Blog #8

Lauren Lemelin

The Last Blog: Tweeting Daily.

“Bored.” “Just want school to be over.” these are examples of my meaningless tweets in high school. At that time I was using Twitter to vent, once I got to college I realized that my tweets were unnecessary and annoying so I logged out of my account and deleted the app. I was logged off Twitter until my communication and social media class began. On the first day of class I was told that I would have to tweet daily using the hashtag #cnusocialmedia. When I heard this I panicked and even considered dropping the course, I didn’t want to return to Twitter and use it the same way I had in the past. I decided to create an account for this class to try and prevent that from happening. This was a great idea until my old account and new account merged on the app. The reexposure to Twitter and the merging of the two accounts became one of the biggest challenges I faced while tweeting daily.

The Twitter banner I created on the first day of class. 

Avg. time spent on Twitter now.

Since I was almost addicted to Twitter, returning to this platform was very challenging and left me with a few unintended consequences. At the beginning of the semester, I was able to avoid my old account and solely use my new account to tweet daily and interact with my professor and classmates. However, after a few weeks, I began spending time on both of my accounts, for entertainment and educational purposes. Twitter quickly became a huge distraction for me and eventually consumed a lot of my screen time. After reviewing my screen time, I realized that I went from zero minutes a day (before the semester began) on Twitter to 30 minutes a day (from two weeks ago). This shows how the daily tweeting opened up a dark door for me as Twitter became a huge distraction again.

My reminder

When the semester began I was extremely worried that I would forget to tweet everyday, especially since I wasn’t used to using Twitter. I dealt with this worry and fear by setting a reminder on my phone alerting me to “Tweet for class” everyday at 10 AM. Setting this daily remainder was the best decision I made all semester because I never missed a tweet. At the beginning of the semester I was also very worried that I wouldn’t have enough content to tweet about. I didn’t think there was enough information on social media and communication to tweet everyday, I was extremely wrong! After a few weeks, I figured out that drawing from the readings, class lectures, and current events was the best way to compose a tweet. I also began to utilize the interactive features on Twitter, specifically the poll option, which was very helpful.

#CNUSOCIALMEDIA Family!

Although my Twitter usage and screen time increased after beginning this course, the platform became a great source of entertainment and information. I enjoyed the daily tweeting because it allowed me to get on Twitter everyday and therefore exposed me to a lot of information, news, events, and social interaction. When I started using Twitter again I felt much more informed and connected to my peers. I also really enjoyed creating a digital community with my professor, Dr. Bernabo, and peers outside of the classroom. It allowed me to see and interact with everyone in a different light and atmosphere. I really liked how my professor would post class updates on Twitter, I thought it was amazing how she connected with us on a common, casual, and comfortable platform. Therefore, I think the daily tweeting and online interaction created a tight knit community and class atmosphere. For example, I was at a party off campus one Saturday night and a classmate came up to me and said “CNU social media?” at first I was confused so I replied “Haha what do you follow me?” and he was like “Yes I am in your class!” This was awesome and I know it happened because of the digital community we created.

Throughout the semester I learned the importance of interacting with your followers by producing engaging content. One way I was able to create and maintain my online social community was by creating an imagined audience. An imagined audience is an idea of the audience that is viewing your content (Marwick & Boyd, 2010).  My imagined audience was Dr. Bernabo and my classmates, even though my account was public and technically anybody online could see my content, I imagined that they were the main consumers of my tweets. My imagined audience influenced the content I posted as I was focused on producing content that was relatable, interactive, and relevant to them, communication, and social media. My imagined audience also helped me create my online social community because it determined who I followed, interacted with, and the content I engaged in. Having an imagined audience also helped me maintain my online social community because it helped me post appropriate content that kept my followers engaged, connected, and interested. I also learned that it is important to appeal to my imagined audience and not just my ideal audience, such as individuals like me, as my ideal audience is very limited (Marwick & Boyd, 2010). I also learned that posing questions and creating polls is an excellent way to maintain an online social community as it keeps your followers engaged.

How I felt tweeting everyday.

I think I did an excellent job tweeting daily, but I know there are a few things I could've done better. First, I could have done a better job at replying to my classmates tweets. I didn’t start replying to their tweets until the end of the semester. Once I began replying to their tweets I realized that it was fun to interact with them and I wish I had started that sooner. Secondly, I felt like a few of my tweets were relevant to social media but not relevant to the course content. Lastly, I wish I would have used more interactive media in my daily tweets. I rarely used graphics or videos and I regret that because I think those are attractive, engaging, educational, and interesting. 

Overall, I think I deserve a 100 on the daily tweeting assignment as I didn't miss a day, always retweeted 10 or more times a week, sometimes even tweeted twice in one day, and for the most part, I did a great job tweeting relevant information!

Thank you for a great semester, I will miss this!

References

Marwick, A. E. & Boyd, D. (2010). I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media & Society 13(1), 114-133. doi:10.1177/1461444810365313