Throughout the course of these blog posts I have touched on inclusivity and diversity a few times, and this week’s topic in regards to PLN being curated to minimize bias as well as identity being reflected online is another great place to bring up these topics. When using social media, there are many ways that biases can take root without you even realizing it, as was explained in this week’s reading by Graham Meikle,  “Algorithms determine what content each user sees on their news feed.” (pg 78). This is an important thing to keep in mind when discussing the concept of minimizing bias, as you may not even be aware that your own worldview is being carefully curated by the social media apps you use. They are purposefully showing you things that you’ll agree with or that fit the perspective that will appease you. A PLN can then be a powerful tool in checking in and discussing with people who are not receiving the same content as you, as each social media experience is specific to the person and is thus quite different. This is a way to be challenged and also reaffirm beliefs you hold so that all of your morals or beliefs are not hinging on what you are seeing on your social medias.

In general, I do think it can be hard to separate your identity from your social media platforms whether professional or personal, because identity is such a large part of your sense of self. For me, identity plays a huge part into how I fit into my PLN and just the way I walk through the world in general. My experiences as a woman, as a person of mixed race, and as someone who is LBGT+ all have a huge impact on the person I am and the things that I have encountered. I cannot separate my identity from the way I carry myself in both personal and professional settings, because it so greatly has shaped my perspective and affects how I interpret the things I encounter online. I really related to some of the things Harrison Mooney discussed in his interview this week; especially the portion where he touched on being a racialized journalist, and how because he is mixed and grew up in a predominantly white community it feels he is viewed as a more palatable or less alien version of a person of color by his peers. This idea of being, “immersed in whiteness or very adaptable to it” is something I have felt in my life, and am very hyper-aware of in the ways that my proximity to whiteness brings me privilege in ways other members of my family do not experience in the same way if at all. Being a mixed person you are always caught in between this feeling of not quite belonging in any community, and seeing that these feelings and conceptions manifest in journalistic settings was unsurprising but still sad to hear. There’s a lot of nuance to something like this, with so much of it being reflected in subtext and in biases that many people probably do not even fully understand or are aware they hold. That is why I am glad that Harrison is speaking about his experiences in a predominately white field, because there is so much unlearning that needs to be done among his peers and among the community in general about why these conceptions exist. This is again why having a diverse PLN, and one that is open to the sometimes hard discussions around our own preconceived notions and ingrained biases makes all the difference.