In my personal learning network, I would say there is a variety of professional and personal sites, apps, and websites I use. The platforms that I use most (and that appear in my screen time the most) are Instagram, Safari (for Brightspace), TikTok, YouTube, Apple Music, and Gmail. Some of these apps I use mainly for personal use, while others are for professional use. There is also a merge of education for my professional life/school, and my personal education. This project was a great way for me to visualise this better and realize how the things that we use online is an amazing multitool and how it has built and influenced my digital identity.  Creating this Visitor and Resident map showed me that I use platforms vastly differently, and it all starts from what my purpose is. Brightspace, Google Docs, and Outlook are more towards the visitor category in my map because I mainly use them for my studies and education. On the other end of the spectrum, apps like Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and Apple Music are more aligned with my resident identity because my usage of these apps focuses on my ability to interact with people, engage in my interests, share content, and absorb new information. When using these and engaging with people via a digital platform we all do this differently depending on our goals, how we participate and what interaction people are seeking online. When I dove a little deeper into this thought, the research from our linked article from White and Le Cornu (2011) made a connection to how people’s online engagement is not fixed but is more similar to a continuum. This moves from “Visitor” and “Resident”. This article mentions and leans towards how people use digital spaces differently, and is all based on the specific context and why we are using the platform.

 

White, D., & Le Cornu, A. (2011). Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday.
https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3171