Social Media as a Search Tool
Good digital citizens “use the internet regularly and effectively,” according to the authors of the book Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation. By that definition, I think that most of us have some work to do on becoming better digital citizens. This post is the 3rd in a series that will target research on rising tuition costs (see Scholarly Research on Rising Tuition) for a Digital Citizenship class at CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI). Social media as a search tool for information sharing is the topic of this particular post.
I have never before considered actively using social media to find knowledge. I, of course, have used social media sites to read gossip and share little tidbits but never to pursue information on heavy topics. While rising tuition costs are a hot topic across the web and the world, I was intrigued by the types of conversations going on over the social media platforms that I frequent. Twitter, in particular, was a source of several jokes (see picture below) and pushing of political platforms for candidates in upcoming elections.
A large part of the conversation on Twitter about tuition is comprised of people cracking jokes
A basic search for tuition on both Twitter and Facebook generated the accompanying hashtags #FeelTheBern and #Bernie2016 which is understandable since that is a major part of the platform Bernie Sanders is running on, but I felt that these hashtags contribute little to the conversation on tuition. The focus of conversations that link tuition and Bernie Sanders, is Bernie Sanders, therefore tuition is a small piece that fits into the greater puzzle. Another trending topic on Twitter and Facebook revolves around Hillary Clinton attacking (unconvincingly, according to ALTERNET) Bernie Sanders’s stance. While I am thrilled that people are showing interest in the presidential election, these were not the types of results that I was looking for.
After sifting through the jokes and politics, I was able to find some new articles that didn’t come up in previous investigations, but little information on the major players that are discussing tuition on social media.
I will be looking more into researching this topic effectively on social media, but for the moment, I am somewhat gratified with the results and eager to improve my findings.
Until next time,
MGH, professor in Training
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