You are hereBlogs / jen's blog / Week 10: Online Social Networks
Week 10: Online Social Networks
While I was not unaware of the downsides of online social networks such as bullying and online predators, I had not realized how much controversy these tools have been causing and was surprised at how this week's readings focused so heavily on these negatives. I still find a little bit strange the idea of relating extensive private and personal information online for the entire world to see. It is upsetting how "questionable behaviour" unwisely posted online when young and more reckless has the potential to cause real problems in the future as it becomes the norm to investigate personal profiles, especially since these past actions may well have no relevance to a person's current character or performance. Everyone has different ideas of what is acceptable, but in the competition for jobs it is natural for people to want to judge the candidate on all of the available information. It is possible that as online social networking integrates itself more completely into all segments of society, these indiscretions will be so widespread that they will no longer cause such a stir. Still, some will always be more open with their lives than others. Because these interactions aren't face to face, inhibitions may be lowered and people may disclose more than they would normally feel comfortable doing. As the use of online social networking matures, perhaps these issues will be addressed more successfully.
I also find it troubling how online identities are not always trustworthy. Danah Boyd's suggestion is interesting in Discussion: MySpace and Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) that bullying has always been happening and that these online social tools merely make it more obvious to adults. I still wonder whether this online bullying may be harder for the targets to see coming and harder for them to pin down exactly who is involved. This same article also states that youth should be taught to handle the dangers of online social networks rather than hindering their use of these tools. From the readings this week, the proposed legislation to limit their use does seem to do more harm than good and taking on more responsibility is part of growing up; however, making mistakes is also part of growing up and in this environment these mistakes are on display to a large audience for a very long time. Still, online social networking is a great way to stay connected to many people, especially over long distances, and enables collaborative communication with many more people than would have been possible in the past.
In the academic environment, I have heard the complaint that students are using online social tools in-class. In Myspace and Facebook: What higher-ed can learn from social computing, Williams argues that professors need to bridge the gap and adopt these tools to engage students with the course content by encouraging their active participation. While finding new and unique ways of incorporating these tools into the classroom could provide benefits, I remain doubtful that this lack is the driving force behind facebooking during class time. Perhaps before it became common to bring laptops to class and to network online, it was simply not so obvious that students weren't paying attention. There are many additional factors that determine how engaged students are in a particular course, including the quality of instruction and the maturity of the student.
- jen's blog
- Login to post comments
Hi Jen,
I agree with you that bored students are certainly not a new phenomenon. You are right; it is just more obvious now with laptops in class. Perhaps instructors should ask how they can engage students rather then blame the technology.
I also agree that it is a shame people don't realize how public their social networking is -- they should not forget that they are creating a permanent record that can haunt them later in life.
The topic this week is so interesting on so many levels that it is hard to get my thoughts together, but I'll give it a shot, as you make a number of excellent points:
- sure, we can teach teens how to be more responsible when creating an online persona on a site such as Facebook, but like many other things when dealing with teens, they may see this as an attempt to intrude in their personal space and may choose to make their own mistakes and leave themselves open for hurtful comments or worse. Unfortunately, it is the nature of the beast; I was a teenager once (many, many years ago) and I know that I always snickered when the adults were trying to help us protect ourselves. When I was 17, I thought I knew the answer to everything, and not much has changed with today's teens.
- want a way to curb teen usage of Facebook at the local library - just filter the internet terminals and block access to these social networking sites. We have done this in Guelph (in the Junior Dept. only) and it leads to many unhappy campers. And we wonder why teens don't think the library is a cool place to hang-out in. Duh!
- I am not sure how comfortable I am with friending an instructor on one of these sites, either (at least while I am in that instructor's class - maybe afterwards it would be OK). For older teens and those in their early twenties, this concept is probably even creepier, but for us mature students, it probably is not much of a big deal. As for using technology in class to distract from the instructor, yeah it happens, and this concept was completely foreign to me when I started this course (I didn't have a laptop then, so you can see how backwards I was at the time). Now, though, I think instructors have to accept that the technology is there and that there are going to be those of us who choose to do other things in class. If we can multi-task at work, why can't we do so in class, too?
Whew, that's a load off my mind.
Great posting, Jen.
WIth regards to using social spaces during class, it is true that this has been around much longer than facebook. I dont bring my laptop to class, but I can find other things, such as writing my to do's, grocery list, reading...haha. Aside from that, I think you are right that there needs to be an interaction to encourage class participation and that will provide benefits for the students. Because we are talking about facebook, one way to get students interacting while using facebook could be if there was a part of an assignment that is done on facebook, such as posting a question or reviewing a reading. This will get students first of all interacting with each other as well as learning while enjoying using facebook. In the end, associating class with facebook might--might--reduce students using facebook for non-academic purposes in class.
Hi Jen,
I agree that bullying and not paying attention in class are not exactly new phenomenon -- and also that they do still change things somewhat. Though doodling and writing notes to my friends was pretty distracting when I was a highschool student -they were not nearly so addictive as facebook, or surfing the web. As well, although there might not be more bullying, it seems a lot easier for larger numbers of people to hop on when there is so little accountability or need to really look anyone in the eye- same for posting things on facebook that one might have thought twice about it "real life". Although I'm usually inclined to downplay claims that recent generations think and feel differently than their pre-internet counterparts, I think there really are ways in which the internet, and now social software, change the ways in which we interact with one another.Though perhaps all that's changing is how difficult it is getting to surprise each other.