Network Literacy: The New Path To Knowledge – Adrian Miles
I remember seeing a tweet a while ago saying “It’s 2014 and I still don’t know what the hell RSS is”.
It really spoke to me because its true, I don’t know what it is and to be honest I’m still a little confused.
Aside from that, the reading by Adrian raised many-a-good point. Before I was familiar with blogging I never thought too much about the importance of ‘Tags’. Overuse of hashtags on Instagram annoy me to no end and still I’m not 100% sure why people haven’t sorted that issue out yet. Anyway, tags as Adrian described are incredibly important online, particularly with blogging. They promote connectivity and interaction, allowing people to find information (or blog posts) which interest them by searching for key words.
Another aspect of the reading that resonated with me was the idea that to have a thorough understanding of network literacy, you need to have a thorough understanding of how everything on the internet can be, and is, connected.
Recently a friend of my mum’s messaged me saying that her friend (a jewellery designer) was looking for a young media student to help bring to life her social media presence. She already had a strong client base of older women but wanted someone to come in for a few days and give insight into how people around my age were connecting with brands online.
Arriving in her studio I was definitley nervous and not entirely sure of what I was actually going to be asked to do. I began mentioning some social media platforms she could utilise and how they could all be linked together etc. etc. The look on her face was a mixture of confusion and concern. Connectivity was something a little foreign to her, and perhaps the issue all along.
I’m not sure that anecdote was quite relevant.
#networkliteracy #drphil
– Caitlin
