A New Side to the Digital Me

In today’s ever-digitalized culture, people can learn a lot about one another—hometown, favorite band, who the ex-boyfriend was, what sport was played in high school—all without ever having spoken to each other.  They make judgments about whether to hire people for jobs or even ask them out on a date based on a common practice of our time: Facebook stalking.  It’s growing ever clearer that we must take care to create a good image for ourselves both on- and offline.  In her article, “’Words with Friends’: Socially Networked Reading on Goodreads,” Lisa Nakamura shows how popular literary website Goodreads.com solidifies intellectual identities by allowing users to create bookshelves, share favorite works, participate in online discussions, review and recommend books to friends, and discover new genres and authors.          

 

Nakamura brings up a point that I definitely relate to.  Of the online bookshelf feature, she says, “Goodreads shelves remediate earlier reading cultures where books were displayed in the home as signs of taste and status.”  She’s right!  People can tell a lot about each other from the things what books are read and kept in the home!  For example, I work as a nanny.  Whenever I get an interview with a potential family, I’m sure to sneak a glance at their libraries when I get to the house.  Many times have I avoided an undesirable job after seeing stacks of titles like, The Official Guide to Dysfunctional Parenting.  No nanny wants into that mess.  But with cool sites like Goodreads, we can create a more attractive side to ourselves.  Want to be seen as a classy gal?  Stock your shelves with Jane Austin, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, all the fine ladies and gents of literature.   Looking to find a more adventurous crowd?  Read, rate, and review things like Ender’s Game, The Hobbit, or DaVinci Code.  Choosing how to present yourself is one of the fun and creative aspects that Goodreads has to offer.

But the fun doesn’t stop there!  Nakamura shows how Goodreads seamlessly incorporates other social media networks into its matrix so that users can both make new friends AND show existing friends how well-read and fabulous they are!

“Goodreads, the largest social network site “for readers,” with over six million users, does everything that Vinh says digital- reading technologies need to do and more. It covers all the conventions of social networking—an in- box, notifications, and a status ticker. Classified as a social cataloging site, it links promiscuously to other social networks—Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo!, and Hotmail—and automatically generates invitations to existing friends on these networks.”

By linking to existing networks, Goodreads has access to audiences that are already socially active.  It doesn’t just generate content and hope that users will access and share the site; it makes sharing both easy and desirable to create new friendships and enhance old ones.  Friends can create forums, like online book clubs, and discuss and share their ideas on literature. They can advertise readership of their favorite popular or little-known books through interactive share buttons, links, and other widgets.  They can create lists and groups that invite other people to join the conversation in ways that create ties and relationships that last.  

Goodreads is taking advantage of the technological wave sweeping society.  It is a place where people can gather together and read, regardless of distance.  Its potential for good is enormous, and will surely play a key role in how we read in the future!  With all of the great features available, we can create a well-read, intelligent, and intriguing side to our digital selves—and make sure that everyone knows it!

 {the classy, intellectual, digital me.}