NYC is NYU 2031- Presentation
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Project 2: Digital Manifesto
Tumblr.edu (Powerpoint)
This ability to curate your own individual media space is what has made Tumblr one of the largest platforms for blogging on the web. With over 75 million blogs and growing, the website has united the worlds of blogging and social networking in a way that other platforms have not.
Facebook and Twitter, while they offer quick, convenient avenues for sharing information and interacting with friends, are usually less conducive to sharing engaging, inspiring content, and more about quick bits of information and photos. Twitter, which boasts several thousand celebrity users, reporters, companies, and other respected institutions, only permits Tweets under 140 characters and offers three simple functions: Retweet, Favorite, or Reply. This very limited scope of interaction makes it difficult to engage with the content and with other users on a more impactful level. So while there are users that have expertise or knowledge on a certain subject of your interest, you may also be reading Tweets about what they had for breakfast or their favorite TV shows, when maybe you follow Dr. Oz because you want to know about the latest in healthcare. While many users of Twitter also post links and photos, this strict character limit makes it difficult for followers scrolling through their feed to get a well-rounded, in-depth opinion.
Like Twitter, Facebook also has it own social practices that outline the use of the platform. Because it is a place geared towards friends, family, and colleagues, there is very little educational exchange except for perhaps the occasional discussion on a controversial post, which is still questionable since often user comments are emotionally driven and usually not factually-based. Furthermore, Facebook, as its name suggests, is all about you, your activities, and your friends. People usually choose to post about the vacation they went on, movies they saw, or who they’re hanging out with and forego posting about important current events and intellectual interests.
Of course, with any social media platform, which users you follow determines the content that emerges in your personal feed. Applying a critical eye to defining the social practices attached to each aforementioned platforms allows us to differentiate how each is used and the potential for how each can be used. By understanding Twitter as a platform for fleeting thoughts and Facebook for sharing personal photos and statuses, we can see how Tumblr is different in that it is understood as a place for sharing and discovering new interests and content from people who do not necessarily know.
One important feature of Tumblr is the ability for users to be anonymous. Often, people will follow a particular blog based on the content posted rather than who is posting it. While anonymity allows anybody with a particular interest or knowledge on a subject to become an “expert” on a subject, this feature could also lead to misinformation and raise questions about credibility. As college students, sources and credibility of those sources is paramount in conducting academic research and engaging in well-informed discussion. Here is where anonymity can cause problems and cripples the potential for Tumblr to evolve as an educational platform. Tumblr is already socially constructed as place for users to log on and be exposed to content relating to what interests them—what if we could align this already established use for Tumblr with features that make it more conducive to intellectual stimulation and learning? Because Tumblr is a social platform users are already familiar with as place for sharing information and content pertaining to more intellectual-based interests, it could feasibility be transformed into a forum for educational theory, expert opinions, and the latest academic research.
Recognizing the potential for using Tumblr as an educational community, professors have had students set up blogs to encourage informed critique and educational exchange between classmates. By doing so, Tumblr becomes almost an online simulation of a class discussion where students can share opinions and give feedback on assigned works as well as the ideas of their peers. While this practice is becoming increasingly popular amongst high school and college classes, it is hardly the dominant use for Tumblr, which is still largely used as photo-sharing platform. Users are more likely to see memes, GIFs, music videos, and photography consuming their Dashboard—Tumblr’s personal feed—than they are to read an engaging blog post or view statistical graphics from an academic authority on a subject, like astronomy, art history, or whatever their intellectual interests may be.
There is a definite potential and demand for platforms that are specifically geared towards creating online communities revolving around specific educational interests and discussion that engages users on a deeper intellectual level than just our basic everyday social communications via Tweets and statuses. This ability for a more lasting, impactful interaction is a latent feature of Tumblr that can make the platform a place for everyone, not just students, to log on and learn something new and continue their education. The wide accessibility and simple usage of Tumblr are features that would allow anyone with an Internet connection to join an online community where they can enrich themselves and gain knowledge without having to attend a university or read academic journals. Instead, Tumblr could become a place where professors, scientists, theorists, and other experts who would otherwise be involved in putting together academic textbooks and journals, could use the platform to post more informal blogs and articles about what they are currently working on or musing over. The social construction of Tumblr that allows it to feel like a relaxed “get together” between users combined with the quality and thoroughness of the work conducted by these sorts of experts and authorities could make for an unpretentious online destination where anyone can explore and digest this otherwise hard to find, complex information that would be exclusive to the academic community.
Transforming Tumblr into a place for education and not just passive content sharing makes the feature of anonymity more of an impediment. Users cannot be sure of who is behind the content they are consuming; therefore, the credibility of the information is questionable. Because Tumblr does not readily offer users the ability to construct a profile with a brief biography or any sort verification system, it encourages this anonymity, even if that is not the intended feature. Allowing select users with expertise in a specific field to become verified “authorities” would create an environment where the information is not only more trustworthy, but also more current and innovative. Furthermore, these verified authorities could communicate with one another encouraging collaboration. Similarly, non-verified users or “pupils”, we could call them, could ask these authorities questions about their work, theories, or the other content they post, encouraging this process of teaching and learning. Because Tumblr already offers users an easy interface and the ability share content in to the form of images, videos, links, audio, and more, it is already an effective multimedia-sharing platform.
Although it offers users ways to share all different forms of content, Tumblr is an image-dominated platform where text is few and far between. Aside from users constructing as a place for sharing mostly visual content, the “Reblog” feature encourages quick, unoriginal posting that merely recycles existing content instead of creating new content. As an educational platform, Tumblr could amend this reblog feature to require an additional comment, question, critique, or any other interaction with the material before reposting on one’s own blog to ensure that content stays original and new ideas emerge. By doing so, users can no longer repost the exact version of what they’ve read or seen without first having their own interaction with the material which encourages users to not only engage with what they’ve read or seen, but also respond to in their own way. Becoming involved in a large-scale discussion encourages learning and sharing of knowledge.
Diversifying the types of content posted on Tumblr so that it is not just visually-dominated could benefit from the inclusion of specific filters that not only designates through assorted topics, but also through the form in which they appear. If a user is only interested in seeing graphics or tables, but does not necessarily need to read a lengthier text on the matter, he or she could readily filter his or her search or feed to display only the desired material. This feature would make Tumblr less of a catch all, clustering all different topics and multimedia within one feed and making it more organized, customizable, and suitable to learning in an orderly way. This filtering system would be an improvement upon the existing “Tracking” feature of Tumblr that allows users to search and follow a subject, though it does not automatically cause the tracked topic to come up in the feed. Say you want to see photos of or excerpts from a specific author like Ernest Hemingway; you will have to actively search and track “Ernest Hemmingway” which will pull up all material tagged with his name on your screen. However, each time you want to see updated content, you must actively recall this search, as it does not automatically show up on your “Dashboard” feed. By allowing tracked items to show up automatically in the feed and instead improving the filtering system, users will have easier access to new and updated content relating to subjects they wish to follow.
In transforming the social construction of Tumblr from a passive visual-content sharing platform to one that encourages active pursuit of knowledge, it would become a place that motivates users to explore and develop intellectual interests, create a learning community, and spend more time reading and interacting with content, all the while still finding other users who share common interests. Tweaking the existing functions and adding a few new ones would plausibly alter the website in a very drastic way, showing how a few minor changes can revolutionize the accepted social construction of this platform and introduce an additional way to use it.
Tumblr.Edu
Reimagining the Visual Content Sharing Platform as an Online Educational Community
Reimagining the Visual Content Sharing Platform as an Online Educational Community
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There is a corner of the Internet where millions of users congregate online to share the content that engage and inspires them. Although this communication ensues between high volumes of users from all over the world, your own private feed turns the micro blogging platform known as Tumblr into something resembling an intimate get together between friends with common interests.This ability to curate your own individual media space is what has made Tumblr one of the largest platforms for blogging on the web. With over 75 million blogs and growing, the website has united the worlds of blogging and social networking in a way that other platforms have not.
Facebook and Twitter, while they offer quick, convenient avenues for sharing information and interacting with friends, are usually less conducive to sharing engaging, inspiring content, and more about quick bits of information and photos. Twitter, which boasts several thousand celebrity users, reporters, companies, and other respected institutions, only permits Tweets under 140 characters and offers three simple functions: Retweet, Favorite, or Reply. This very limited scope of interaction makes it difficult to engage with the content and with other users on a more impactful level. So while there are users that have expertise or knowledge on a certain subject of your interest, you may also be reading Tweets about what they had for breakfast or their favorite TV shows, when maybe you follow Dr. Oz because you want to know about the latest in healthcare. While many users of Twitter also post links and photos, this strict character limit makes it difficult for followers scrolling through their feed to get a well-rounded, in-depth opinion.
Like Twitter, Facebook also has it own social practices that outline the use of the platform. Because it is a place geared towards friends, family, and colleagues, there is very little educational exchange except for perhaps the occasional discussion on a controversial post, which is still questionable since often user comments are emotionally driven and usually not factually-based. Furthermore, Facebook, as its name suggests, is all about you, your activities, and your friends. People usually choose to post about the vacation they went on, movies they saw, or who they’re hanging out with and forego posting about important current events and intellectual interests.
Of course, with any social media platform, which users you follow determines the content that emerges in your personal feed. Applying a critical eye to defining the social practices attached to each aforementioned platforms allows us to differentiate how each is used and the potential for how each can be used. By understanding Twitter as a platform for fleeting thoughts and Facebook for sharing personal photos and statuses, we can see how Tumblr is different in that it is understood as a place for sharing and discovering new interests and content from people who do not necessarily know.
One important feature of Tumblr is the ability for users to be anonymous. Often, people will follow a particular blog based on the content posted rather than who is posting it. While anonymity allows anybody with a particular interest or knowledge on a subject to become an “expert” on a subject, this feature could also lead to misinformation and raise questions about credibility. As college students, sources and credibility of those sources is paramount in conducting academic research and engaging in well-informed discussion. Here is where anonymity can cause problems and cripples the potential for Tumblr to evolve as an educational platform. Tumblr is already socially constructed as place for users to log on and be exposed to content relating to what interests them—what if we could align this already established use for Tumblr with features that make it more conducive to intellectual stimulation and learning? Because Tumblr is a social platform users are already familiar with as place for sharing information and content pertaining to more intellectual-based interests, it could feasibility be transformed into a forum for educational theory, expert opinions, and the latest academic research.
Recognizing the potential for using Tumblr as an educational community, professors have had students set up blogs to encourage informed critique and educational exchange between classmates. By doing so, Tumblr becomes almost an online simulation of a class discussion where students can share opinions and give feedback on assigned works as well as the ideas of their peers. While this practice is becoming increasingly popular amongst high school and college classes, it is hardly the dominant use for Tumblr, which is still largely used as photo-sharing platform. Users are more likely to see memes, GIFs, music videos, and photography consuming their Dashboard—Tumblr’s personal feed—than they are to read an engaging blog post or view statistical graphics from an academic authority on a subject, like astronomy, art history, or whatever their intellectual interests may be.
There is a definite potential and demand for platforms that are specifically geared towards creating online communities revolving around specific educational interests and discussion that engages users on a deeper intellectual level than just our basic everyday social communications via Tweets and statuses. This ability for a more lasting, impactful interaction is a latent feature of Tumblr that can make the platform a place for everyone, not just students, to log on and learn something new and continue their education. The wide accessibility and simple usage of Tumblr are features that would allow anyone with an Internet connection to join an online community where they can enrich themselves and gain knowledge without having to attend a university or read academic journals. Instead, Tumblr could become a place where professors, scientists, theorists, and other experts who would otherwise be involved in putting together academic textbooks and journals, could use the platform to post more informal blogs and articles about what they are currently working on or musing over. The social construction of Tumblr that allows it to feel like a relaxed “get together” between users combined with the quality and thoroughness of the work conducted by these sorts of experts and authorities could make for an unpretentious online destination where anyone can explore and digest this otherwise hard to find, complex information that would be exclusive to the academic community.
Transforming Tumblr into a place for education and not just passive content sharing makes the feature of anonymity more of an impediment. Users cannot be sure of who is behind the content they are consuming; therefore, the credibility of the information is questionable. Because Tumblr does not readily offer users the ability to construct a profile with a brief biography or any sort verification system, it encourages this anonymity, even if that is not the intended feature. Allowing select users with expertise in a specific field to become verified “authorities” would create an environment where the information is not only more trustworthy, but also more current and innovative. Furthermore, these verified authorities could communicate with one another encouraging collaboration. Similarly, non-verified users or “pupils”, we could call them, could ask these authorities questions about their work, theories, or the other content they post, encouraging this process of teaching and learning. Because Tumblr already offers users an easy interface and the ability share content in to the form of images, videos, links, audio, and more, it is already an effective multimedia-sharing platform.
Although it offers users ways to share all different forms of content, Tumblr is an image-dominated platform where text is few and far between. Aside from users constructing as a place for sharing mostly visual content, the “Reblog” feature encourages quick, unoriginal posting that merely recycles existing content instead of creating new content. As an educational platform, Tumblr could amend this reblog feature to require an additional comment, question, critique, or any other interaction with the material before reposting on one’s own blog to ensure that content stays original and new ideas emerge. By doing so, users can no longer repost the exact version of what they’ve read or seen without first having their own interaction with the material which encourages users to not only engage with what they’ve read or seen, but also respond to in their own way. Becoming involved in a large-scale discussion encourages learning and sharing of knowledge.
Diversifying the types of content posted on Tumblr so that it is not just visually-dominated could benefit from the inclusion of specific filters that not only designates through assorted topics, but also through the form in which they appear. If a user is only interested in seeing graphics or tables, but does not necessarily need to read a lengthier text on the matter, he or she could readily filter his or her search or feed to display only the desired material. This feature would make Tumblr less of a catch all, clustering all different topics and multimedia within one feed and making it more organized, customizable, and suitable to learning in an orderly way. This filtering system would be an improvement upon the existing “Tracking” feature of Tumblr that allows users to search and follow a subject, though it does not automatically cause the tracked topic to come up in the feed. Say you want to see photos of or excerpts from a specific author like Ernest Hemingway; you will have to actively search and track “Ernest Hemmingway” which will pull up all material tagged with his name on your screen. However, each time you want to see updated content, you must actively recall this search, as it does not automatically show up on your “Dashboard” feed. By allowing tracked items to show up automatically in the feed and instead improving the filtering system, users will have easier access to new and updated content relating to subjects they wish to follow.
In transforming the social construction of Tumblr from a passive visual-content sharing platform to one that encourages active pursuit of knowledge, it would become a place that motivates users to explore and develop intellectual interests, create a learning community, and spend more time reading and interacting with content, all the while still finding other users who share common interests. Tweaking the existing functions and adding a few new ones would plausibly alter the website in a very drastic way, showing how a few minor changes can revolutionize the accepted social construction of this platform and introduce an additional way to use it.
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