I moved to Canada almost 4 years ago now, and I was living in Muscat, Oman. Oman is a Muslim country. As a result, when I first moved to Canada, I got culture-shocked. I was used to seeing a specific look of dress that people would wear back home for both women and men. Coming to Canada opened my eyes humbly to experience diversity and inclusion. Being an immigrant alongside many others in Canada made me feel less excluded. I have already realized that being secluded in only one group may feel like “home” and “normal”, but the reality is that you could be missing out on different opportunities that one wouldn’t have thought about being in one group only.

Types of Diversity in the Workplace You Need to Know – “https://builtin.com/diversity-inclusion/types-of-diversity-in-the-workplace”

I believe that inclusion brings forth diverse and great interactions among heterogeneous students who tend to favour a single group rather than a whole. Reading the book “Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion by Shelley Moore and Leyton Schnellert” helped me shape my definition of inclusion. I thought of it as being a part of a group with other people, but in fact based on the reading, inclusion really just means that there is no one else.

It is always interesting to listen to both perspectives of the video was quite interesting. One of the lines that struck me was, “everybody has their own preference on how to use social media.” This can result in a delusional effect that some people tend to live life through their social media.

Diversity in leadership: Why it matters and what you can do – “https://resources.workable.com/stories-and-insights/diversity-in-leadership”

After watching the interview with Shelly Moore on PLN diversity, inclusion, and social media from the course’s youtube channel. One line struck me and it was when she mentioned that she created this book club that anyone can join with a nickname. People come on to share their daily lives or struggles that they might be going through. This environment that Shelly created has no society to discriminate against people, instead, people use nicknames and have the freedom to express their true thoughts unfiltered. One more quote that also connects to the previous one, was when she mentioned “create a network to allow you to be authentic and identify how you fit in your social media community.”

Social media interacts with different kinds of communications. This creates a challenge in communication, in particular with sarcasm or a meme. Sure, it might be inclusive as everyone has the same resources to engage within. The only difference is that one user might not feel as welcoming as the other base of the people around. With my PLN, I amplify the views of others that I am interested in. The most known benefit of having such a diverse and inclusive PLN is that you get to see other points of view you wouldn’t have thought about normally, and as a result, give you a better overall perspective and insight.

We live in a powerful media world where the media can influence us in many different ways that we have never thought of, and we don’t get how powerful this influence is. All of us social media users should analyze media to understand both how and why media messages are being created, and for what purpose that is? We must understand and learn media literacy. This also includes the ability to read through the lines of a message, depicting what’s wrong to right and vice versa. Alongside being able to use the power of information to create and use these messages to act on certain things in our world, which can have a positive impact.

References

Miller, J. [MILLER]. (2021, June 1). EDCI – 338 Markiel Simpson [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsoDHGaXNNs