Topic 1 – Reflective Summary

After reading my classmates posts on digital “visitors” and “residents”, it got me thinking further into the two concepts and the different perspectives each have to approach the question. I agree to their points and shared the same views as most of them!

It also gave me a deeper insight to the concept. Besides having dominant factor that affects the distinction, other factors like demography and culture maybe a dominant factor too. As for my post, i focused mainly on a person’s personality as an example for the distinction. As it’s from my past experience, it is easier for me to relate to. And how others show the link of other theories(need theory) Nicholas’s WordPress to the two concepts.

As i read on and learn more about the two concepts, i have second thoughts about the terms “visitors” and “residents”. The world is changing fast and technology (the internet) is slowly taking over, wouldn’t it lead to everyone slowly becoming a digital “resident” and age doesn’t become a factor for the distinction? Will there be a new theory and term to it?

How they determine who is under “visitors” and “residents”, through the time they spent online or the sense of belonging to the internet? Using myself as an example, i can be online for hours doing nothing just to kill time creating identities portraying different images but i do not have any specific purpose to just go online, so how do i classify myself? i gauge myself in the middle of both terms.

This topic got me interested in knowing how people create their sense of belonging online and at the same time learnt that one can have multiple identities online to portray different images and confidence-levels. Wouldn’t mind doing another similar or linked topic to this question!

View my comments on
Nicholas’s WordPress & Kai Yuan’s WordPress

Topic 1 – Digital “Visitors” and Digital “Residents”

Who is digital visitors? Who is digital residents? What do they do and why digital? This blog-post will explain the two different concepts.

The term resident means residing at a place which briefly also explains the term digital residents they “resides” online.

Spending most of their time creating multiple identities for different communities online, as they have different image to portray to each community. Digital residents feel more comfortable expressing themselves through online platforms and spend time in maintaining it regularly. Forming a larger social circle of online friends compared to reality. Using social media platforms to maintain friendships online. At the same time bringing daily recreations online example: shopping, watching movies online and etc; Giving a portion of their life to the internet.

Digital “visitors” are unlike the “residents”. They are the ones that goes online for a purpose. Example, a digital visitor decides to go on a vacation, he/she will go online to book their air tickets and once he/she is done they go off. They hardly spend time online unless with a specific purpose. Probably will just have 1 online identity to follow the trend/majority to have a social media account(Facebook, Twitter). They are unable to stay online for long without a purpose.

With the lack of knowledge about online communities and don’t really express themselves much as they are unsure about the environment. They will have the tendency to seek other alternatives (offline) besides the internet example to maintain relationships.

My point of view is that people who are awkward or uncomfortable socializing face-to-face would probably go online to express themselves. Personalities that are less social-able, outgoing or low self esteem. Individual that prefers socializing through a “medium”. Personally, i think myself a digital “tenant”, a combination of both. I like to socialize around alot but in order to maintain and keep up with my friends i would require help from social platforms. I can say nearly all my friends have a Facebook account. Yes, i could stay all day online playing games for leisure but it’s a form of stress-relief activity, i’ll go online to play weekly but not daily activity.

image source : https://joconlonoctel2013.wordpress.com/tag/digital-residents/

Each individual have their own preference on which way they are more comfortable in expressing themselves, some just live in the online world taking it as internet is part of their life.

References
http://efoundations.typepad.com/efoundations/2008/09/residents-and-v.html [accessed 30 Oct 2015]

http://elearningstuff.net/2008/09/30/are-you-a-resident-or-a-visitor/
[accessed 30 Oct 2015]

http://www.semantico.com/2009/11/the-challenge-of-online-identity/
[accessed 30 Oct 2015]

White, D. S., & Cornu, A. L. (2011). Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement.First Monday, 16(9).