Teens and the "social" networks

Over the last 10 years teaching Middle School, I have seen the technology change that has taken place especially among the teenagers. There was a time, not so long ago, that teachers did not have to worry about cell phones going off in class, students texting under the table, and the awkward facebook friend request from a current or former student.

Miller identifies this move to new forms of communication and uses the term "phatic communication." Phatic communications are basically purely social interaction that do not have any formal basis, no real exchange of information or dialogue. Miller begin by examining blogging. Interestingly, blogging enables the individual to tell personal stories with emotional ties in a very non-personal way (via the internet). This exchange of "emotion" is really a way to create a persona of ones self which envelops the persons self-presentation. I found this very interesting. Through a blog, a person is allowed to create whomever they want and be that person in a safe environment with other like minded individuals, the problem is that these social bonds are not "real", meaning, they are not the true personal bonds that people can get from being with a friend for lunch. Miller refers to this as a micro-level social relationship.
Even less personal is the newer social sites such as facebook or myspace (sorry, friendster). Here the exchanges are not very personal at all. Miller identifies these sites as more visual as opposed to textual. Here, the "friends" are able to engage in a quick exchange of "data" instead of the long and generally more personal
blog. The fact that ta verb has been created to describe the act of making friends with people on these sites is almost bizarre, "friending." I though Miller made a great point about the fact that a person can have thier best friends next to a purely cyber friend yet they were all housed under the same category.
I agree with Miller about the point that these phatic communities are still important or meaningful and that staying in touch is also important. These social networks enable people to "talk" to someone whom they lost touch with or can not easily pick up the phone and call (I have a friend working in Cuba without phone access but she has a computer). Although, I personally feel that this should not be uses as a sole means of communication among family and friends.
Teens and the Social Media points at the fact that 93% of all teenagers use social networking. I can attest to this. Almost all of my students now have access to either a computer or a cell phone with internet access. I have always been weary about teens posting pictures of themselves on the internet. In this article, they noted that 73% of teens post pictures of themselves for others to see. Usually, these pictures are a little over the topic, I refer to them as the myspace pic (one hand holding the camera while a little over their head while they make a pout and try to look much older). It is even scary to think that 22% also post video which is often less restrictive than the photos.

As a teacher, there are some unique challenges I face when using social networks. First of all, I have a rule to never friend a student, current or former. I realize this may seem a little strict but I have my reasons. I always make sure that regardless of the fact that my students are not my friends that the content on my page is always respectable. I tell my students that I can not friend them because of the fact that I am their teacher and it is not appropriate. I do have other teacher friends that do accept request from students. I am not saying they are wrong but I do think their is a danger when blurring the lines between the teacher student relationship. On the other hand, I have other teacher friends that have created "teacher" pages. I like this idea more, it is a great way to remind students of their hw and project deadlines. This article is pretty good at helping teacher (new and old) navigate the social network scene.

Here is an interesting view on friending students
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