Last night, CNBC aired a program titled “The Facebook Obsession,” which amalgamated the history of the social network site with its extensive cultural impact. Fact: 70% of Facebook users live outside the U.S. It is now without a doubt the international social medium, used by individuals, businesses, politicians, even law-enforcement institutions, all around the world. Perhaps the most impressive achievement of the site was its involvement in the Arab Spring.
Undoubtedly, students now and in the future will, at the very least, have been exposed to Facebook and sites like it; most likely they will have their own individual pages and be participating in the revolutionary connection-making experience the page has to offer. Facebook is here to stay–in purely market terms, its value as a technology is just too high and it shows no signs of slowing down.
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In educational terms, however, there has been some controversy about the site’s risks. Students who use the site can have their privacy invaded by businesses and, worse, online hackers. In many cases, students can have purely virtual relationships with people they have never met in person, which obviously opens up the site to less-than-decent individuals who use the network for things they should be thrown in jail for. These risks of privacy invasion and the somewhat deceiving nature of virtual profiles have put some parents and educators on the offensive against FB. The online world can be a very scary place for those who do not have the critical knowledge to navigate it. Indeed, students have been negatively affected by the site, from the relatively innocuous teenage dramas caused by postings of embarrassing photographs to the much more serious danger of online stalkers.
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So when I started this blogpost, I first began research by Google-ing “facebook and education.” I expected to see columns of sites devoted against Facebook, from blogs by angry parents to official news of Facebook being banned or limited in schools across America. My predictions were unfounded. On the first page of the search, every site was all about Facebook, but in a good way. I found an agency which goes into schools to educate teachers about social networking as a constructive resource. They are called “social media bootcamps” and are serious about adapting the classroom to the communication revolution. I found a blog by the president of Southwestern College which practically lauds over the site’s positive capabilities. As the president, Dr. James Nolan states, “If Social Media were a person, I would have to make her the highest paid employee at Southwestern College. Her job description would be five pages long. Maybe ten.” He notes that because the site is used in the “real world,” by businesses, artists, politicians and so on, it is only practical to use it in the university classroom. In this sense, I am inclined to agree.
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What I think is most important is for teachers to not be afraid of social networking. Students are going to be using it whether we like it or not. We have, then, a responsibility to educate students on how advertisers use information to target consumers on Facebook, about the authenticity of virtual relationships, and the importance of balancing online interaction with face to face communication. In this way they are better armed to use the site for its more positive potentialities.
forestdwellers86 
I apologize about the lack of images in this post. For some reason, WordPress always told me “invalid request” every time I tried to publish this with all of the images included. I will attempt to update the post later with the visuals. Must be some sort of glitch in the Matrix.
You know that means they changed something, right?
I’ve been having a lot of deja-vu recently, so I know the AI is up to its old tricks again…
Matt, I like how you mention the potential problems with meeting people online. I feel like adults need to step up and give students a protocol on how and when it’s okay to talk to people online and even meeting them in real life. I think that once people get over their fear of social networking this may become possible, but I know many people today literally squirm when they hear about people they met over the internet.
On top of what Jane said, I too feel like as adults an educators we need to step up and address serious issues such as online predators or scams. Like Matt said, kids are going to use social media whether we like it or not. Instead of trying to shelter them from various risks, it would be much more productive to inform or educate them regarding the dangers of Web use. Make it part of the classroom. Devote a day or two going over how to safely and appropriately use these free, awesome tools that in all likelihood is already a part of their daily lives. I cannot stand the people who try to completely abolish forms of technology or media from a child’s life. Rather than keep them safe in their bubble where they are more susceptible to being victims, educate them!
maybe this is why a $45 IPO was a little unrealistic:
WOW..thank you for posting this! “The Universe and Facebook are One.”… but in the physical world, you sit on a physical chair next to a physical human being. You can’t have Facebook without the chairs and the people to sit in them, virtual or otherwise…am I making sense here?