blog 4

Introduction (p. 9-12)

“As soon as he wakes up in the morning, Ronnie, an undergraduate student at a large, Midwestern research university, sends a tweet from his phone, which lets his roommates know he’s awake. Rather than leaving a paper note for them in the kitchen, Ronnie visits their private group page on Facebook. On his walk to class in the morning, Ronnie takes a picture of some graffiti in front of a local restaurant and sends it to Twitter. Unwinding before orchestra rehearsal on an unseasonably warm day, Ronnie and his roommates blare music from the roof of their apartment building, and Ronnie films a 12-second video of a squirt-gun fight and posts it to Facebook and Twitter. He ends his evening studying in the library on campus, listening to music through the website last.fm, which records his music preferences and shares them with his friends. While he often works alone, Ronnie is always connected to friends on campus and across the country through his use of social network sites, his daily offline activity integrated into his online identity. For Ronnie, social network sites are intricately woven into the tapestry of his daily literacy practices; they play a large role in how he interacts with others in his personal and professional life as well as how he presents himself to different audiences. For students like Ronnie, everyday literate activity takes place in networked digital environments, which shape their literacy practices and their online and offline lives. “

This section makes me really want to explore my partner further.  Buck has such a good understanding of the case study that she is able to walk us through Ronnie’s entire day!  Maybe it is because Buck studied multiple platforms.

Methods (p. 12-13)

"Ronnie’s case study is part of a larger study of undergraduate and graduate stu- dents’ literacy practices on social network sites. The undergraduate students in this study, attending a large, Midwestern research university, were recruited during the Spring 2010 semester by class visits to an advanced composition course focused on composition through a variety of media, including image, audio, and video."

I think this section of Buck’s methodology is helpful to me.  I hadn’t introduced our whole class’s assignment, something that I could easily explain better.

“the research interviews, for example, allowed me to gauge my own interpretations of comments Ronnie posted online, as well as to gain background information unavailable in the textual activity I recorded. “

Buck does a really good job of explaining why she did the things she did.  I need to do a better job of this. 

Results (p. 13-30)

“Ronnie primarily used a Dell laptop for his social media use; he also bought an iPhone during the course of the study, through which he also updated social network sites. “

I enjoy these small “fun facts” that show the reader how much we can learn from exploring another’s social media account.

“My friend’s in the, he’s a railroad engineer, so if any time I’ll see a train I kinda tell him about it, so I saw that in the bathroom at [a bar on campus] so I just tweeted him. Just like that."

This example demonstrates the ways in which Ronnie’s location, daily activi- ties, and social networks were laminated onto his literate activity. He frequently photographed an object he encountered in his daily life and shared it with a friend through Twitter or a different social network site. “
Gathering verbatem speech will be especially valuable for this project’s authenticity.  I already have screenshots of several of my partner’s tweets, but I think more would be better. 

Discussion (p. 30-34)

“In the six months after Facebook changed its privacy settings, he migrated most of his information off of the site. “

Again, Buck has learned so much of his study!  I think I will explore my partner’s tweet tendency, and ask about any time-gaps I notice.

“Oudshoorn and Pinch (2003) note the importance of studying users’ connec- tions to and take-up of technologies and to study those technologies within “their context of use” (p. 2). “

Buck sources other authors frequently in her research.  I think this will be something I need to do as well.

Conclusion (p. 34-36)

“Ronnie represents a rather extreme case of social network site use, both through the number of sites he used and the amount of activity he engaged in on each site. “

Buck was able to scour classrooms to find the “ideal social media user,” so I think she had an advantage.  My partner rarely tweets, yet I am asked to do the same work.  I think it will be more challenging for me, but I am not scared of the challenge.

“As people participate in social network sites, they encounter important questions about data management and ownership, privacy, and identity representation “


I think this is a wonderful thought.  I need to ask myself how it relates to my partner and include it in my conclusion as well.