My use of social media in CPD: Keeping reflections.

When I was younger, I always wanted to be a journalist, to write about the world and all the weird and wonderful things in it, to explore from one region to another, meet new people and have new experiences.
The thing is, I haven't really ever been much of a writer (which is kind of a key part!).


When I first started university, we were told to constantly reflect on our experiences, and to make goals for the future based on our past; this is something I felt pretty uncomfortable with, mainly because the way I type is how I speak, and to put my experience into professional type and structure it for an assignment felt alien to me. This is when I began to explore different ways of keeping track of my career; trying to find how I was going to fill gaps in my knowledge and consolidate any learning at the same time.


I came across Twitter when my friends began to use it (and admittedly Lady Gaga was my first follow!), but then I began to find all these people who may be able to help me in ways that other reflective models or databases couldn't. These are people who live and breathe their professions, and feel the need to share it with others who can benefit. Sure you don't always think about how many people are reading your every word, but it's true. In the last 6 months those people on Twitter who have wrote what they may think of as a mindless comment or retweeted an article have made the cogs turn in my head and helped me develop professionally.


The use of a blog then kind of came naturally after that, the use of social media is something so current and that I feel so comfortable using, I thought why not? Why can't I turn something that is so simple into how I keep track of my professional outlook on what I feel to be significant moments in my learning?


And that is how I came across blog writing. A simple way of getting my thoughts down in a neat way (my handwriting is a scrawl!), share it with lots of people who are like minded, but at the same time can have a different opinion or perspective to offer (which once again informs my thinking, its never ending!)


My blog is sometimes neglected, but it will now and forever be my little piece in space and time where I can explore the world and what people have to offer, write about weird and wonderful things, explore one region to another and meet new people to share experiences. In my own words.