Over the past two years I have conducted interviews on fake news and misinformation with librarians, psychologist, journalist, and others for the Circulating Ideas podcast. I have done some writing related to our so-called “post truth” world as it relates to information literacy. To give myself some focus and to continue the conversations, I am sharing this post highlighting some of the things I have read and heard. Reason and reasoning are not intended to find capital “T” truth. For several decades, psychology and behavioral economics have shown us how our minds use shortcuts (heuristics) to make decisions. Psychologists such […]
Categories Social Media
337 posts
What do social media analytics tell us about fake news? How can these analytics help libraries and librarians? What is the Social Media Command Center? These are a few questions explored in my interview with Nathan Carpenter who is Director of Convergent Media for the School of Communication at Illinois State University. This interview is available at: Circulating Ideas episode 123: Nathan Carpenter. This interview is part of a series I am doing on fake news & information literacy. My previous interviews can be found here: Circulating Ideas episode 116: Laura Lauzen-Collins (Your Brain and Fake News) Circulating Ideas episode 113: […]
The book entitled “It’s Complicated: Social Lives of Networked Teens” by Danah Boyd offers various examples, explanations, and even contradictions to the “issue” of teens and social media. The book is broken into eight chapters: identity, privacy, addiction, danger, bullying, inequality, literacy, and searching for a public of their own. On a personal note, I loved the book! I found so much information that I have been craving from other resources and statistical data, but they rang loud and true throughout the book. I could write an additional post just on the book and my thoughts (and perhaps I will), […]
The LIS blogosphere is what brought me into librarianship. I was travelling in Tasmania more than a decade ago when I happened upon Jessamyn West’s librarian.net (still going strong!), and started the discovery process for my own career in libraries. I began spending part of my daily hour at the public terminals reading up on the issues of profession, reflections from practitioners, and linking around within a community of library bloggers. Enter the biblioblogosphere. I have just wrapped up the first semester of my MLIS, and had the amazing opportunity to delve more deeply into the biblioblogosphere in Dr. Michael Stephens’ LIBR200 course. […]
You won’t want to miss reading about this library’s innovative experiment with Minecraft to build a community of young users. John Blyberg, assistant director for innovation and user experience at the Darien (CT) Library has turned his “public library into a gathering spot for friends new and old, and a place to decompress” simply by running a single server for Minecraft users. To read more about Blyberg’s innovative way to build an “afterschool sanctuary” follow this link: http://www.slj.com/2015/04/technology/my-public-library-minecraft-community/#_
Here’s my June column: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/06/opinion/michael-stephens/in-the-moment-office-hours/ More than once, someone in the audience has expressed concern that children and young people are always looking at their mobile device, texting, gaming, or whatever. Recently the comment was this: “I want to take away the iPad and send them outside. They are not in the moment.” My reply was a reminiscence of my mother taking away my Hardy Boys books and sending me out to play one summer day. I was furious! The seminar room vibrated with comments: “It’s the same thing.” “It’s not the same thing!”
From Office Hours “Reflective Practice:” PUTTING A FACE ON THE LIBRARY This reminds me that the library should be human. It means that behind the keyboard, behind the blog, and behind the Facebook page, there’s a person ready to have a conversation: ready to help, ready to listen. For example, New Zealand’s Christchurch City Libraries’ Twitter page includes the photos of all of the official “tweeters” for the library. I toured Christchurch recently. The city suffered in the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. The libraries there adapted, sometimes changing locations, sometimes working in adverse conditions. Through it all, there has continued […]
Are you my mentor? An exploration of the intersection of Twitter & mentoring relationships. In the real world mentors are usually organic relationships without specific titles, goals, or responsibilities. Mentors are simply experienced people you get to know and look to for advice, informally and organically. They’re people you go to coffee with, people you ask for guidance, and people you call when there’s a big decision to make. (Barr, 2013, para. 14) Ideas about mentors and mentoring have changed a lot over the years, particularly with the advent of social media. As an avid Twitter user, I was curious […]
I know it’s trendy to fight the system and cry that we are all becoming slaves of technology, but this attitude overlooks that computers and phones are tools for communicating. When someone thinks I’m an idiot smiling at a machine, I’m actually smiling at my girlfriend who is 10000 miles away and whom I would have never met if not for these newfangled electronics. As they say: when the wise man points to the moon, the fool looks at the finger. http://hugtherobots.tumblr.com/post/69627090387/i-know-its-trendy-to-fight-the-system-and-cry