For those of you not in my English class, social discovery is one way of using the Internet to your advantage. Instead of doing isolated research, drowning in massive amounts of (peer-reviewed ONLY, of course) dry articles on the subject written by experts, social discovery involves finding others who are interested in the subject and connecting with them. Click here for a more detailed explanation of social discovery.
Honestly, social discovery is so exciting to me. For a long time, I've felt like it's at the edge of my fingertips. I know the Internet is good for something, but what? So far, most of what I've done is just a new way to waste my time. But it doesn't have to be that way! Social discovery is the answer!
However, as I've been getting started, I'm realizing that social discovery is a skill that must be learned, mainly through practice. We're learning about a lot of great tools in class, and I've been dabbling in most of them: Twitter, Diigo, Goodreads, and Ice Rocket, not to mention Blogger and Google+. Each seems really cool in its own way.
But before these tools can be useful, I have to learn to use them. I have to figure out which tool (or tools) fits my situation the best. I have to figure out exactly what to type into that little search box in order to find what I want. And when I get a gigantic page of results, how do I most efficiently sift through them? Do I narrow my search? How do I narrow it? And what do I look for in the results in order to know which ones are of the most interest to me? The answers are different in every situation.
As far as I can tell, these are skills that will only come with practice and persistence. Admittedly, I've never been the best at this sort of thing. When it comes to surfing the web, I still haven't caught a wave. But I have faith that I can get there. I can only move forward from here!
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