An Online Participator or An Active Listener (A Lurker)

Ethics, Online Persona, Social Media 0 comments

Picture taken by Jonathan Acuña at Sophia Wanamaker Gallery, CCCN, San José, Costa Rica (2019)

An Online Participator or An Active Listener (A Lurker)

One’s role as a social media user

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
Head of Curriculum Development Academic Department Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano	Senior Language Professor School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Thursday, July 30, 2020 Post 353


Let us know and give an insight into the reasons behind what I do.

Creating a parody of Nordic Mythology, Odin could have been labelled as a social media lurker. Had Odin been using some sort of social media platform, he would have known lots of what human beings in the different realms that existed beside Asgard, his home, longed for and thought of. Hugin and Munin, Odin’s ravens whose job was to fly around the world of men, would have been the software Odin needed to retrieve information regarding what happened in the world of men. Hugin and Munin would have been “lurking” around and bringing data that Odin was interested in accessing passively. Hugin and Munin sound like a good name for online software to spot social media users by their online persona, don’t they?

As a social media user that has no Hugin and Munin, I tend to be watching the game but without engaging much in it. My favorite way of online participation can be framed within the use of a self-journaling blog I have had for over 10 years. It is here where I share thoughts and teaching ideas with anyone interested in the language teaching field. I am not into promoting my blog though it can be easily tracked on the Web on any browser like Google Chrome. My intention is to share with novice teachers a bit of what I have empirically experienced especially in online education, distance teaching, online learning, virtual synchronous handling of classes, etc. I seldom promote my writings over Twitter, which is the only social media platform I have confidently but scarcely used for quite a long time.

Am I a lurker? Yes! I do not exactly follow behind corporations all the time, such as renown publishing houses, to increase my “listening” potential. But to be aware of what is now being said about emergency remote teaching, Webinars that can help me grow professionally and do my job more efficiently, I must lend my ear to get the news. I always do this through my professional social media profile, which is never mixed with my personal self or political affiliations. As a lurker I barge in on a “conversation” over social media with teaching experts if that is part of the rules set from the beginning; when I hold those conversations in a real/virtual, academic setting (like a Webinar), I do not want the speakers to be majestically worth with me if my opinionated persona gets in the way.

In conclusion, it looks like after this reflection and seeing my thoughts in black and white, as a social media user I am a dabbler, a person who uses a social media site sometimes but not that often. In terms of my social media persona, I want to keep it professional but do some creative work to contribute with my teaching community and community of practice. This is why I write a blog to keep my academic insights available for anyone looking for information in the teaching field where I have some expertise. Yet, I would not label myself an online participator nor an active listener (lurker) per se; I just want to try to understand a bit my online surroundings and people’s behavior in it and their ethical decisions, if any.