Well, I thought my rant about social media was over after topic 4, guess not. Last week I never really dived into the whole new "selfie" fad (I really hope it is just that, a fad) that seems to be dominating social media sites, but since the article was brought up on how social media is possibly turning us into narcissists, I feel like this is the perfect opportunity. When did taking endless pictures of yourself and posting them online become such a cool and hip thing to do? Every time I see one of these online I cant help but wonder, "How full of yourself are you?" Yes, I understand that if taking a picture of yourself and a friend, taking a 'selfie' is easier than getting someone else to take a picture for you, but why the excessive solo self-photo shoot? I read an article online that stated that it is not only social media use that is turning us into narcissists, but taking 'selfies' is as well, and I can completely understand why. For those of you who are wondering about the article, here is the link. It really surprises me at how much money the US economy loses to social networking, but then again when I really think about it, it is not much of a surprise at all. Every job I have ever had, all of my fellow employees, including myself, have wasted numerous man hours social networking. It seems like schools, and probably other workplaces as well can't really ban phones, because they are very beneficial and always necessary in case of an emergency. So what can schools and the workplace in general do to ban or at least limit social networking in the workplace? Personally, I do not think that you can. Humans are extremely social creatures and we always want to be talking or connected to the people that mean the most to us. In terms of time wasting in the workplace, I think that social networking is exactly that, a time killer and waster. If an employer somehow took away all possible avebues for social networking, time wasting will still happen. For example, someone sitting at a desk and computer all day. They will waste time, regardless if they have access to social networking or not, they will just find some other way to do it. Granted, social networking probably does increase the amount of wasted time. There are many positive and negative aspects to social media in education. One possible idea that I may consider using in the future is the use of twitter in the classroom. I would create a teacher account and post what is due for homework that night or to remind students of important upcoming test dates and due dates for assignments. As long as the teacher is consistent in its use, students, whether they attend class or not, can see what is expected of them before each and every class. Parents can check in too if they want to keep in touch with what is going on in the classroom. Each different class that I teach would be accompanied by a different hashtag. Although a negative aspect of this is having students constantly contacting you with questions and concerns. It is not that I do not want to help them, but I do not want to be constantly on the clock, everyone is entitled to their down time away from work. Maybe questions could be posted using specific hashtags and then brought up in the next days class? I would love to find and hear about the many positive aspects of social media in the classroom, but am also very wary of the negative drawbacks each one entails.
2 Comments
Nathaniel
5/24/2015 06:42:48 am
I thought of the same idea for my classroom. I think it is a great idea for students to be connected to the course. This way as you pointed out they can get caught up on missed materials, be informed of upcoming tests and even involve the parents.
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Jared Leavitt
6/1/2015 01:38:53 pm
Excellent post. I would tend to agree with the aspect you discussed of how regardless of social networking people are going to waste time. It is difficult for us as human beings to stay focused for 8 hours on sometimes minimal tasks. We need a little bit of a boost that will help us get back on the horse so to speak. I think it would be interesting to calculate or study on whether or not the wasted time actually affects the amount of work accomplished. For instance say you had two employees on that does not use social networking and simply tries to work all day and one that does have social networking and friends they communicate with during work hours. Would the amount of work the one that worked the entire time vastly outnumber the amount of work the social networking employee. My thought process leads me to think no it really wouldn't as our brains need breaks and rebooting, just like technology at times.
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