I signed up for Facebook about 4 years ago, but quickly lost interest. I think this was because I saw the whole medium from my cultural perspective as a digital immigrant. It seemed very 'me, me, me' oriented and a bit self-indulgent. I also felt some of the posts were pointless. To me, if I was going to spend time composing 'writing' to be published, then I should have something to say. I therefore only checked in occasionally and most of my communication was via private messages to various friends (and I might as well have used emails/letters).
Skip forward to 2011 and I decided to give it another go and look at it from a fresh perspective. These are my new observations:
1. People's online personas often reflect their 'real-life' personas. For example, a certain teenage boy I know is not famous for his verbal communication skills and his online communication reflects this. He posts pictures and videos, 'likes' lots of stuff, does quizzes etc but most of his written posts are very short sentences. At the other extreme one of my friends has probably the best facility with language I've ever known. In her own words she's 'a very punny person'. Her Facebook picture was this for a while - it really made me laugh.
This image can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/cole007/3489041070/in/pool-1017996@N25/ along with some other very amusing variations. Her posts consist of witty observations about current events (in her life and on the news) and links to expand on them (she's also a technophile). 2. Communication - this is where my ideas have changed the most. I don't have to write anything deep and meaningful every time I post something. The way I now use Facebook is to keep in touch with family and friends (mainly abroad). The medium is more like to face to face conversations than written ones and one word answers are sometimes quite sufficient. If I meet someone for coffee or ring my mum, our conversations are often not particularly deep and many comments are what I would previously have considered inane written down on a social networking site. eg: 'there's not much happening'. I now have no qualms at all about posting status updates saying things like ' it's a beautiful day..'. I particularly like the 'like' button, it's the equivalent of an amused 'hmhm' in a verbal conversation and I think a valid form of communication/connection, these types of comments are often the oil on the wheels of social relationships and connections. In fact, communication on social networking sites is often more creative than verbal and written communication. I can post a picture that perfectly expresses how I feel about something. Or a video from Youtube of a shared memory to connect with someone. This program was my brother's favourite T.V. show when he was 5. I only have to hum the tune to make him smile. I can post this to him and it says volumes. 3. Friends - I am actually very specific about who I am friends with on Facebook. As said above, I use it for family and friends whom I don't actually see very often and this form of communication lets me keep closer to them and more frequently than email, letters and phone calls. However, looking at the number of friends other people have it looks like I'm in the minority in more ways than one. Most people have friends numbered in the 100's. I don't think I could keep up with that. So, clearly other people use social networking sites either a) more extensively than me and/or b) in a more casual way and are linked to more people. As a generalisation, it seems that younger people (under 25) have a lot more 'friends' than those of us who are not that young any more. I am watching this with interest as I think it has interesting implications for the social dynamics of society. 4. Ads - I have quite a lot to say about the ads and links to ads but I will keep it to: I don't think they add much to the experience. Would I use social networking sites in an educational setting? If so, then how? I think the biggest barrier to using them in an educational setting is the terms and conditions of use. For example, Facebook does not permit anyone under 13 years of age to join (i.e. anyone who is truthful). This effectively rules out most of the Primary School years and I also think it's inappropriate for teachers to be friends with their students. (There are lots of educational applications otherwise, opportunities for social learning, data gathering, technology applications etc). However, there is also a need for primary school students to be educated about how to use social networking sites along with general internet use, particularly in the realm of cybersafety (in all it's forms) and critical literacy. In this respect social networking sites are no different from some of the other tools we've looked at. |
It's really interesting to read about how you're re-evaluating your attitudes to new technologies, in this case social networking sites like Facebook.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Facebook is in fact quite widely used in education (bearing in mind that multimodal self-presentation and interaction can be challenging and an important platform for the development of multiple literacies) you're absolutely right that it's not appropriate for anyone under the age of 13, and that there are real issues with teachers friending or being friended by students, esp. before the latter are 18.
There are some alternatives, though: you can set up your own small social networking community on a variety of platforms, thereby keeping (younger) students' educational interactions separate from their more personal and social interactions. We'll talk more about this in class this week.
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ReplyDeleteLots of great points here, especially with FB. I only started FB when I commenced this course as a way of staying in touch with others in our class who have it, for now and the future when we leave as a way of networking with my fellow teachers. I recall Val saying that she is still in contact with most of those she went to Teaching College (as it was known then) with and she advised us to do so as it can be a great help to have that network of support when starting out.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your 100's of friends comment as well, my son just adds randoms and he has no idea who they are and will never meet them. He adds them because of an association of some kind with someone else on his page. I really can't see the point in adding someone unless you physically know them. Must be our age and the perspective we have with social networking sites.
Marine boy, my brothers and I used to watch that, but it was only on black and white TV way back then! I wasn't that much into it but my brothers were. Must have been more of a boy cartoon!
I agree with your comment about social networking in education. Yes, lots of the kids fake their age, so where are the parents when the kids set up their FB and lie about their age? My granddaughter had one but not anymore as my daughter closed it down when she found out about it! She had faked her age and so do a lot of her friends, so it is a concern.
As I mentioned in someone else’s blog, just another area us future teachers have to deal with!