How Social is Too Social?
Posted by on September 22, 2011
All that stuff on the right? Too distracting to be educational.
This new Facebook layout (for what, the fourth or fifth time is it now?) really has me thinking; If teachers are pushing to use Web 2.0 services in their classroom, how would one deal with new updates, especially those that come up so radically as Facebook?
The easiest solution I can think of is using Tweetdeck or other third-party apps for social networking. I’ve used Tweetdeck for well over a year, and when Twitter’s website is down, or being updated (who can forget the #newtwitter debacle that so many power users (this is the nicest blogpost I can find on that) absolutely abhorred. That is the downside to Web 2.0 I guess. Change needs to happen, and this is a lesson in itself.
As for using Facebook for any sort of social networking, I believe the new(est) Facebook update has destroyed any chance for that as it currently is. The “ticker” sure is a fun feature; but do I really care if someone I work with that is friends with me made some smart-ass comment on a roommates photo? No. I don’t think anyone does. I suppose this could help teach self-censorship, but the whole “timeline” and “scrapbook” really don’t have much educational value. I share the feelings in this rant. Facebook is not my life. Sorry Zuck. Social networking should not be considered a life, rather a way of networking (see what I did there?) with those met through life or common interests. And that is yet another Web 2.0 lesson for teachers.
Andrew's Annotations 
“Social networking should not be considered a life, rather a way of networking”
Absolutely.
I pulled way back from Facebook use last year when I realized that it has a distinct potential to retard real social skills and relationships through its extensive and dependent use. Check out these articles about “Facebook depression.”
KWGN Colorado, (+Video) “Teen depression linked to Facebook”.
http://www.kwgn.com/news/kwgn-teens-facebook-use-linked-to-depression-20110328,0,5829386.story
Daily Chronicle, “Facebook linked to depression by some researchers”.
http://www.daily-chronicle.com/2011/03/27/facebook-linked-to-depression-by-some-researchers/a8n13iu/
As in our classrooms and lives, we need to be prepare for changes, for better or worse. Also, things in education everything change from one day to another.
By the way, I agree with you in the fact that social networking can’t be considered a life. And the last thing…. I hate facebook because they make changes without asking me!
Take care!
Honestly I never thought about the changes that would be made until my grandma got Facebook. It took her forever to figure out how to run it (side note–she put that she was interested in men and women because she thought it was about friends ha), but when the changes were released I thought I’ll have to spend another afternoon teaching my grandma how to run it. Imagine opening up Glogster for class and GASP it has all changed. This could really change the structure of your class–teachers panic when things change and that is when classroom management starts to fail. It could be a problem–great insights, thanks for bringing this to my attention!
Funny that you talked about changes to blogging sites, Cassie. WordPress actually collapsed their “ribbon” that has all the admin tools in the past week that I’ve been blogging! Threw me for a loop!
I guess, as educators, we even have to be ready to “roll with the punches” so to say with everything, even our trusted web 2.0 tools!