SMART CH 5: Social Networking

My first experience with social networking began back in high school. Before the facebook frenzy, I had a xanga account. I laugh now when I think back to having a xanga and how I thought it was so cool. Xanga had the feature of friends and followers as well as a blog type of social networking where you typed and people commented. After xanga, myspace swept my friends but I never gave into that myspace world and I was pretty proud of it. I didn't like myspace because it looked complicated and gave too much information about people. Next came facebook and this is where I am still at in the social networking world. At first, the only reason I joined was because my friends had but as I became more familiar with it, I saw how much of a benefit it was in my international circle of life. While living in Japan, I could easily connect and keep track of my friends and family back in America as well as my friends all around Japan who lived farther away. As my network of friends spread more and more around the world, I was able to better connect with friends through the use of facebook. Soon I began connecting to friends I hadn't seen for years and from my childhood. I have really enjoyed my usage on facebook and I have spent (wasted?) many hours on facebook.

I have even used facebook for educational purposes. For my capstone class last semester, one member of our group made a facebook group. It was a private group and consisted on only us 5 in our group. We kept up in this group on important information and times that we would meet together. 

But to look on the negative side, I do see the downfalls in social networking. With people I come in contact to daily, facebook is not a very good idea just as with texting or other non face-to-face conversations, once I learn something about someone on facebook, it takes away from the social contact I would have had if I had learned it in their presence. I have not talked to many people on campus because I already knew information about them and so I didn't feel the need to ask them in person. Facebook can also get annoying when people keep rambling and rambling on their about their life. I clearly don't care to hear what they ate for breakfast but somehow, I still read their posts. 

Social networking for the 21st century. I know social networking like technology is continuing to change. I could see a change in technology going more toward screen talk instead of face-to-face conversation. But I do see it's use in the classroom. If students aren't familiar with these tools, they will be behind in the world of technology. There needs to be a big push in the 21st century for netiquette as the book called it so that teens and children know how to proper behave on the internet and safe ways to get connected with their friends and how to use it appropriately. This should also go for face-to-face interactions and teaching children how they are important while at the same time how to behave on social network sites. 

I really like how the book laid out different activities for the classroom. I liked the idea of creating a profile for a historical or fictional figure. I have seen this done a few times but it is funny and educational. With good teachers who exemplify ethical ways of using social networks, children can learn the dangers and joy that comes with social networking.