Digital Badge #1 : Critical Review of My Learning

The past four weeks of this module has opened my eyes to many topics of social media and life on the internet that I would never have thought about before. I am interested in many of the topics discussed throughout the lectures like the influence of ‘Social Media Influencers’ and the effects that social media has on how we see and approach things. However, one topic that I am very curious about is what was discussed in week 1, which was distinguishing the difference between Peer Reviewed and Popular articles. According to The American Press Institute, Social media platforms are the main way that many people access news online. This is something that intrigues me as I have been fooled by fake news many times and have believed many things I have read online. Something that I also learned was that fake news can be spread very fast with the likes of ‘shares’ and ‘retweets’ (Romero, D, Influence and Passivity in Social Media). Now that I am doing this module I am very aware of what I should believe and what cannot be trusted. The internet is full of false information and now that I am aware of the specific qualities of a peer reviewed and popular articles, I can decide what information to use and what not to use. This skill will also greatly help me in terms of my college work. Overall, in these past few weeks I have gained more confidence in terms of managing what I believe on social media and given me more of an insight into online reviewing.

Bibliography

How people decide what news to trust on digital platforms and social media. (2020). Retrieved 14 February 2020, from https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/news-trust-digital-social-media/

Romero, D., Galuba, W., Asur, S., & Huberman, B. (2010). Influence and Passivity in Social Media. SSRN Electronic Journal, 27. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.1653135

Summary

I have learned so much from making a blog post and receiving the feedback from my peers. I found it helpful learning from others and seeing how they found the experience and it releived me to hear that others had some of the same issues I had while creating this blog. I beleive this assignment has prepared me for the future Digital Badges I will have to complete throughout this module.