Social Learning Leaders, Hashtags and Communities

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Internet has brought people closer together and Social Media platforms have played a vital role in forming communities both online and offline, being part of a community makes a person feel a sense of belongingness, they get to meet many people and develop a network through a community. Anyone can be a part of these communities with just a few clicks online and it would just take a couple of minutes to discover and join a new community rather than the traditional way of finding people of similar interests and communities which takes up lots of time just to discover the community and like-minded people. These technologies allow us to extend and broaden our communities, we do not see our fellow members solely in supermarkets and local stores or at meetings and events; rather we can connect with them through email, text, and social media (Hopkins, 2015).

 

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Online communities can be found over various Social Networking platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. Facebook is the most popular platform for online communities. All sort of communities can be found over Facebook, communities for car enthusiasts, bikers, poets, writers, singers, moms who cooks etc. They share their work and compile them on these communities, and also share the knowledge they have with other fellow community members to help them grow or make them better at what they do by sharing and giving feedback while teaching and learning from other community members as well. It’s easier to form, find and join communities online compared to the traditional method of visiting places and trying to find if a certain community exists, and many times if the people interested in a hobby in a certain area are very few, chances are very less that they may come together because finding people with similar liking in the traditional way is harder compared to the online community version. University students are encouraged to join the various communities within the university over Facebook, this way, the new students can instantly find like-minded people and start making friends as soon as they join their new university.

 

Hashtags are another way of finding similar threads, or people discussing similar topics. Hashtags are quite popular on Twitter and Instagram. Other social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube have also picked up this trend. Anything can be made viral or trending if lots of people discuss a specific topic on Twitter using a specific hashtag and then it appears under a list of trending topics. Use of Twitter is popular among politicians and among people following politics, numerous communities related to politics can be found over Twitter, lots of journalists presenting their views, and people presenting their views about politicians. In case, of emergency situations many people prefer to keep themselves updated via Twitter because users at that place and at that moment can shoot videos and post updates on the current situations and it gets published as soon as the Tweet button is clicked. This way is much faster than the television news broadcasting and just requires the user to type the hashtag about it on Twitter and they can get updates on the situation and can also see opinions of other people talking about it and take part in it.

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Instagram on the other hand, lets its users use hashtags to find content that they might be interested in and follow the content creators and people of similar interests. Another very effective learning method that students nowadays use a lot is YouTube, people can search about anything that they would like to know and learn about, there are lots of people creating and posting videos on this platform. People can get fitness plans, exercise and meal plans, can learn to code, learn physics, math, can learn cooking and can learn anything they can think of. They can even start discussions on YouTube channels and post comments below the videos if they need any clarifications and any other viewer or the content creator can reply to it. Students find it a lot easier to study this way because they can access these contents any time and at any location and if they have missed some portion in classes then they can catch up to their course materials on such YouTube channels.

 

But building communities online comes with side effects too. There is higher risk of people being bullied or being trolled online as they get to hide behind a fake identity, or they may not disclose their identity which gives them a chance to anonymously bully other group members or community members on these Social Media Platforms without being caught. Also, too much of an emphasis on online communities can exclude those not online and therefore, community development should take place both online and offline. “The benefits of community engagement are endless, but the most effective community consultation derives from a combination of traditional and online discussions (Gustas).

 

Internet and Social Media has transformed the way people connect and find communities, and this has only done betterment to it. It has helped the communities grow and thrive and enabled people to join communities without being concerned about being physically present there. And with all these, people need to be careful while making friends on social media because they may not know the real identity of the person.

 

Click here to know more about 6 Major Benefits of Online Community Engagement

 

References:

Hopkins, J. (2015). Teaching online: A guide to theory, research, and practice.

Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/lib/uvic/reader.action?docID=3318874&ppg=238

 

Gustas, Melissa. 6 Major Benefits of Online Community.

Retrieved from: https://www.socialpinpoint.com/blog/6-benefits-of-online-community-engagement-digital-tools/