Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Social Networking
I have reflected on this three times before posting! It seems to be the most simple but the most complex of all Library 2.0 issues. It is "old" in that we all have networked all our lives. It is "new" in that if you do not network; you might be out of touch with the world. Networks can include many aspects of your life. Some use social networking in the old sense where you are nice to people you do not know in case you might need them in the future. Others use social networking when they need to keep peace in the family. Current day social networkers use it as a tool to gain information, to make friends (even to go to eharmony and date) and to learn. I was born in the early 60s. If I allow myself to drift back to that time, there would be no technology component but yet there was networking going on then. We have entered the 21st century. We are forward thinkers. We have achieved such things as going to the moon, attempting to conquer world hunger, the list goes on and on...Here is the chasm. Can we leap into a world of My Space, Facebook, blogs, and message boards, etc? Can I allow my son to go to My Space? There is a part of me that says 'no'. But there is a part of me that is intrigued by this new world just like the early astronauts. We can not bury our heads in the sand! We must move on.
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3 comments:
I have some of the same concerns you do. Allowing students to access sites that are shared by many different types of people is very disconcerting to me. Yes, I do was born and raised in a time when the phone had a round manual dial and computers were only in the IBM building in downtown Atlanta. However, with time come changes, and I guess I'll need to change with them or be left behind. I do see many great opportunities to use technology in the classroom. So, we'll have to build in safeguards and take that great leap soon. After all, most young people already know how to use these program much better than I.
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Margaret, I grew up in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Your comments about social networking in the “old sense” brought something back to me that one of my favorite Communications professors at Auburn told us. Prior to teaching at university he was in the clergy. He lived in Russia for a few years. His observation was astounding. He told us that in the Soviet Union television and radio programming had such limited choices that these mediums didn’t have the same grip on the population that it has had in the United States. Further, because people had less discretionary time, they visited with friends and neighbors instead of coming home from work and locking themselves in their apartments for an evening of radio or television. I think this also happens in this country, particularly in poorer neighborhoods and projects complexes. I listen to my students and they talk more of hanging out in the hood than of t.v. programs. I don’t know how accurate this is, I’m sure a plethora of studies have been done on the impacts of technology on socialization. Is electronic communication the same as face to face? On the other hand, it’s pretty difficult to hang out with a person miles, perhaps even blocks away, without technology. In the final analysis (I stole that from JFK) I suppose it comes down to each person’s choice. Paul
Margaret, I feel a lot like you do. I too am hesitant to use some of these social networking tools, but yet am intriqued by them too. It seems silly not to use the technology and teach our children to use it safely, because we know they will use it sometime, so it should be with our guidance. Therefore I feel it is necessary to learn about these sites and become familiar with the safe use of them. Krista
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