ways, such as by banning toxic users or enacting policies that stop cyberbullying.

If you want to learn more about why mental health is important and why you should be looking out for it, check out this article.

Sources used:

https://peachyessay.com/sample-essay/comparison-and-contrast-between-facebook-and-twitter/

About Me.

 Hi Everyone!

My name is Sawyer Morrissey, I am a Agricultural Sciences Major at Oregon State University. I have been born and raised in Southern California, and I continue to live here while getting my college education online!

This is all sort of new to me, as my only real method of communication online has been Discord. I don't like using other forms of social media as I know that sooner or later I would get sucked into them. In my free time I enjoy reading, writing, and playing games online with friends.

Here is a photo of one of my dogs, her name is Lola.

To everyone reading this, have a great day!