Welcome to a Decade of Social Media and Adult Learning!

 

This is a space dedicated to exploring how digital platforms have transformed the ways adults access knowledge, build communities, and shape their educational journeys. Over the past ten years, social media has evolved from a tool of casual connection into a dynamic arena where learning thrives beyond classrooms and conventional institutions. This blog will reflect on that evolution, for example: how Facebook groups became informal study circles, how YouTube tutorials replaced the need for expensive training, and how LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and others became venues for professional development and knowledge exchange.

In this decade-long journey, we have witnessed adult learners reimagine education on their own terms. From working parents upskilling through Instagram reels to retirees engaging in lifelong learning via online communities, social media has broken down barriers once thought to limit adult education. It has empowered learners to become teachers, turned hobbies into careers, and transformed isolated learning experiences into global dialogues. This blog will unpack those shifts, highlight the tensions and possibilities within them, and offer insight into how adult learning continues to evolve in the digital age. Whether you are an educator, a student, or someone simply curious about how people learn today, I invite you to join the conversation.

 

So, let’s start with something familiar: the way we use the internet today is nothing like how we used it 15 or 20 years ago. Back then, most websites were like online billboards. I mean, you would visit a page, read what was there, and that was that. But what about today? You do not just read, you post, share, remix, and even build on what others create. Welcome to the world of produsage.

Bruns (2008) introduces the concept of produsage as a fundamental shift from traditional producer-consumer models to one where users are simultaneously producers and consumers of content, referred to as produsers. This shift is largely fueled by the advent of Web 2.0, a participatory digital environment where collaborative knowledge production flourishes. Bruns argues that traditional models of media production, where content is created by professionals and consumed by the public, no longer adequately explain current trends in media and information creation (Bruns, 2008).

The emergence of what Bruns calls Generation C, a cohort of users who are motivated by content, creativity, and control, has played a critical role in transforming digital culture. These users contribute collaboratively to platforms such as Wikipedia, YouTube, and open-source software projects, exemplifying how knowledge and information are now continuously improved rather than finalized and distributed as fixed products (Bruns, 2008). Web 2.0 technologies enable this transformation by acting as platforms that benefit from collective intelligence and user participation (O'Reilly, 2005, as cited in Bruns, 2008).

Bruns also critiques the applicability of traditional terms like “content production” when describing phenomena such as Wikipedia. Unlike industrial-age encyclopedias, which are built around static, versioned content distributed in fixed formats, Wikipedia is the product of ongoing, user-driven collaboration with no clear distinction between producer and consumer (Bruns, 2008). This model represents a new form of decentralized, networked knowledge production that challenges the very foundation of intellectual property, expert authorship, and the authority of traditional information gatekeepers.

Furthermore, Bruns situates produsage within a historical context by referencing precursors such as Alvin Toffler’s (1970) "prosumer," Charles Leadbeater’s (2004) "pro-am," and Yochai Benkler’s (2006) "commons-based peer production," arguing that while these models contribute to understanding user participation, none fully capture the unique dynamics of collaborative, user-led knowledge production in digital environments (Bruns, 2008).

In sum, Bruns’ concept of produsage redefines how we understand participation, expertise, and ownership in the digital age. It highlights the increasingly blurred lines between users and producers, while underscoring the collaborative and iterative nature of knowledge creation in the 21st century.

I hope we can build a friendly space of learning and collaboration! 

I will be in touch.

The Great Gatsby

 

References

Bruns, A. (2008). The future is user-led: The path towards widespread produsage. In Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage (pp. 1–25). Peter Lang.

O'Reilly, T. (2005). What is Web 2.0? Retrieved from https://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html
[Note: Cited within Bruns (2008) as a key definition of Web 2.0.]

Toffler, A. (1970). Future Shock. Random House.

Leadbeater, C., & Miller, P. (2004). The Pro-Am Revolution: How enthusiasts are changing our economy and society. Demos.

Benkler, Y. (2006). The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Yale University Press.