During my second week here in the AAPD office, I have learned a great deal about the influence of social networking sites. As a communications intern, I help the communications director, Rebecca Panoff, manage AAPDs Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and various media outlets.
Many teachers these days discourage students from using Facebook and Twitter, telling us that it is nothing but a distraction in our lives, well I beg to differ. Facebook and Twitter believe it or not, can be more than a sanctuary of teenagers' private thoughts, pictures and friends. I realized this week that these networking sites can be a gateway into the plethora of information out there in the world and the internet and help all users be better connected to their respective groups and organizations.
One of my responsibilities is to find daily news about the disability community and share them through our social networking sites. At first, I doubted the significance of my daily task, I asked my self how posting news articles on our Facebook status and tweeting this kind of information can benefit the objectives of the AAPD, specially since the news we were posting had no particular connection to AAPD. The answer came to me as soon as I posted the first article on Facebook.
Seeing the "Like" number on each status go up every hour and reading the comments of the users helped me get a glimpse of how passionate everyone in the disability community is. Through these postings, we help influence the thoughts and attitudes of the members in our community and provide them information on what goes on with other disabled people in the nation.
I am excited to see how much more I can learn, not just regarding communications but with the political process, legislation and networking, throughout the summer with AAPD.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Commenters must avoid profanity, harsh language and disparaging remarks on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability. All comments to the blog are moderated by AAPD, and can be subject to removal at any time.
Please use the comments section to engage in the ongoing dialogue between our program funders, current and former interns, our colleagues, and the broader disability community, and to respond to intern posts that intrigue you, to share your own stories, or to simply express your gratitude for being allowed into the world of our summer interns.