Blog Post #2- Social Media In My Life

One of the most diverse English courses offered at Salem State University is ENL 411, Special Topics, because every semester its’ topic changes. I took this class because as a professional writing concentration it is  a requirement. Because I was never too keen on any of the previous topics this is why I have waited until my last semester to take it. To me though, I feel I really lucked out in taking this course now because having a knowledge of how social media impacts our personal and professional lives is extremely important in today’s world. 

While I prepared tonight for my first full week of school, I couldn't help but reflect on all the social media lessons I learned last week. The biggest thing I learned is it's necessary across a multitude of fields to have a lively social media presence. You or your business don't exist if they're not on social media.  

After our first class on Tuesday, I read some of the assigned readings I have for my internship. This semester I am serving as a research assistant on Dr. Scott Nowka’s digital humanities project. In a chapter I read from the book Debates in the Digital Humanities, I learned that the world of digital humanities would cease to be the next big thing in academia if it weren't for social media. Here is an exert from the reading:

“Twitter, along with blogs and other online outlets, has inscribed the digital humanities as a network topology, that is to say lines drawn by aggregates of affinities, formally and functionally manifest in who follows whom, who friends whom, who tweets whom, and who links to what” (Kirschenbaum 8). 

On Thursday, the conversation of social media came up again when I attended the first meeting of the semester for Soundings East, Salem State's literary journal. That day the staff brainstormed ways we can connect more with our virtual community. 

The social media platforms I use are Facebook, Twitter, Hootsuite (I am the social media assistant for Bruce Perry, the Assistant Dean Of Enrollment Management and Student Life, and I use this social media management system when I work for him), and WordPress/Blogspot. What I hope to gain from this class is how to build an audience for  the Salem State social media channels I oversee, Red Skies and my personal blog; how to collaborate with other content creators; and the do’s and don’t of social media in the workplace.  I feel I have a great understanding of what not to post on my personal accounts, but would like to know more about social media in the career world that way I can look as polished and marketable as possible  to future employees. 

Kirschendbaum, Matthew. “What Is Digital Humanities and What's Doing It Doing In English  

         Departments?" Debates In Digital Humanities. Ed. Matthew K. Gold. Minneapolis: 

         University of Minnesota Press, 2012. 3-10. Print.