• What does it mean to network using social media?

Networking is defined as the act of making connections with others. These connections are categorized into two different groups: Personal and Business. Business networking is achieved by identifying and understanding other people’s work in relation to one’s own to assess the value of making connections for potential future work. Personal networking is for staying connected with family,friends, and peers about their personal life. Social Networking is the development/ maintenance of these business and personal connections through the use of technology, usually done through social networking webapps such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. One could network with their friends by messaging them on Instagram, replying to the stories, and/or post their own life events. Or if one wanted to do business networking, they could pay advertisements on these social networking webapps and/or reaching out to people through direct messaging.

  • How are we motivated to participate in networked publics?

Digital media and networking technology has quickly become the backbone of our society. We are motivated to participate in networked publics for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it provides us a sense of community. Networked publics provides the feeling of belonging and participating with a group of similar values/interest. If my passion was cooking and I joined a group that discussed cooking tips and recipes, I would feel at home as I am surrounded by like minded-people talking about things that I am passionate about. Another motivation is allowing for communication and connection amongst peers despite differing locations. School/work life is very busy, its impossible to communicate with friends and peers effectively, network publics allow works around this problem. It also provides a space for one to have feelings of contributing to something socially worthwhile, such as promoting a social cause. Network publics motivate us to participate by also incentivising learning through participation and/or rewards of monetary value. 

  • What are the risks & rewards of public communications?

Public communications opened the ease and created new ways to connect, share, and collaborate with others from a variety of different demographics and backgrounds. The lack of barriers in communication has left a positive effect on making information to obtain, however, with this they are some drawbacks. Lack of barriers in communication means anyone can have access to information; some of it may be misused. Additionally, any data stored or sent through these public networks could also end up in the wrong hands. Examples include: closed groups and discrimination based on past ( cancel culture), impersonation and business fraud, viruses and malware, personal information and photos, and location-tracking. Social Media provides a lot of benefits for networking, but many cautions need to be taken to prevent one’s data from being manipulated.