As a high school teacher, I have witnessed firsthand the power of social media among my students. Social media itself is neither good nor evil. As with many things in modern society, it is how we choose to use it that counts. It can be a tool employed to educate and to organize positive action, and it can be a weapon wielded to hurt others.
I admit to sometimes feeling powerless in the face of the societal pressures that confront my students daily. Although I am not a significant consumer of social media myself, I admit to checking in on Facebook a few times each day. While I log on to see what my family and friends are doing and to see the latest pictures of their children and pets, I also find myself confronted with angry posts, not directed at myself – I will not tolerate that toxicity in my life – but at public figures including actors, politicians, and reality personalities. I cannot help but think: If this is what responsible adults are posting, what do my students see when they check their feeds on Instagram and other social networking sites?
Educators have a professional and ethical responsibility to instruct students in the appropriate use of technology and its pitfalls, including social media. It sometimes seems like a losing battle, however. I talk to my students about developing a positive digital footprint, but their social media feeds communicate that it is socially acceptable to tear people down online. As Monica Lewinsky discussed in her TEDTalk, there are entire industries that have developed whose purpose is to earn money through the humiliation of others – especially celebrities – by posting their dirty laundry online (TED, 2015). We, as a society, excuse it, and thereby condone it. It is not surprising, therefore, that our children consider us hypocrites when we tell them that cyberbullying is not acceptable.
Going back to Lewinsky’s TEDTalk again, I was inspired by her suggestion that a societal movement is necessary to change the way that American society views the use of social media (TED, 2015). As mentioned in the book Bullying: Beyond the Schoolyard, the vast majority of school-aged adolescents are using social media appropriately (Hinduja and Patchin, 2015). What we hear about in the media, however, are those who make hurtful choices when it comes to their Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook posts. The sensational is more newsworthy than the sensible. Our children see this, and because they want to be “liked,” quite a few leave a negative digital footprint in their wake with cruel posts and comments.
Perhaps it is time for the silent majority of the public to become the vocal majority. We need to spread the word that technology should be used to inspire instead of intimidate. We need to silence those who choose to spread hate and hurt online by making it socially unacceptable to do so. Personally, given the choice, I would rather live in a world that focuses on the positive as opposed to one that trades in the negative.
References
Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2015). Bullying beyond the schoolyard: Preventing and responding to cyberbullying (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
TED. (2015, March 20). The price of shame: Monica Lewinsky [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_8y0WLm78U
Growing my Classroom 