Holding Thought: Social Media

Just started an online course about Social Media and its implication in the context of anthropology. Early this year I started using instagram despite I am not a frequent user of facebook or tweeter.

Somehow I feel Instagram provides me with a creative outlet, where I post my poems that are inspired by the every day living, or photography/art work that I felt worth sharing, or sparkles of thoughts that I encountered through reading or listening.

In equal terms, I also use the tool to understand others and be inspired by accounts that I selected to follow, such as NYtimes, abstract.mag, tmagzine for content, a few others for visual, and a few more for personal connections.

Putting aside the 'following' side which is like an online personal life growth/connection subscription, in a way Instagram for me is an online journal to record my learnings, So I am curious why Instagram, other than a diary off line.  What is the appear for me to use the online platform?

Somehow in the utopia world, I feel an ideal social media tool is to communicate, to debate, and to connect. But this relies on its user to have a clear intention, a curious mind, and a genuine desire to extend his/her circle of dialogue groups.  In reality I know for sure no social media tool functions just that.

The online learning course source: Future Learning
Course Tile: Why we post: the anthropology of social media