LIS 768 01: Introduction

 

                                           An Introduction

A Photo of Me! Image Source: Personal Photos of Lizzy Prain.

    Hello everyone! My name is Lizzy Prain and I am a graduate student in my second year as part of the SOIS program, working hard to earn my Master in Library and Information Science degree, otherwise known as MLIS, with plans to graduate by this summer. I’m so excited to create this blog and share with you my educational journey through the LIS 768 01 course. For the next several weeks, I’ll be posting about what I’m learning in my class about topics related to studying social media and emerging technologies, describing our relationships to them for recreation, learning, work, shopping, social connections and other resources throughout different corners of society. I’m not in class, I love spending time with my family, taking care of my puppy (I love him with my whole heart), reading recreationally (I love fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and gothic horror genres of fiction), doing photography and art projects, and watching sitcoms like Modern Family, Big Bang Theory, The Office and Bob’s Burgers almost religiously. I have also probably watched every other Disney and Dreamworks movie at least five times. My dream career after graduating is to become a public librarian serving the patrons of my community, able to help guide guests to the resources they need or discover new literature they’ll love, doing my part to make the library institution a positive, safe haven in my town. Over the next several weeks, follow along with my blog as we learn together about new technologies and how social media can be used in our modern-day society. The photos you see here on the post are the profile pictures I use primarily for school and on social media such as Facebook, including images of myself and of my beloved puppy-dog. 

A Photo of my Dog! My Facebook Profile Picture. Image Source: Personal Photos of Lizzy Prain.

                           My Relationship With Social Media

An image of my Facebook page. Image Source: Personal Photos of Lizzy Prain

    For this first week’s post, I reflect upon social media and my own relationship to it in my life. I would say that I have a love-hate relationship with using social media. Social media can be used for many wonderful things, such as messaging our loved ones, charity and donations, the creation and sharing of art, knowledge, memes or funny internet videos. The awe-inspiring wonder of cute baby animal videos! My own use of social media began in junior high school when I wanted to join my friends on Facebook and Instagram, my mom gave me pression, I made a Facebook account and the rest is history! Throughout high school and college, I used social media platforms to connect with my friends and family such as through Facebook Messenger), make Pinterest mood boards, watch fun Youtube and TikTok videos, or play the occasional online farming game where you can send digital sheep to loved ones in a post (although I’m truly a Sims gamer girl at heart). These days, when texting friends or watching funny and/or cute Youtube videos, in my down time on the internet, I can be found scrolling through Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit or Bluesky, as a lurker more so than a poster, usually for entertainment, interesting art or to find something cute or funny in post-form. Lately, I try to be more mindful of how much time I spend scrolling the interest and try to limit myself, so I try to lurk more often than post on social media when not talking with friends or family members. As great as social media can be, I also believe too much social media can have negative, addicting qualities. Like most things in life, too much of something, no matter how un can have a harmful impact, so I strive to try to balance my social media with recreation spent offline in my personal life. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy following along as I blog about my experiences and what I learn in class this semester!

"Ennui. I am what you call 'The Boredom.'" Image Source.