As my English 295 is coming to a close, I feel that I am standing on the edge of a great chasm, looking over the edge, and wondering how I will make it to the other side. This chasm represents my future in academia and my approach to researching and writing about literature. I have come so far from where I was at the beginning of the semester with my apprehensions about the digital world and using social media to research literary topics. My apprehensions have vanished as this new digital world has become more familiar to me.
I think that this "leap of faith" that my class has taken is an event that many people need to experience. There are so many wonderful opportunities in the digital world to meet new people and experience new ways of thinking about literature. The concept of social proof allows for ideas to be tested and improved upon.
A recent experience I had with social proof was sharing a rough draft of my final paper with a co-worker from Deseret News. I was terrified at the prospect of sharing some of my rough ideas with him, but I knew that he would be able to help me have a better focus in my paper. After sharing my paper with him, he texted me multiple ideas about how my paper should be focussed and even some questions of his own that he wanted to have answered about the how technology companies can be viewed as Big Brothers. This experience gave me a confirmation that the process of social learning bears good fruit and is a leap of faith worth taking.
I plan to continue using the skills I have learned this semester and expand them to other fields of knowledge as I continue my education.
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