Paragraph 1 (Describe) Base your answers on your online experience and observations using personal examples. Provide a general description of the online setting and situation where these examples took place. Consider why you and other users came together to communicate online and the interests you and others shared. Explain why you selected particular social media rather than other types of communication channels. (4/20 marks)
Paragraph 2 (Relate) Relate your answers to a concept, issue, or problem outlined in the course readings from Lessons 1 to 5. Take care to use these terms correctly and in the right context. Consult and refer to examples from the course readings; this is a key course requirement. Use APA style to cite the author(s) and date when you refer to these readings. Include the page number(s) if you quote directly. (4/20 marks)
Paragraph 3 (Assess) Assess how well you and others managed the online exchanges your examples described, and how this influenced the communication outcome. Explain what you or others users experienced as a result by paying attention to your reactions and other users’ attitudes, thoughts, and feelings. (6/20 marks)
Paragraph 4 (Advise) Based on the example or examples you provided above and the concepts, skills, or problems you related to in your answer, explain what you learned about social media communication that others could benefit from. (6/20 marks)

Section 1:Describe the privacy management practices you follow to keep information about yourself private from others on a given social media site. As well, explain how you selectively give other users access to such information. Explain what motivates you to regulate this information and what may drive you to set up different privacy rules for different users. Correctly refer to course skills, concepts, and issues. Discuss what others can learn from your experience. (pp. 23–25 in CMC)

I am a huge advocate of online privacy, not only to the entire internet, but to the users that you allow into your circle. On Facebook, for example, I have set my privacy settings to maximum and frequently search my name in Google to ensure that information about me is not readily available. The main reason for this decision is that I believe there should be a distinction between ones personal life and ones perfessional life. That being said I also think twice about what I share on my facebook as a precautionary measure incase my professional and personal lives intertwine.

Through the described method I am utilizing principle three from CPM(Communication Privacy Management) which states “Principle three predicts that people deveop and use privacy rules to control the flow of information to others.” I utilize this principle by developing rules by which I adhere to when allowing people privy to my information. I apply high self monitoring skills about what I share on social media and take into account the risk-benefit ratios and what I post.

I have been utilizing these methods for my Facebook account for years and never once have a received negative feedback from emploers or anyone else from my Facebook. I have however, received some feedback from family members due to generational or sense of humor factors. To which, this has infulenced me to change some privacy setting for certain users in my Family to change what they can and cannot see. This ability enables you to carry on multiple personas based on who is looking at what you share.

I have learned that social media is extremly variable and is evolving in such a way that we can create almost different realities, based on who is reading. People see social media as a way to open up, however, many people can learn about more discretion about what they share. Just because we have the ability to share everything online doesnt mean we should. Applying the 5 CPM priniciples I beileve social media would be a much less volitile and chaotic atmosphere.

Section 2:Provide at least one example of a strong-tie relationship you have recently engaged in with an online friend and one example of a weak-tie relationship. Compare how these two online experiences differ in terms of the quality and frequency of your engagement and relationship intensity. Correctly refer to course skills, concepts, and issues. Discuss what others can learn from your experience. (p. 65 in CMC)

I Believe online dating is an exelent example of where you can experience the imalgamation of strong and weak relationship ties. Given a small window into someones life you are able to determine whether or not you have a compatibility with another user. Once determining (for yourself) that you are compatible with an idividual you can find out if in fact you two will have a strong or a weak realtionship tie. I used an online dating site (plenty of fish) instead of Facebook, because people on the dating site have a different intention than those on Facebook. Knowing that you two share the same medium for “dating” begets a certain level of approachability that perhaps Facebook could not.

Once the first phase is passed and a conversation has been started the pair of idividuals will need to determine for themselves which way the realtionship will evolve. We determin this by utilizing Granovetter's four relationship variables: time, emotional intensity, itimacy, and reciprocal service. So, the more you learn about an idividual the more or less intense these

Section 3: The words and images people select to represent themselves online demonstrate the “changeable nature” of online users’ identity. Provide one or two examples of the identity experimentation process you have undertaken in social media. Explain whether the variable or changeable nature of the identity you project to other users can affect your ongoing relationships. Correctly refer to course skills, concepts, and issues. Discuss what others can learn from your experience. (pp. 8–9 in CMC)

The biggest example of an identity experienment that I have performed was trough an online meeting application called Tinder. Tinder allows you a small window into which you can showcase whoever you want to be. I have gone through multiple “Tinder Identities” as an experiment to see if changing which pictures I made available or what I wrote changes the amount of likes that I generate.

Although most dating sites are considered “offline” due to the fact that they are not connected to real life, Tinder is utilized through your Facebook. This process of discovering ones “hidden self” was a huge contributing factor for me to critically think about my own identity and craft the person I wanted to be. For me it started as a different role that I was playing, however, it turned into the discovery of the person who I wanted other people to see.

I experimented by highlighting different aspects of my life and sterotypically catering my persona to that one aspect of my life. For example, the two personalities that I put against each other were: a personality that had a lot of flashy expensive looking items who looked like he enjoyed the party lifestyle vs a more sophisticaed looking individual who enjoyed nature and activities such as yoga. I received a large variety of responses from different types of women which helped me understand how people react to isolated preceptions.

What started off as more or less as a joke, envoked an exestential reflection of own personality using a specific SNS as a basis for experimentation. This experiment has affected both my online and offline personalities and helped me solidify my own personality. Also, it has become easier to read what qualities a person is more favorable to vs les favorable. Finally, before I started using SNS I was more shy about myself in Face-to-Face interations, but social media has made me more confident about interacting with people offline.

Section 4: Provide an example of an active search you have conducted for service or product information using social media. Describe how you made use of diverse social media channels and ended up purchasing a product or requesting a service. Provide examples of the step-by-step process you followed, just as Carrie Kerpen did in the example Dave Kerpen (2015) provided in the LSM Appendix. Explain this online communication process and its importance in terms of your overall buying practices. Correctly refer to course skills, concepts, and issues. Discuss what others can learn from your experience. (pp. 231–233 in LSM)

For me as a body builder I always look on social media for better suppliments and better products. In this instance I was keeping an eye out for a new protein suppliment to replace my old one. I was on Facebook one day when an AD lead me to a site called “Canada Protein”. Once I landed on the site and started investigating the variety of their products, I had to quickly do reasearch on what I was potentially buying and compare it to other products.

I intiated my research by googling the different types of protiens offered to determine which type was best for what I was looking for. From there I moved to discussion boards and review boards to see what other peoples experiences were with the products I was interested in purchasing. Following this I had posted to my Facebook and Twitter asking my body building community (friends) if they had tried “Canada Protein” and asked their “professional” opinion on what I was looking at. I would say the entire process took about 10 hours of elapsed time.

To me, the use of social media and the ability to have a multitude of of past experiences enables me to feel comfortable about shopping in general. I do not shop a lot, but when I am interested in buying a new product I find that I am able to get others opinions in a real time atmosphere.

Social Media has exponentially increased the rate that we can shop through: speed of peer-to-peer reviews of products, “professional” opinions that would not be readily avialable otherwise, as well as, in depth health reviews of ingredients. Social media allows you to conviently converse with other users who have “been there, done that” and use previous experiences of others to make an informed decsion based on your own preferences.

Section 5: Discuss whether “impression construction” through the text and images you post about yourself is deceitful or whether it is socially acceptable. Discuss whether this activity is motivated by social requirements, your desire to be accepted by others, or the fear of being rejected by others. Provide at least one personal example of such an occurrence in your use of social media. Correctly refer to course skills, concepts, and issues. Discuss what others should learn from your experience. (pp. 49–50 in CMC)

For me the best example of me utilizing “impression construction” is through dating websites. As described, impression construction from an online dating point of view is a very fine line. Too much embelishment will make creating an ongoing relationship difficult, if your embelishment is too farfetched to adhere to. Also, if the idividual finds out you have lied it would fracture the entirety of trust.

For me the type of things I would embelish would be triats or skills that may not be as strong as stated, but would be a marginal exageration. For me this was my ability to speak different languages. While not being entirely fluent in French and German I will list French and German as a second and third language. This vaugeness provides me with the ability to not stipulate the extent to which I speak these languages.

I beielve this activity for me is more derived part way from: social requirements, my desire to be accepted by others, and the fear of being rejected by others. From a social requirements point of view, living in a city the requires you to be able to speak French creates the social requirement that anyone living in that city “needs to speak french”. That being said I stipulating that I do speak french as a second language, I just want to be accepted by anyone who views my profile of someone who can speak French. This also applies, to not wanting to be rejected by an individual simply because one does not speak the language on a secondary basis.

My experience utilizing this strategy has seems to be inherently positive since most people tell me “oh you speak French?” while I respond “Yes I speak some French”. From what I have witnessed this method allows you to seem a tad more appealing while not overexaggerating so much that when an idividual finds out the truth, it is not damming. It is always said you should put your best foot forward, but they never said you couldn't polish up your shoes first.