As Rainie and Wellman (2012) claimed, average Americans now have an estimated six hundred people in their networks. The number sounds so crazy. How can we handle our relationship with so many people?
Reflect on my own experience. I have 4 family members, and around 40 close relatives in my father and mother' line. I have had lots of classmates in my elementary schools, secondary schools, and universities. In addition to my classmates, I also make some friends face-to-face or online who share some common interests with me. Moreover, I am in an interdisciplinary research group, and know students in other programs. I also have lots of friends on Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, and Linkedin. As this number of connected people continue, I think I have six hundred people in my network, too.
Regarding how to handle our relationship with those people, I follow the Golden Rule that help will be there when needed. As Rainie and Wellman (2012) found, we can easily navigate our personal networks to get the aid and comfort we need in a certain situation. We can get information, support, and advice from more— and more diversified— sources. When I need assistance in paper, I turn directly to my advisor or students in my program for help. When I need assistance in assignment, I discuss with my classmates. When I feel sad or frustrates, I chat with my best friends to get emotional support. Another reason for contributing to my capacity in balancing my networks is my media-literacy. Majoring in Educational technology, I have known clearly how to find information, assess it, react to it, and even remix it by using different web 2.0 tools.
However, I rarely think about managing my personal brand. I am always so naive that I do not need to manage my fame since I am nobody now. According to the Pew Internet survey, 57 percent of American internet users had searched for material about themselves online, 33 percent of internet users worried about how much information is available about them, and 8 percent had asked other users to remove information about them (Rainie & Wellman, 2012). I did search for information about myself at all. I did not worry about what information was available about me. But this survey result reminds me of that I should take care of information about me out there on the search engine. The first step I will take is setting up the email alerts and syndicated news feeds when my name is mentioned on news or other prominent sites.The second step I will take is reviewing and cleaning up my posts on Facebook and WeChat, I will delete some negative stuff that I do not want my family members see because my father will be my WeChat friend.
Rainie, L., &Wellman, B. (2012-04-27). Networked: The New Social Operating System. The MIT Press. Kindle Edition.
Zhongrui, I agree with you that using network we can easily stay in touch with family members, relatives, old classmates, friends and acquaintances. Our personal network will provide different support to us in many different aspects in our lives.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the reply. I agree back with you. Sometimes I feel amazed at so many people I have in my networks.The social media tools really extend our social network. Recently, I join several online communities and connect with people who share the same interest with me. I feel amazing about that.
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