I'm sure every student in 307 knows Facebook. Why? Because it's a new phenomenon among our generation as adolescents and students.
Facebook interacts with both high school and college students. Yes, adolescents are socially interacting with one another on the internet, but is it a good internet source?
Personally, I am not a fan of facebook because of many problems it can cause, and has caused me for that matter. I do see both sides of the argument, though, but I hope I don't come off sounding like an angry parent against Facebook.
Part of the TIME article had a mini-segment on Facebook called "A Dad's Encounter with the Vortex of Facebook." He listed some positives to Facebook:
-his daughter could contact friends online about homework
-teenagers can keep in touch and speak frequently
-they can check out new media sources
He also mentioned some downsides to Facebook:
-problematic pictures posted on the site
-jobs search one's site before hiring for a job
-stalking, online predators, security issues
"Facebook reports its members spend an average of 18 minutes on the site each day."
I think Facebook causes more problems than it has perks. Students are sucked into this virtual social world that pulls them away from reality. At this school, over 20 teams got in trouble because of posting negative pictures on sites like Facebook. Other schools have the same problem. AND, I don't think adolescents are thinking this far ahead that future employers will check out their websites before hiring them.
A couple stories help illustrate my point:
An employer I know personally told me that she did not hire her top two choices because their Facebook accounts made them seem irresponsible. She then hired her third choice.
Next, my friend spends hours on Facebook daily. It's like her fix. She will intend to type up homework on Word, but once she's on the computer, she must check out her Facebook account. She will then spend hours on Facebook instead of doing homework.
But if it's not Facebook, it will be something else. I understand this. I just think Facebook has more negative outcomes than positive.
What do you think? Pro-Facebook, or Anti-Facebook?
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8 comments:
hey jami-
i am with you on this one. I use facebook, but very rarely...and i am quite secretive about what goes on there. i certainly am not obsessed with it. I mainly use it so that my friends can get connected to me, but typically i go on maybe twice a week, maybe once every week if i remember to even go on.
people are so sucked into the cyber world, that they forget reality. they forget that they actually occupy physical space and breath human air. people are too dependent on the computer, and they suffer for it.
This is a tough situation. Facebook is great for connecting with old friends or contacting current college companions, but I agree that the downside of sites like these (Facebook, Myspace, etc) can be dangerous and detrimental. Most of the time the people on these sites seem to be living in the past or living in the moment. They aren't worried about he future, as you pointed out in your anecdote about of the employer who hired her third choice due the the Facebook profiles of her first two choices. The sites come with responsibility, and when someone is willing to own up to their responsibility regarding these sites, they will end up suffering the consequences. But that is how the Web works.
This is something that is hard to take sides on. I believe those sorts of sites could be used for both positive and negative reasons. I am going to stand neutral on this. In the future I will probably delete certain profiles I do have because of career motives. I have used myspace to keep in contact with friends back in Virginia and South Carolina though so....positive results can come from them. On the other hand, like you mention and give examples of, can be used to produce negative results as well. All I can say is be cautious with what content is displayed on those sites.
I honestly have never been on facebook before and only just heard about it two weeks ago from this class. I do know about myspace though but only because of all the hype about stalkers that 20/20 did a while back and because my cousin's stepdaughter loves it (she is 14) and so i had to see for myself. it just feels like a silly computer dating service for adolescents and I can't see how someone can spend hours on it. I have a journal space and I check it maybe once a day, read any comments and maybe write a post if i feel like writing that day, but the longest I am on that blog site is 5 or 10 minutes.
I think there is a serious problem of internet addiction in this country. if its not for socializing and chatting with people and sending IMs, then its video games that people play with others all over the world. we seem to be losing that face to face contact. Instead of building real lives with real friends, we have our virtual reality buddy lists and we pretend to be someone else on line...something prettier, smarter, more outgoing, lively (ha, ironic since we are computer-generated replicas of something we made up). Okay, I'll stop rambling and ranting on about the pitfalls of the internet now...
Pro-Con Facebook. Isn't that like being Pro-Con the automobile? People kill each other on the highway that's for sure--but do we want to go back to the horse-drawn carriage?
I'm interested in what Facebook will morph into? Do you think it will take on a new shape in the next half dozen years? Will adolescents and college students tire of it?
Seems there's lots to teach here--internet etiquette and responsibility for sure. But much more.
What can we ELA teachers learn from the rise in popularity of Facebook and MySpace and the hours that teens/20-somethings spend on these sties that can support our teaching?
That's the key isn't it?
Caused me and my lacrosse team some major problems!! We got in trouble for hazing (which was the most bogus thing ever), as well as a few other teams here and many club teams! People put pictures up that to show what fun they had one night and what facebook does is allow the wrong people to find that content and change it around to be something bad. you just got to be careful with webpages like that. I don't even bother with it.
Like you, I can see the pros and cons of Facebook. Facebook helps me find and contact others in my classes, send and receive invitations to events, and share pictures and send messages to other people who live far away.
However, there are also many bad things about Facebook. It somehow mezmerizes certain people, sucking up time they should have been spending on more important things. Also, some people use it irresponsibly and make themselves look stupid for the whole world to see. I feel that these people deserve not to be hired because they know that the Internet is open to all people, and still, they post pictures of themselves half-naked and drunk. I don't get it.
Although I have a Facebook account, I don't spend much time on it, and I am careful not to put up anything I wouldn't be confortable with anyone seeing. I have worked too hard for my reputation as a serious student. There is no way I would wreck it to try to look "cool" for other people.
It is hard to take just one side on this Facebook dilemna. Yes, I have a facebook but I don't keep up with it much. When I first got it I thought it was the coolest thing now not so much.I know how it can harm you because I have been a victim of it. Going through meetings and hearings just because of pictures that were posted on it was not a lot of fun. Also now it has all these new features on it that allow people to basically stalk you. It is not a fun thing anymore, I feel like everyone knows my every move.
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