As an artist and content creator, I spend too much time on social media. My consumption greatly outweighs my products, and I believe this is due to a paranoia that I have of other accounts stealing my content. Much of my time spent on social media is searching tags, accounts, and feeds assuring that my personal posts have not been taken and, if they have, checking if they had credited me. I understand how unhealthy this is because it has turned to an obsession and finding accounts that reposted my work only fuels this. I am slowly teaching myself that content stealing is inevitable and I should not be so addicted to hunting those posts down.
When I find myself on a media consuming streak, I remember one of the ways I can make the consumption into something beneficial. Commenting or responding to other people’s posts has brought me new friends and rekindled old ones. I have a rule on social media that I always respond to any feedback anyone gives me- whether it be a comment or direct message. I’m not sure if I do this out of habit or if it is a conscious decision, but I strive to have every person who reaches out to me understand that I appreciate their feedback or the time they took out to contact me.
Social media is not the only media I consume. I spend time watching movies, catching up on television shows, reading books, create dedicated Spotify playlists to friends and family members, and play an occasional video game. The main way I select what media I consume is vastly determined by the humor, characters, and themes taught within the type of media.
As I reflect on my media habits, I now can identify where I get my news from, which vastly influences my political views. I do not follow news profiles on any of my social media nor do I watch the news or read the newspaper, rather I see what is trending and read friend’s views on the current event. I understand how harmful this is. Instead, I need to find another source that gives an unbiased telling so that I can be well educated on both sides of an issue.
As a teacher, my media habits now would not be helpful and would even hinder my abilities. Spending excessive time online is not possible as a busy teacher, so I recognize that my habits must change as I progress in my major. However, the habit I touched on earlier in this reflection of responding to every person who reaches out to me is something I see can be useful to me as a teacher. I want every student I teach to know that they have important input and that they have personal value. I believe that this habit I have of never being able to ignore even the smallest personal interaction online comes from past experiences I have had trying to reach out to someone. I understand how it feels to do something out of your comfort zone and how it feels to be ignored by someone. To translate this into a classroom setting, I believe I will be good at acknowledging student’s comments in class and making them feel useful. I know that I will be diligent in responding to questions students may have, whether it be in person or through email.
I have never even considered posting my creative work on social media sites, so this is a very foreign idea to me! But to an extent I can understand why that would be a pretty stressful thing, especially in a a place as big as the internet. I love your goal of interacting with those who engage with your work. I am not good at that at all, preferring to remain apart from any sort of online community (because it scares me haha I'm a pansy). But your collaborative approach is very nice and inspiring!
ReplyDeleteSierra, like Ally, I found your thoughts about content stealing very interesting. Because I don't normally post my art online, it isn't a concern that has crossed my mind, but it certainly is a reality. It also is very interesting to address in context of what we've been talking about in class with appropriating art and such. It's incredible that we can have media to share art, but that comes with an immense risk. And whether or not that risk is worth it sometimes seems unclear. How do we address this reality in the classroom, and are there measures that can be taken to prevent content stealing (without making ourselves worry extensively about it)?
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