Elise Verzosa Hurley and Amy C. Kimme Hea inform audiences to use social media for professional success, by outlining the key to students’ lives as technical communicators and future professionals in “The Rhetoric of Reach.” Both Hurley and Kimme are professors who teach a course titled “Introduction to Professional and Technical Writing.” Through this course, students are asked to track their experiences with social media and to engage with audiences, focusing on the reach and crowdsourcing that is possible and hopefully positive to their work. Hurley and Kimme’s main focus is to “examine the effect of the pedagogical heuristic of reach and crowdsourcing as a means to foster students’ critical deployment of social media” as they engage and create a voice (56).
The beginning task for students in Hurley and Kimme’s classes is to disrupt the assumptions students have about social media and their connection and understanding of its effects at a personal and professional level. Many students find social media to take away professionalism and key grammatical expectations of writers as they try to get their ideas out as fast as possible. Other students noted a “carelessness about the craft of writing” by taking away the correctness or care associated with most forms of writing (60). Many students agreed that social media gives everyone a chance to have a voice, but then on the opposing side, with everyone having a voice “great ideas can get buried by so many opinions” (60). This initial breakdown of common thoughts surrounding social media is not surprising nor new. Educated people across all platforms are fighting for a voice, and at the same time, diminishing the very platform that is allowing them to speak. After the students were able to voice their grievances, they were given another project that would change their view to a more positive, constructive understanding of social media.
When rethinking the effects of social media, the growth of people with internet access and media usage cannot be ignored. In 2011 “81 billion minutes were spent on social networks/blogs, 64% of mobile phone time was driven by app use” (57). People around the world are connecting with others using the internet and mobile apps, increasing their social interaction. This statistic by itself is astounding to see, on top of the realization that every person you know, including yourself, helped add to that number. Social media touches everyone personally or professionally whether they want it to or not. Because of this intense consumption, there is a clear understanding by all that while social media positively influences connections with people you know, it can negatively influence connections with those you do not. The horror stories are perfect cautionary tales about poor use of social media and have created a dark cloud that looms over users, reminding them that it could happen to anyone with one false click of a button. This negative, fear-driven thinking is why Hurley and Kimme’s survey of students thoughts over social media is important to dispel if they plan on becoming technical editors and communicators.
Great summary!
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