What Do You Share?

There's a lot of information that we share everyday in our web 2.0 communities, and a lot of things, come to think of it, after taking this class, that are now accessed and tied to my Twitter account.

Osatuyi (2013) breaks down types of things shared through social media into four categories, that really made sense to me:

• personal/sensitive information (life updates)
• sensational information (breaking news, celebrity events, sports)
• political information (thoughts on the govt, candidates, debates and decisions)
• casual information (low-stakes information with friends and colleagues) 

I'd argue most of what I post in most of my networks focus on the sensational and political, I watch a lot of professional sporting events (and have been fortunate my favorite teams have been doing well), and strive to stay politically and socially active, with perhaps more personal information posted on Facebook.  You can really become a part of a bigger conversation through the sensational and political information being shared, and often times, to some of the casual information as well.  I think you could probably add in a more educational component to the list of information being shared, although you could also tie that to casual information.  

I appreciated the findings in Osatuyi (2013) with regards to the the social exchange theory, as when I was reading it, and saw the citations from the 1960s, I was concerned that there is a shift now in how we think about the information that we share.  I notice that still there are times that I "evaluate the cost and benefit information" before sharing, but am not convinced that is the case, especially for the generation that has grown up with web 2.0 always a part of their life (Osatuyi, 2013, p. 2624).   

I know that when first logging onto Facebook eleven years ago, I was keenly aware of the information I was putting out there or what the social media persona may be.  But I have to admit as I've gotten older, or perhaps just more accustomed to my Social Media identity (and probably a little more comfortable in my identity altogether), and web 2.0 has continued to evolve, I probably think less at the macro level about what and how I post and share.  Politically and professionally, particularly in work settings or meetings or through social media debates and discussions, I'm more aware of the conversations and the roles I want to have in them, the perceptions of statements, the ability to truly express the whole thought in 140 characters.  Yet at other times, sharing online is simply an extension of sharing with my closest friends and family, many of which I mostly connect with through web 2.0.  

Did you think a category or type of sharing was missing from Ostatuyi's (2013) categories?  How do you share and why do you share in any one of the 4 categories?  How do you educate students about their data and sharing?  How do you encourage students and yourself to nurture your Social Media identity?

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Osatuyi, B. (2013).  “Information sharing on social media sites.” Computers in Human Behavior, 29.  pp.2622-2631.

Reyman, J. (2013).  “User data on the social web: Authorship, agency, and appropriation.” College English, 75(5), pp. 513-533.