I was tagged in doing the black-and-white photo-a-day-for-a-week Internet meme this week. I don’t usually participate in these things (I know, I know… life of the party right here), but this one was interesting because of the current research that we are doing on understanding how and why faculty social media practices change or don’t change over time. Back in 2009, 2010, 2012 even, a few colleagues used to take a photo a day, and share those photos online, usually in flickr groups. Some still do that, but a lot has changed since then. Over the last week of taking and sharing these photos on Twitter, some of my thoughts included the following:

  • Nowadays, my Twitter feed is scrubbed biweekly. These photos will eventually get deleted (to the extent that photos posted online do, I supposed)
  • I paused each and every time I thought about tagging someone. I am more and more cognizant of what we’re asking each other to do online these days.
  • I don’t have a flickr account any more.
  • The online conversations I used to have circa 2008 are much different than the conversations I am having in 2018. The volume is much less and the topics are more constricted. The tone has changed too, and not for the better. Perhaps that’s a reflection of my social media circles. Perhaps it’s a reflection of broader shifts.