ECI 832 - Major Project Overview

  Well it is time to summarize my Major Project.  To  be honest, it feels incomplete as affecting change on social media is a much more ongoing process than it is a process with some finality.  That said, I am happy with what I produced for "Ins.peer.ation": 5 Tiktoks, and 8 Instagram posts (most of these were multiple pages) and some sharing on Facebook and Twitter.  This may not seem like much but it was truly a significant amount of work, especially for someone quite new to the platforms!  The best way to view the posts is likely looking for ins.peer.ation on TikTok and Instagram however, here is a link to a slideshow if you choose to view them not on social media or a want a total summary (click here for Ins.peer.ation slides).

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     My TikTok videos had a total of 2724 views as of April 9, 2022.  As Steve Boots stated, I mostly used TikTok to learn the platform and gain followers and interested people.  Based on the view count this was effective, and I experimented with short engaging videos and longer detailed videos.  They complimented my Instagram posts well, but I struggled with ideas and time to produce awesome content.  However, I had a student come up to me in class recently saying I popped up on his foryoupage and he thought that was really neat.  So the reach and cool factor is definitely important for youth.  I can see the value of TikTok as a persuasive platform that has a significant reach, while the short videos can display and engage users in a way different from the photos of other platforms.
     My Instagram page was of much more interest to me in producing long lasting messages and quality content.  I also enjoyed the commenting and tagging of others, as well as following and sharing content of other producers.  Near the end of my time playing with Instagram I started to realize the power of hashtags and networking, as other digital citizenship initiatives were sharing and consistently commenting on my posts making it truly social media.  In the insights portion of my page I can see I reached 264 accounts and gained 59 follers with 42 people engaging with the content.  Again, this done not seem significant but this is in about 6 weeks and I would imagine this would grow in months and years as one kept producing content. I am very happy with the posts I produced on Instagram, as I felt they covered many important ideas around digital citizenship, especially around health and wellness.  I used comparisons and storylines to attempt to really present consumers with understandable comparisons.  This is an idea I borrowed from some of my favourite financial Instagram accounts.  I presented many of the posts to a Grade 9 class I was teaching as introductory activities and the slides worked well as mini-lessons and discusssion starters.  That said anyone is welcome to use any part of the slideshow as they see fit in the classroom and in educating youth!
     In conclusion, I learned a great deal about the time and effort it takes to produce content for social media.  For every post or video you see, there is likely 3 or 12 different other photos and videos taken, with edits and time for thinking up the ideas behind the scenes.  Even if it is just silly dances and activities, youth are really putting alot of time and energy into their posting!  I am happy with the content I produced, but feel that social media influencing is a long-term project that does not always produce significant results in the short-term.  That said activism around local events and situations can be very effective on social media in the short term, but authentic engagement for larger topics such as digital citizenship would require great committment and effort.  I am thankful for those that followed, commented and shared my content and I look forward to my continued journey in using social media to educate and engage learners in digital citizenship and many other topics!

Farewell for now and thanks for reading!

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