Blog #3

Research on Social Media and Learning Communities:

I chose psychology as my topic of interest because I am a psychology major with interests in research, lifespan development, and mental health. When researching communities, I found a Reddit community called r/psychology (Psychology (reddit.com) with over 3.3 million users. This learning community offers a wealth of discussion and research from recent papers, personal experience, and advice. This group allows users to share research, collaborate with others, provide study tips, and receive personal support. This science-based community has clear guidelines and rules to prevent the spread of misinformation, clickbait, and plagiarism. It also has clear ethical guidelines about not sharing medical, psychiatric, or psychological advice, as this site is meant for discussions and networking, not medical practices. r/psychology provides learning opportunities by connecting with professionals, consuming literature, asking questions, and keeping up-to-date with research. I personally plan on using this Reddit community to ask questions to others in the psychology field about graduate school preparation and gain insight on recent theories and research developments. 

Building Your Personal Learning Network (PLN):

When building my PLN, I plan to use platforms like Twitter and Reddit. Twitter’s real-time updates allow learners to stay informed on the latest research, news, and world findings. I plan to participate in Twitter by using hashtags such as #psychology or #educationalpsych to find relevant content and discussions I am interested in. Through Reddit, I plan to join groups like r/psychology to ask for advice, discuss with other members, and learn from others experiences in the field. I think Reddit will be the most effective for creating a PLN because there are a vast number of diverse users from all over the world, and many professionals and experts contribute to discussions while providing valuable information. Reddit allows for interactive discussions where users can ask questions and engage in back-and-forth dialogue. Reddit also allows users to be anonymous, share recent research findings, and create subreddits to focus on specific topics. Additionally Reddit allows users to consume information without having to contribute information which is great because I am interested in consuming and sharing information through my Reddit PLN .

Setting Professional Goals and Engaging with the Community: 

I plan to use Reddit for in-depth conversations, advice, engaging with the community, and consuming research, as well as LinkedIn for professional networking. I will engage in discussion on Reddit by sharing my insights and collaborating with peers through advice and feedback. I plan to engage more with my Linkden account to reach out to those in the educational and psychology fields to ask for advice, create connections, and look for potential job opportunities. 

Protecting Your Information and Ensuring Ethical Behaviour: 

To protect my privacy and information, I plan to use strong and unique passwords as well as multi-factor authentication to reduce the risk of security breaches within the PLN. I am cautious with personal information I share publicly and regularly review privacy settings. To ensure ethical behavior is conducted within a PLN, I make sure to adhere to the rules users must agree to, such as engaging in respectful conversation and avoiding sharing false or misleading information.

Privacy Concerns and Online Participation: 

I prefer to join online communities with strong privacy platforms and guidelines about what is allowed and not allowed to be posted to ensure information is relevant to the community. When joining online communities such as Reddit or Twitter, I prefer to use a pseudonym or anonymous name to protect my privacy in the public domain. Overall, I am cautious about the information I share and photos I post, as I don’t want a negative digital footprint that could affect me down the road.