To Team or Not to Team

     I arrived at my decision about working individually or in a group for my portfolio by my decision. I decided to work by myself before even reading any articles. I have always been one to work by myself because in middle school and high school team projects aren't always “group projects.” I will work in groups outside of school effectively, but it is different from outside groups. When working on the “Social Media Peer Account” activity I reviewed Rylee Miller’s social media account. Reviewing any person’s social media account can give a lot of information, most of which is irrelevant. These accounts can tell you their age, location, hobbies and struggles. Personalities are portrayed through social media, in a certain way. You only see the good personalities such as fun, loving, excited, and happy. You can't really see if someone is organized or takes responsibility. The important traits are only shown in person. Rylee is very loving with her family and friends. She posts pictures with her friends more than pictures by herself. I didn’t find anything that struck me saying that I should work with her. There is nothing against her, but I didn’t find anything striking.  

On the other hand, the “Lost at Sea” activity showed that working in groups isn't so bad. We didn’t really work in groups. We shared our ideas of which item was most important from 1-15. Whichever item had majority was the item we selected. My choices turned out to be better than the groups, but only by a little. I would say that individual and group ideas were equal. When working in a group everyone has a task. “Social loafing is the likelihood of individuals contributing less when working on a task as part of a group than when working on a task alone (Latane, Williams, & Harkins, 1979)…. Social loafing generally increases with group size and decreases with task importance, potential for evaluation, uniqueness of individual contributions, and complexity of task.” Social loafing happens in group tasks all the time. This doesn’t mean that this goes for every group. Some groups such as the people who work on movies, or big tech companies have huge responsibilities. Everyone in these groups have huge role and have to hold their own weight. After reading this, I took a step back and reconsidered if I should work in a group. I have experienced social loafing and some people don’t do what they are supposed to. Working in a group requires a lot. You have to collaborate and get things done in a timely manner. “The facilitated sessions help teams to comprehend where they fall within five distinct pillars of teamwork: trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results.” At Microsoft a team had to work on these skills. There was a program that they used to better understand each other and learned how to work cohesively. At the end of the program the group felt more comfortable and was open to ideas. These skills are needed to be a successful group. Assuming everyone has these skills is a stretch. 

I don’t know these people too much in my class. I have seen a handful of them, but don’t really associate with them. Opening up to them isn't really my thing considering how I don’t know them. Everyone has their own way of doing things. I chose to do things different from other that may not agree with me. “Both individuals and teams are equally likely of creating the next top Billboard hit in America.” This can also be applied for my project. Both individuals and teams are equally likely of creating the next top portfolio project in AICE media studies. With all this in mind, I think I'm going to work by myself. I have more control over my grade and no one else can bring my grade down.  When I get to know people more I may choose to work in groups in the future.