You can also find this on my facebook notes the virtual girls group was tagged so you should be able to view it.
One of my first experiences with technology were probably in elementary school, approximately eleven years old. My mom finally gave into buying a desktop for the living room and I was browsing through America Online. I was kind of surprised to see that people my age were chatting or instant messaging on this online portal but on the hand, it explained my fluency in computer competency in comparison of that of my parents. I really stuck with AOL Instant messenger until the age of MySpace and Facebook in high school.
While social networking allows individuals to express how they feel, essentially it does enable the world to view and comment on your personal views, conversations and can have sever adverse effects on an individual’s self-esteem. I’ll admit I owned a MySpace but I rarely went on due to the negative effects it had on people. Suddenly my peers would view the value of themselves based on the relationship of their ranking on top friends of other profiles. I couldn’t count the numerous ways in which I would hear friends argue over what rank they took, or if they were even there at all. Personally considering how this ranking system kept growing it would also have the same negative effect on my self-esteem when I took a low category or didn’t even appear on the list at all because of my low interaction on the site. Thus, social networking, if you have had the experience taught me it can go either way but inevitably it prepares you or makes you knowledgeable that people can respond to whatever you allow them to see, whether you’re expecting a group of friends or strangers you didn’t even think to exist.
Ironically, if I had to recall my first experience with composing an email, I would have to say my mother was the one who taught me after watching an AOL Demo CD. It had all the basics: how to check your inbox, how to find a website, parental controls (not a favorite), instant messenger, etc. However if I had to compare my digital literacy from ten years today, I’ve definitely surpassed that of my parents through my constant or reoccurring exposure to being online. In Addition to the CD, typing did take some time. I had assistance in my freshman year of high school; we had computer class in which we had to do typing exercises daily.
I don’t think I’ve used technology to mask who I am, because now the way social networks are built, they give you leverage to analyze people without actually having to see them face to face. I think it produced the opposite effect. I’ve been able to come out of my shell (not to share private information) but it grants me a medium to share ideas with people, acquire information, utilize current information scholastically or for personal use. I noticed that there was an article listed from gurl.com –I worshiped this site when I went through middle school and highschool. Indirectly technology taught me voice without having to speak. I wanted share moments in my life that I chose to be acceptable; how I should be perceived. In high school, especially, I was raised to be scholastic but not necessarily to speak or fight for what I wanted because my generation’s agenda appeared to be non-existent to authoritative figures. Yet with AOL instant messenger I can alter my appearance through a profile background or a screen name; if these want to be considered masking appearance, I could accept that but I don’t think I’ve ever been dishonest about who I was because I took the time to know who I was inviting in conversations.
Facebook is my friend when it comes to sharing links with others, whenever I signed up for newsletters in my email if it really meant a great deal to me I would post it to my wall and add my own commentary. Twitter has the same effect, although I feel it limits me due to a cap on the word count. Even if things can lead to a scam, I feel that people are updated as fast as it spread so you can protect yourself. I can even recall even last semester when I was taking my first course in Women Studies and I loved the passages read in our early textbook, I would reference them for moods or attitudes on either current issues or personal problems and it wouldn’t go unnoticed.
Personally, digital literacy is defined as your navigation and interaction with portals that exist via the internet; how you communicate or utilize sites to your advantage. Some use podcasts, I’d rather with social networking sites due to the fact that the information always gets updated and relayed back to me in an amount that I control.
If you look at the facebook note the original upload has the 1st time stamp for grading.
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