Social Network Fueled Research

We use social networks everyday.  Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. have become integral parts of our day-to-day lives.  When doing research we have unlimited access to so much information via search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.  But, we might be leaving out an important component when we exclusively turn to academic sources to give us the information that we seek.  Social resources can offer a wonderful insight, which is why our class is engaging in doing such research for our e-book project.  For our e-book project, we are focusing on platforms such as the Kindle, Amazon, and Goodreads and related components and how they are influencing our reading habits in daily life and education.

Dr. Burton created a bibliography Google Doc for us to use.  He helpfully laid out several social topics for us to look at and start researching in.  He told our class today that next to Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine.  That really sparked my thought because I YouTube quite a lot of things.  I often turn to YouTube for help in explaining difficult school topics, audio books, and fun, entertainment-related things.  It only makes sense that we would use YouTube videos to obtain background and topic information for our e-book project.

I didn't have as much time to do research as I would've liked before I had to submit this post, but what I did find was promising.  I found several videos in which YouTube users compare print books and e-books, which is something that is super important and relavent to our topic.  Click here if you would like to see some of the search results that I found regarding e-book vs. print book.

I also found some videos on YouTube that will be particularly applicable to one of my chapters.  My first chapter has a heavy focus on Goodreads, an Amazon sister company.  Goodreads is a social networking site for readers, and it allows for readers to interact on many levels with books at the center of everything.  A simple search entry of "Goodreads" on YouTube resulted in many different users who related their feelings about the Goodreads site.  I haven't had time to look at it very much, but I plan on doing so before our next class on Wednesday morning.

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.

Goodreads or it Didn't Happen.

This blog is currently on a quest to investigate further the future of the reading experience by diving deep into the worlds of Amazon, Goodreads, and Kindles. This quest starts here on this blog, is coordinated in our English class and will eventually result in an ebook of our own. We started our more intensive research this week, beginning with focusing on Goodreads. Check out this little snippet from an article by Lisa Nakamura called "Words with Friends: Socially Networked Reading on Goodreads."

"Goodreads user profiles feature virtual bookshelves to be displayed to friends, creating a bibliocentric as well as an egocentric network of public reading performance."

Now this idea right here could definitely have a place in our ebook. Nakamura goes on to comment,

"Facebook offers up our list of friends as visual evidence of our social graph, letting us create and display our connections, Goodreads foregrounds reading as a spectacle of collecting."

How true is that? See Facebook, Instagram, and all the other social networking sites have created this sense in many that part of the value of doing something is sharing it with others. Have you heard the new saying all the kids are using?

Now, as "egocentric" as Nakamura points out that this is, think about how this could be a positive thing when it applies to the world of reading. Would it be terrible if there was social pressure to read more? To read better books? To share your thoughts on what you're reading? I don't think so. I can even see this pressure starting to work on me as I have been exploring Goodreads. As I see what my peers are reading (and how much some of them are reading. Could you slow down Melanee? I can't keep up!) I feel an increased desire to read more and to share more. Is this in part because of some deep, self-centered desire fueled by the social networking phenomenon? I'm not sure. But I am surrendering to it. 

As Goodreads gains more traction I think that the social aspect of it could promote expanded reading habits for many different groups. I think channeling the power of social media in this way would be just slightly more significant than making people feel like they should post pictures of what they made for dinner. 

Getting Ideas from Goodreads

I hate to admit, but my digital and actual bookshelves have been disappointingly dusty as of late.  For about two months after returning home from my church mission, I felt like material that wasn't written by the hand of God was off-limits and sinful.  Thankfully, my dear aunt recommended a few really prime reads to me after the initial returned-missionary weirdness wore off.  So by way of My Antonia, I was reacquainted with the world of literature, and was soon hungry for more.

Isn't it nice then, that I signed up for this class?  I had an enlightening experience setting up my account on Goodreads this morning.  It was really cool!  I thought the “friends” feature, which allowed me to import my friends from Facebook and see what they are reading, was super neat.  It surprised me that a few of them even read, to be honest.  But I like this because if I ever don’t want to play the library gamble and hope that a random book is a winner, I have somewhere to search with recommendations from people I trust.  It reflects badly on them if the book they liked is actually really lame, but my friends usually have good taste, so that shouldn't be an issue.

I also like how the “bookshelves” bit keeps everything well-organized.  Gone is the Dewey-Decimal system—now everything is categorized neatly on the screen in a way that is MUCH easier to understand.  It’s like, “Hey, I just really want a twisted love story today.  I think I’ll go to my ‘Twisted Love Stories’ shelf!  Look, Vampire Diaries! Perfect.” 

I’m excited to start finding more friends and getting their opinions on books, as well as exploring the site to form my own.  The more people read, the more their minds are opened and their perspectives broadened.  Many Goodreads = even more great ideas.

Good Reasons for Goodreads

Studying literature in the digital age means integrating social media with one's reading life. Nowhere is this better evident than on Goodreads, the social networking site based on reading and books.

I've been active on Goodreads since 2008, and as I explained to my students today, this has been a significant benefit to me. Not only has it given breadth and depth to my literary life, but it has also deepened friendships and given me fresh reasons to discover and explore good books.

I'd like to explain in brief some key features of Goodreads and then invite you to begin participating in this literary social network.