Teaching social media isn’t just helpful or fun, it’s necessary

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I tweeted this out September 11, 2017 while using the elliptical machine at the UNO gym; it got 3 likes and 1 retweet, which is probably the most action my twitter account has ever seen, but that is beside the point.

Now I’m sure this would have been hilarious to watch. I spent longer than I would like to admit struggling to type a coherent, intellectual, and thought-provoking 140 character tweet about the social media and politics, while trying to maintain at least some sort of coordination, so I wouldn’t have to pause my workout. It might have been a tad ridiculous, but it was one of those moments where you have a really important and course-relevant thought, that I knew if I didn’t send out a tweet at that moment I would forget what I was trying to say.

The reason I was prompted to tweet while working out is because I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts “Up First” by NPR. It is 10-15 minute show that is released every weekday morning that quickly summarizes the big news stories from the day before. Usually there are two to three stories that are focused on in each episode. On this particular episode that I was listening to, the hosts discussed politicians and their social media accounts for almost the entire episode. On this day they discussed the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. He had posted what has been viewed as an anti-semitic political cartoon that got a lot of backlash.  

I was used to hearing about President Trump and the various tweets that he sends out, but this got me thinking about social media and a broader context and how it interacts with our lives in much larger ways than I think most people ever anticipated. What we and others post on social media has a lot more impact than we might anticipate, which makes it an absolutely necessary skill and platform to teach in our schools.  

For example, I’m sure most of us have heard in our high school and college classrooms that it is important to keep our social media profiles clear of anything that could potentially not appropriate because schools or future employers will be looking. Boyd gives an example of this in Chapter 1 of his book, “identity: why do teens seem strange online,” when a top-tier university was about to turn down an otherwise impressive future student because of their MySpace profile (pg. 29, 2014). His credentials and essay were great, which is all that used to take to get into a university, but his public profile had gang-related material. In the past, it would have been easier to keep this part of his identity hidden, but with social media and community pressure, his affiliation with the gang became present online. Even though social media profiles were originally made for students and others to express themselves and connect with similar people, there are definitely consequences for the things we may post.

Another one of the very important reason why social media skills need to be implemented in our classroom is because they teach what Brian Croxall calls “transferable skills,” meaning knowledge that helps the student both outside the classroom and their professional lives (2010). Our world is becoming so intertwined with social media, that it is no longer used as a means to connect with friends and express our likes and dislikes. Politicians, businesses, and employers all use social media as mean to interact with their target audience. There are even social media platforms made specifically for the professional world, and people entire careers simply by creating original or sponsored content for social media.

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Social media is everywhere, and students need to be able to know how to navigate and behave on it, or they could get themselves into serious trouble. One of these important “transferable skills” involving the use of social media is discussed in Mark Sample’s blog post “Twitter is a Snark Valve.” When he implemented the use of twitter in the classroom, he found that students used the platform in a few different ways:

1. Posting news and sharing resources relevant to the class
2. Asking questions and responding with clarifications about the readings
3. Writing sarcastic, irreverent comments about the readings or my teaching (Sample 2009)

The students in Sample’s class used social media in their classroom almost exactly like they would out in the “real world.” Now, this seems eerily similar to what I would see on my Facebook or Twitter feed. When I look on my own social media platforms, I see posts sharing current event articles or opinion pieces, thought-provoking questions or discussions, or witty comments or posts about pretty much everything. This is why I agree with Sample when he says that snark is a “good, powerful thing” (2009). Students are already doing and seeing this on social media outside of the classroom, and it encourages them to use critical thinking skills with a little bit of a twist.

Being able to talk about complex subjects outside of the classroom is an important skill for students to learn. Since the students cannot escape controversy on platforms like social media and are constantly bombarded with news because of it, they must learn how to process that information and respond to it both respectfully and intellectually. There are so many people that do not know how to do this that it makes it sometimes makes it difficult to interact with others online.

For example, the 2016 election caused great controversy and was talked about nonstop in classrooms, among friends and families, and online. Even I, a usually non-confrontational, private person decided to engage in a little bit of political conversation on social media at this time because I felt the topic was so important. However, the conversations that were happening online about the election, candidates, and supporters, were often so hateful and disrespectful that it made social media a harmful and unpleasant place.

Casual critical thinking, as I’d like to call it, becomes very important in situations such as this. Student should be taught how to identify a valid source of information, written communication skills, bias in news organizations, cultural sensitivity, and the ability to convey complex thoughts through casual conversation so they know how to interpret the articles, information, or beliefs people post online.

I believe it is important that students are taught to see issues as multifaceted, and that is okay that different opinions exist and it is normal to disagree with others. Most importantly, students also need to learn to see people as complex beings. When they see that someone might be different or have different opinions from them, they should try and understand the other’s point of view before they have a reaction. These are incredibly important skills to help student interact online, but they are also quite helpful off the internet.

Of course, not every time a student posts on social media it will involve critical commentary on what is happening in the world or be potentially inappropriate for their futures, but, they need to be prepared on how to handle these situations intellectually, respectfully, and appropriately.

References

Boyd, D. (2014). it’s complicated [PDF]. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/Amanda/
Downloads/boyd%20(1).pdf

Croxall, B. (2010, June 7). Reflections of teaching with social media. Retrieved September 22, 2017, from The Chronicle of Higher Education website: http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/reflections-on-teaching-with-social-media/24556

Martin, R., Greene, D., NPR (Producer). (2017, September 11). Monday, September 11th, 2017. Up First. Podcast retrieved from http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510318/up-first

Sample, M. (2009, October 7). Twitter is a snark valve [Blog post]. Retrieved from samplereality website: http://www.samplereality.com/2009/10/07/twitter-is-a-snark-valve/

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