Social Media - What would Turkle say?
Sherry Turkle covers social media, specifically Facebook extensively in her book Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other. Tukle and I share many of the same thoughts and opinions on the topic. In her book, she recalls setting up her account for the first time and I can too. I remember feeling uneasy accepting friend requests from people I did not truly know. By college, Facebook became a time capsule, a place for news, and new component of self-worth. Currently, I check my Facebook news feed multiple times a day. I do not give much care anymore about how many friends I have or how many likes a post has. I use it mostly to read stories that interest me, keep up with people I have not seen in awhile, and watch videos. I hardly post or publicly share anything, but I am very much invested in the technology. For both Turkle and I, Facebook is an online community, a place to connect, but we share the same reservations that come with Facebook including over consumption, privacy, and the breakdown of in-person relationships. Books like Alone Together and The Information Diet are a path ways to beginning to build awareness and start a new conversation about the impacts of social media.
I can agree with what you said about facebook. I first got on Facebook to keep in touch with a deceased friend's family. I used to post much more on it, but for me posting just got old. I do like to check it a couple times a day to see what my friends are doing. I am comfortable with social media, but I don't want too much of it. My 3rd graders are really in playing Road Blocks and some are on Snap Chat. Which I think is scary when I hear about the things they have seen on it.. I am not opposed to them using technology because it is what they are growing up with. I worry how their lives are going to be when they get older. What does their future look like since they are so engulfed in some much technology. I hear about their iphones and ipads all the time.
ReplyDeleteSocial Media is a double-edged sword. It feels very "unsocial" to not be on it at all, but being on it doesn't really make you feel more connected usually.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post because I read another of Turkle's books, "Reclaiming Conversation." It seems she does a lot of focus with technology and its sociological effects. Facebook is quite the community, huh? You can have most any type of community you want on there--community of interest (all the recipes, crafts, etc), community of place (I've seen posts for yard sales within a particular area), maybe even community of practice as often times people post and comment about professional topics. In regards to education, I think about how powerful social media is for us as adults. So think about the power it has with our students who have grown up surrounded by social media! Finding ways to implement some sort of social media seems really powerful, I've tried sites like EdModo in the past, but found over the course of the year it became just another thing to keep up with...
ReplyDeleteIt seems like, at some point, we need to teach our kids how to interact appropriately with social media (since so many adults don't seem to know themselves...). There have been so many studies recently about people's level of depression and amount of time spent on social media. I know it's most likely correlation instead of causation, and more studies need to be completed, but we need to help make sure our kids understand how what we see on social media is the fabricated "This is what I want you to see" side of people's lives. Most people don't share the disasters, just the "perfect" things. People are also more likely to say awful things digitally when they would never consider saying them face to face. However, people might also be more likely to ask for help in an anonymous way, too. We have a lot of work to do. https://www.psycom.net/depression-teens-social-media - https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/depressed-teens-turn-social-media-cope-survey-finds-n895951 -
ReplyDelete