21A
The book I chose to read is cognitive surplus by Clay Shirky. This book explores the insane amount of power, knowledge, and information we increasingly have access to as a society. This provides means, motive, and power for people on an individual level to make a real difference, organizing protests and gathering in mass numbers simply to make a point.
The main theme or argument this book portrays is the power of knowledge and its exponential rise via social media. Social media provides a fast way for everyone on an individual level to connect, state their opinions, and share vast quantities of information to people who otherwise would not access it. As a result, people are able to connect and learn about the lives, studies, and thought processes of people all around the world. This provides power to the people, making it easier to arrange protests such as boycotts and sick-outs.
This book echoes a lot of themes taught in ENT3003. This is largely because at its core, the lessons and assignments in this Entrepreneurship class revolve around socialization and communication. While in our class, assignments are best completed via in-person interviews, social media can be used to complete them. Social media can either be used as a form of messaging, or even better, a way to do research on the people you want to interview before interviewing them. This helps to educate the interviewer on possible leads as to idealization, attitudes, and background of nearly anyone.
My exercise would obviously revolve around conducting research via social media. I would have the student find five people on social media, make assumptions about these people based on their profiles, and then interview them in real life to assess the accuracy of their assumptions.
My biggest "aha" moment while reading this book came towards the start of the book. It kind of shook me how public and permanent the internet can be. With nearly anyone able to access you and your information, you want to make sure that you have a very firm grasp on what is out there. Any mishap on the internet can cost someone their career, their livelihood, and their reputation.
The main theme or argument this book portrays is the power of knowledge and its exponential rise via social media. Social media provides a fast way for everyone on an individual level to connect, state their opinions, and share vast quantities of information to people who otherwise would not access it. As a result, people are able to connect and learn about the lives, studies, and thought processes of people all around the world. This provides power to the people, making it easier to arrange protests such as boycotts and sick-outs.
This book echoes a lot of themes taught in ENT3003. This is largely because at its core, the lessons and assignments in this Entrepreneurship class revolve around socialization and communication. While in our class, assignments are best completed via in-person interviews, social media can be used to complete them. Social media can either be used as a form of messaging, or even better, a way to do research on the people you want to interview before interviewing them. This helps to educate the interviewer on possible leads as to idealization, attitudes, and background of nearly anyone.
My exercise would obviously revolve around conducting research via social media. I would have the student find five people on social media, make assumptions about these people based on their profiles, and then interview them in real life to assess the accuracy of their assumptions.
My biggest "aha" moment while reading this book came towards the start of the book. It kind of shook me how public and permanent the internet can be. With nearly anyone able to access you and your information, you want to make sure that you have a very firm grasp on what is out there. Any mishap on the internet can cost someone their career, their livelihood, and their reputation.
Hi Heather, looks like a good read. I am more of an observer on social media and have not used it as a way to represent myself. Personally, I am happy with that but professionally I am leaving money on the table. It looks like "opting out" may no longer be an option as a small business owner. It will be important to strike a balance between feeling fearless and creative when using this medium and being intentionally selective about the digital footprint that I leave behind.
ReplyDeleteHi Heather, sounds like a really interesting book - I may have to check it out! I definitely agree that social media makes it so much easier for us to access information, for good or bad. I also really like your idea for an in class exercise, as social media is such a huge part of businesses and research these days. Keep up the good work!
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