Social Media Literacy Connections

I'm coming to the end of my graduate school journey, so this week I decided to have some fun. One of the best, most popular basic puzzle games on the internet right now is New York Times' Connections. I enjoy playing this game - I have the archive of all Connections boards on my phone to play anytime. I hadn't thought about making my own board until this week, but I've now done so using some of the topics I've discussed in previous posts. Before I talk about the topics I used I've included a screenshot of the board, so complete the puzzle here first if you don't want to be spoiled! Please let me know how you did in the comments!

Screenshot by author of their Social Media Literacy Connections Board, made with Swellgarfo's online tool.

Level 1 - Yellow

The first topic I pulled from is social media uses. This seems like a simple category (which is why it’s the yellow one), but the uses themselves can be overlooked. Social media is vilified by politicians, teachers, scientists, and parents alike. There are definite harms that arise from overuse of any technology, social media included, but there are great benefits as well. For example, social media allows connection between people from marginalized communities from different geographic locations, decreasing feelings of loneliness and isolation. This connection is especially important when support in their physical world is absent. American society tends to focus on the negative aspects of social media, while disregarding the many positive aspects.

Level 2 - Green

Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) may form the basis for healthy use on social media in schools and libraries. Especially good AUPs will focus on the 'cans' of technology use rather than the 'cannots'. Exceptional AUPs will include input from their students, faculty, and parents. Including students in policy creation will give them ownership over the policy, leading to a better understanding of why it's important and higher intrinsic motivation to follow it. I hadn't heard of AUPs before this spring, and it seems like a good vehicle for teaching online skills and communicating why they're important. 

Level 3 - Blue

A compliment to student-led AUPs can be a comprehensive digital literacy program. Digital literacy involves the ability to access, critically analyze, evaluate, and create different forms of digital content. Conversations about the essential aspects of digital literacy and what is important to learn have been happening for decades. In 2010, Howard Rheingold laid out five digital literacies for social media that he felt were essential. For the most part, these literacies are still relevant. Digital literacy has become even more important recently, with the general rise of misinformation online.

Level 4 - Purple

One of Rheingold's literacies was network awareness. The capacity of online networks has increased since Rheingold's article. An example of a modern high capacity network is a Professional Learning Network (PLN). A PLN can take many different forms, from a private WhatsApp group with fellow professionals from your field to a large social media network with hundreds or thousands of connections. I have been building my PLN on Bluesky. PLNs are useful for most fields, but are especially useful in the information profession. As the internet is the main hub for information sharing and consumption, information professionals must be able to communicate with each other about ideas, problems, and solutions in digital spaces. 

Going Forward

This was a fun activity that prompted me to look back at what I've learned in these past several weeks. I plan to continue sharing these sorts of activities, projects, and learning experiences on this blog and on Bluesky. I've enjoyed researching these topics and learning more about social media literacy and the many considerations that go into safety and privacy online, especially regarding today's youth. I will certainly bring what I've learned into my future career and to my personal projects. I hope you'll come back for another dive into whatever topic I find interesting!