Community Contribution 2

After creating my Visitors and Residents map, I realized that my cultural background influences both the platforms I use and how I interact with them. As a Chinese student, I use Chinese platforms such as WeChat, RedNote, and Bilibili more often than some English platforms. RedNote and Bilibili are mostly on the Visitor side for me because I usually browse short videos, documentaries, and other creators’ content rather than posting publicly. I have uploaded some travel videos that I filmed and edited myself, but I keep them private and only send the links directly to friends or family. This made me realize that being a Visitor or Resident depends not only on the platform, but also on how I choose to participate and who I want my audience to be.

Privacy also has a strong influence on how comfortable I feel being a Resident online. For example, I mainly use Instagram Stories because they disappear after around 24 hours, and on WeChat I limit my timeline so others can only see posts from the past six months. I still communicate and share parts of my life, but I prefer having some control over how long that information remains visible and who can access it.

Looking at the professional side of my map, I realized that my PLN is an area I could develop much further. LinkedIn is currently my main platform for professional networking, but simply having a profile does not necessarily mean I am building meaningful professional relationships. As a psychology student, I could become more active by connecting with psychology students, professors, researchers, labs, professional organizations, and people working in areas I may want to pursue in the future. This would move my use of LinkedIn further toward the Resident side by using it not only to find information, but also to interact and build professional connections. At the same time, expanding my PLN means creating a more visible digital identity. Privacy and security can limit what I am comfortable sharing, but they can also help me participate more confidently when I understand who can access my information. Rather than making everything public, I want to intentionally build a professional reputation by deciding what I share, who my audience is, and how I present myself across different digital spaces.