Problem
A series of dots and dashes transmitted on a telegraph machine on May 24, 1844 set a newe course in information sharing. In the first message sent that day, Samuel Morse tapped out "What hath God wrought?" Perhaps he stood the power of communication he unleashed. For a more in depth look please read "Before Twitter and Facebook, There Was Morse Code: Remembering Social Media's True Inventor," where you will find other precursors to language we use today in modern social media channels.
In 1969 the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network - the ARPANET, created by the United States Department of Defense, opened the door to everyday use of the Internet. Nearly two decades after ARPANET launched, NSF launched a more robust network, NSFNET. In 1997, just another decade passed when we saw the advent of early social media. For a more detailed history see "The History of Social Networking." Yup, you've got mail (AOL greeting). This was the era of email, online messaging through bulletin boards (think The Well), and online chat groups (Usenet newsgroups). Both LiveJournal (early blog site) and Blogger platforms emerged in 1999 and were eventually purchased by Google in 2003. Meanwhile, LinkedIn was founded the prior year allowing for a more professional networking platform. Merely a half-decade later, Facebook would dominate the social networking world. And now TikTok challenges Facebook with much of the World's youth hoping over to the video-dominated platform. And now Meta looms just on the horizon. And with all of this connectivity comes hacking and identification theft (if interested in these topics, be sure to enroll in HCI Cyber-security in the Maymester where we explore the human impacts of cybersecurity and cyber-terrorism).
Clearly the rate of change has increased since that groundbreaking day in 1844 when Morse rocked our world of communication and information. From a simple reference to God to now 150+ years later people are wielding social media platforms for good and bad. Without a doubt it has changed our world, and continues to do so. As library and information professionals, it would be remiss if we did not deeply consider how these powerful tools that connect us impact our world and how we understand it. So in this course we go beyond the basic questions of what is and how do we use social media. We will explore those areas, but we will forge deeper and look at how it has impacted our world.
1) Why should we embrace social media as an information tool/source for our practicing profession?
2) What are the librarians' responsibilities in ensuring quality sharing of information?