Active Participant vs Lurker
How many times can you say that you've put yourself out there in the online world, especially with people you don't know? I personally did not like commenting on peoples posts or jumping in on discussions with random strangers. The whole thing felt awkward and made me uncomfortable. I was constantly worried that the people I would be communicating with wouldn't understand what I meant or would misread a tone. That alone made me wary of interacting online with people I didn't know. Recently, I joined twitter for this course and began following/interacting with people I didn't know. The only word I can think of to describe my experience so far is welcoming. My fears and uncertainty subsided when I found people to interact with that were open and encouraging of a conversation. I found the weekly lrnchat on twitter was a great place to start. The conversation topic changes weekly and it's a great place to interact with others.
What chats or groups have you found where you feel comfortable being an active participant?
I can totally relate to what you're saying here about interacting online and I'm not sure if I'm fully comfortable when I put myself out there! So, here're two of my Twitter chat experiences that I can recall.
ReplyDeleteThe first one ... So, I was taking a qualitative course in Spring2021 and recognized #qualchat on Twitter at the time. I've participated in the first chat activity that's organized with the hashtag #qualchat and it was pretty welcoming. I remember that the participants shared great insights and I've bookmarked some of the resources. I also remember that I received likes a couple of times from others and I also liked their posts and even commented! It was a great chat. As far as I catch up with the time zone, I try to participate in this chat on Twitter. Here's a link if you want to check it out: https://anujacabraal.com/2021/02/05/qualchat-a-tweetchat-on-qualitative-research/. So, I felt comfortable with this chat.
The other Twitter chat that I remember was about mental health. I think this one was around a time where the pandemic was really disturbing for most of us. I recognized that Andrew Solomon (http://andrewsolomon.com/) will also be participating to the chat. I just adore him as a writer and speaker and I've been following him on Twitter. I only retweeted this chat and it received a like from the account and that's it. I didn't post and I didn't like any post but it was great to see some comments from Andrew Solomon and how other professionals talk about mental health during the pandemic. Even though I really enjoyed the chat I didn't feel comfortable putting myself out there and sharing some of my struggles in an open environment.
Overall, I think there're things that I feel comfortable sharing and I think it's valuable to learn about those things that you feel comfortable and maybe start with them step by step and see how you feel as it unfolds.
It's totally understandable to feel uncomfortable going from lurker to participant and I agree with Omer's assessment that starting small seems to help. A post here and there to test the waters is a strategy I often rely upon. Many of my misgivings about online participation stems from the fact that people can be very inconsiderate and unpleasant online - but, as Dr. Dennen told me, there are places that are relative safe spaces where contributing doesn't hold quite so much risk. Over the course of this class, I've been branching out and exploring those places and you know what, she was right! While I still don't feel I interact as much as I could, I'm starting to come out of my online shell a bit more in large part, thanks to this course. And you're also right, many times its very welcoming!
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