You are Just a Screen! #6

This video was awesome! At first I thought it was going to be like listening to another person paranoid that the world was coming to an end because we don't talk or pay attention to each other. Thankfully, he changed his focus and exposed some very interesting things that I have never thought about concerning the way people interact for the past forty to fifty years. The 'Whatever' stuff was funny and made sense the more I thought about it. The 'assembly line feeling' also gave me some insight into why people do the things they do, such as American Idol etc.

The social networking examples Wesch used are relevant because they are an important aspect of the world culture that, barring a very serious disaster, is not going anywhere. These types of social networks are changing the feeling that we are lost in society by placing humans at the forefront again, maybe more than ever. Personally I can connect to my family in New England easier than ever before, as well as my friends that live out of state or country. With these social networks, although very different than face to face conversation, still qualify as interaction. I liked the wording Prof. Wesch used when he said, 'The most private space becomes the most public space.' The social networks allow people, and maybe classrooms, to open up in ways that are useful and important in creating a sense of belonging.

Our sense of self is changing with these new mediums and this is inevitable. The telegraph, phone, and radio all had the same effect. I thought of the scene in the movie 'Oh brother Were Art Thou', when the fat gov'nah walks into the radio station and yells at his biffy son for being nice to the people outside the station. I think he said something like, 'we aren't here to talk to a few people, we're trying to reach the masses.' I think the social networks we have now are similar to this example. We need to be careful that our face to face interactions don't completely vanish, but people have always been rude to each other, so I get irritated when I hear that people now a days are so rude. What does this mean? How do people that say this know? I talk to old people, like my grandmother, and she tells me all the time how rude people were when she was a kid. I think people want to think things were different when they really weren't. Okay back on target, sorry.

As Educators I think we should definitely use these social networks even if its just to expose our students to them. So many people use social networks that I think it will play a huge role in the future business world, which I'm pretty sure that by the time our students are out of school their bosses will be people our age; so I think its safe to say technology will play a large part in the workplace. I think we can try to connect these social networks to our content area but that probably should not be the total focus. Just like SSR (sustained silent reading, for those who have not read the fabulous BRB textbook), which may or may not be connected directly to the content material it still has many benefits.

Question:
Do you think these social networks and other Web 2.0 applications will be taught just like typing class was taught, or instead of typing? Or is it our job as educators to incorporate it with our class? (I had to take typing when I was in middle school, I don't know if these classes are still offered, it was really boring!)