Of the remaining tools I was drawn to LinkedIn the strongest, mostly because it was the tool I had the most familiarity with and by that, I mean that I had signed up for an account a couple weeks prior. This week I sought to expand my professional network by adding several classmate connections and I also joined a couple groups, which lead to a few more connections. What really intrigued me about the concept of LinkedIn is not only that it allows you to establish connections with others, but that it makes the presence of those connections widely known. With a click of the mouse you can see all of the connections a person has - and even better, the application tells you when you share a mutual connection with someone.
In today’s highly connected society, the old adage, “It’s not what you know but who you know” couldn’t be more true. LinkedIn takes that a step further by making it perfectly transparent who it is that you know.
As I began to explore the site in earnest, I started to draw a connection with the learner trajectories Dennen (2014) applied to individuals entering the online blogging community. I found myself on an inbound trajectory, with the goal of eventually becoming a full participant in the LinkedIn community, but I lacked the specific technical knowledge to do so. Fortunately a fellow classmate shared some of her knowledge about the inner workings of LinkedIn, who is herself on an insider trajectory.
I still have some work to do to complete my profile and LinkedIn keeps wanting my picture, which I suppose I’ll eventually post, but I got a good jump start on establishing my presence on this increasingly important platform. I still recognize that I have a lot to learn about this community and how to leverage it to my advantage. I will be relying on the help of the insiders that I connect with to help me on my journey.
At the beginning of this post I mentioned that this week was overwhelming. There were definitely times throughout the week where I fell victim to the infinite scroll and didn’t realize that 20 or 30 minutes had passed by when all I had done was check for updates on Instagram or Snapchat. It can be easy to get lost among these tools, but it’s important to remember that they are just tools, pieces of technology that are designed to help us share our content and connect with others. If you get the chance, connect with me on LinkedIn.
References:
Dennen, V. P. (2014). Becoming a blogger: Trajectories, norms, and activities in a community of practice. Computers in Human Behavior, 36(0), 350-358. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.03.028
It's really critical that we learn to control the tools and not let them control us. I know some folks really struggle -- I hear a lot about using tactics like deleting apps for FB and Twitter off phones in order to keep from the distraction. Personally, I tend to be focused and don't just check for updates or scroll around (necessity of time), but I admittedly struggle to keep up with it all in this class. At the same time, I get a good reminder that I don't have to do it all, and nor do any of you. The world is full with info overload, and we all need to become info wranglers and managers.
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