Shelfari – Power

Shelfari is a social cataloging website designed for books. In this website, users build a virtual bookshelf of tittles of books that they own or have read. Shelfari empowers members to rate, review, tag and discuss about their books. Members can create groups and others can join, create discussions and talk about books of their interests. The virtual bookshelf is used for organising books into different shelves such as already read, currently reading, planning to read, wish list, currently owned and favourites. In this social network I have kept my identity because it is actually an interesting group to be part of and I do not see any reason to lie about who I am or what books I am interested in. I would like the other members to know the real me and also to be able to read, share and explore ideas about all different kind of books.

It is stated in “A turtle on a leash” that it is almost impossible to summon and maintain good moral character in a thickly massed population where each individual, unbeknownst to all the others, hides in the crowd, so to speak, and blushes before the eyes of no one (Prouty, 2009). This being said, I do experience more freedom when I’m in the virtual world because I have the power and courage to voice my opinions without being discouraged and shut down by anyone. Members are not there to judge you on what you like to read but they are there to read, share and explore different ideas about books that interest them. The network designer has the mapped my movement through space of this network by being able to communicate with different people in all parts of the world by being able to share ideas about all different kind of books there is to offer.  The experience of the virtual space does empower me to gain a vast amount of knowledge as I have the control of what I like to read or whom I want to communicate with. I also have the control of groups that I create with other members. It is much easier to communicate with people in this virtual world, as there is no physical contact just in case there is a dispute.

Reference

Prouty, R. (2009). A turtle on a leash. Revised from

https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_312_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_50513_1%26url%3D