lions and tigers and social networks, oh my.

Since the mid nineties the impact of social networks has grown and has shaped the way that people communicate with one another and really the way people communicate.  If you were to say that social networking has not changed the way that people communicate with one another you would be lying to yourself.  One of the first social networking websites that I ever used was myspace.  I got a myspace while I was in high school and I used it to talk to my friends, listen to music, and stay in touch with people who i didn't get to see very often.  I remember that my friends and I would have conversations about something that we saw on myspace and it was a place where lots of information was displayed at your fingertips.  It was almost like a very superficial way of getting to know someone you could see what they put on their myspace and then normally you would make assumptions about that person.  At the time when myspace was really popular with my age group was when facebook started to become popular among college students.  I remember my brother coming home from college on one of his breaks and telling me that I needed to get a facebook because it was so cool, but I responded with what's facebook I have myspace.  I think I eventually made one that laid dormant until sometime during my senior year of college.  Once I got to college myspace was beginning to be less exciting and facebook was what everyone was using to communicate.  And even since I started college in 2007 social networking has exploded.  Almost everyone you meet has a facebook or twitter or a blog or some other way of expressing their opinion on the internet.  We live in a world of smart phones where social networks are literally at your fingertips most of the day.  I think social networks are so appealing because they let people express their opinion in 160 characters or less.  Social networks are also so appealing because they can help you feel connected to people that are hundreds or sometimes even thousands of miles away.  You can talk to someone around the world, from the comfort of your own home, while you talk to your friend down the street at the same time.  Social networking allows people to feel like they are a part of something more and I think that's a big basis of their appeal.

As far as using social networking in the classroom I think it becomes a little harder to think of ways to use it.  I think one way that social networking could be used in the classroom is to set up a sort of twitter account where students could post questions throughout the day or night and they could receive help or kind of give the teacher feedback.  The book also mentions doing something where you teach the students what kind of things are appropriate to put onto social networking sites and then have them create a site that meets a rubric.  I think that not only helps them to become smarter internet users, but helps them realize that not everything in their lives needs to be broadcasted for the whole world to see.