Get Social! How To Level Up Your Networking Skills

 Hey folks, welcome to the last week and the last post for this blog! Working on this blog has definitely gotten me interested in creating future blogs about topics I might be interested in! Nevertheless, last week, we discussed the importance of using visual rhetoric such as color & shapes to appeal to the audience you want to attract. This week, we'll be going over the importance of social networks & webs and how they're used to grow popular blogs, websites, and channels. For that, we'll be going over Chapter 5 & 6 of Rheingold's Net Smart. 

Can you think of a time when you didn't use the internet to communicate with others? When I was in elementary school we communicated most often through play and collaboration. We were mostly influencd by our peers while in school, but we could've also been influenced by teachers and even our parents. By the time I entered middle school I had access to the internet and its vast network of digital spaces, but long before that I was already engaging in physical social networks in elementary school. Social networks have been apart of human society long before the internet became a thing, it has been a  crucial foundation that allows society to grow and thrive.

According to Rheingold, "Technologically networked communication media extend and amplify the reach of traditional social networks to make new forms of sociality possible." Though digital social networks have become the norm, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Digital networks have created social experiences for people who may have never had the chance to encounter each other in a physical space. A network of friends, family, or even a freelance blog would be considered a "low-degree node"(Rheingold, 2012). The digital web is linked by a vast amount of "low-degree nodes" and a narrow pool of "high-degree supernodes", such as Google, Facebook, or Yahoo(Rheingold, 2012)! The majority of websites and blogs that you may interact with(Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, NY Times) may experience high traffic, AKA a high number of people using or interacting with the website at any given time. 

Now that we've gone over the two most common networks, how do you grow yours? I know I've probably said this in previous blogs, but I will once again reiterate the benefits of interacting with and engaging in any community, be it digital or physical. According to Rheingold, "An individual can tap into social capital by doing for others and benefitting from what others can do for the individual, but social capital emerges from the interactions of groups and networks in a relationship, not from the isolated behavior of any individual." Social Capital is the cooperation between two(or many) individuals, it is an act that builds trust and pushes for reciprocation in the future(Rheingold, 2012). 

When I started working my first job, I rarely interacted with my peers. As time progressed, the shared experience of working the same job allowed me to have meaningful discussions and relationships with my peers. When I filled in for a sick co-worker or came in on a day I wasn't supposed to work, I built a positive social capital with my network of co-workers! As we reach the end of our final post for this blog, what are some ways you've built your social capital, and how can you apply that to your experiences while on the internet?

Thanks For Reading!

-MH

Works Cited:

Rheingold, H. (2012). Net Smart: How to Thrive Online.