Week3: Discussion Reflection

    I really enjoyed reading this week's discussion. And there are some interesting points I would love to add.

    Lurking is acknowledged as a peripheral participation by some scholars. It is well elaborated in chapter 16 of this handbook of learning analytics: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q7hziWA3cM8SrLkXA4aJTZn1_EEwVllY/view?usp=sharing 

    And there are some communities that force newcomers to lurk until they get used to the community's tacit rule. I never expected my interest in subculture can be academically helpful for me, but well, here I go. I think nobody from EME6414 would have heard about Daknunsam (닥눈삼). It means 'shut up and lurk for three months'. It was often used in Korean subculture online websites where people shared information about a game (usually Japanese). When a newbie comes in and leaves a post, asking a question in an inappropriate manner (actually it is a very appropriate and polite manner on most online websites.), all she would get is not a kind, informative comment but 'You don't know Daknunsam?'. So by this, the users of the website were forcing a tacit rule that a newbie should teach herself before she can imitate the way they speak. Although it's the same language, Korean, the members of the website could tell the difference between an old user and a newbie from certain words they use and the way how they finish a sentence. Oh, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I could write an ethnography about this. Please reach out to me if you're seriously interested.

    And another thing I noticed from those subculture online websites is their homogeneity. At least the people writing something there, I feel, can be conceptualized as a normal Korean introverted male interested in a Japanese game. The age range would be from late teen to early forty and I could frequently observe posts such as 'Please celebrate my birthday because I got nobody in reality to do so' or 'I'm starting my mandatory military service tomorrow when the big update for the game is done. Such a lucky life' or 'I wish I had a girlfriend like XX (a character in the game)'. And I see so many people on the website empathized with those posts. Although there are some atypical users like me, those websites (maybe a community) had a certain level of homogeneity. I think this connects to what Jim mentioned in the discussion- a sense of belonging. He elegantly expressed how much he feels about belonging to his community of interest. I think the same would apply to all the users of the website that I lurk.

    Another interesting point raised from the discussion is an offline PLE. I think Serena made several excellent points this week. I also remembered my personal experience with group therapy. Although therapy is available online, like Serena mentioned, I always prefer to do it offline because I wanted to feel like I am actually talking to somebody. I hate the silence that comes right after exiting the Zoom session and the fact that I can dive into my bed right away and let my thoughts rush again. And I think group therapy is also a sort of PLE because all members have goals to work on. John wants to work on building connections with others, Maria wants to be able to express her feelings, and Adam wants to be more generous to himself. Although the purposes may vary, they always come together every week, share what happened in their life, empathize, and help each other to process whatever they struggle with. They're learning how to navigate through life and I think this is a very important learning process although it does not involve any scientific knowledge.

    Again, I'd like to say I couldn't agree more with Serena in terms of being an introvert and handling real-life events. Although I don't have a big family like hers, I generally try not to spend too much time on social media, even though it is about professional networking. And I don't think it is necessarily bad. It's just how I design my life, I think.