What if…No Social Media

Lent season is coming up and I know many people stop using social media during lent. Others just like taking a break from social media and others just stop using it at all.

I believe a major factor in the usefulness of social media depends on your purpose for using social media. I like staying connected to family and friends that I would lose touch with if it weren’t for social media. In fact, I have been able to reconnect with many, which is wonderful! I also try to connect with many positive people so I find their posts inspirational and make me feel good. I avoid any negative posts and will disconnect if I feel the person brings too much unnecessary drama into my life.

Yet, if I stopped using social media, I’m not sure anyone would notice. The reason is that I don’t use it to get people to notice me. I have no idea how many followers I have or how many people I follow. If I like things they post, I tend to follow them and when I open up the app and their stuff pops up, I will see it. I have a few people that I have notifications turned on for but they are a very limited amount of people.

The people that I am most close to are those that I can see in real life. I stay in touch with them throughout the week and some family members connect with me several times a day. It is this group of people that I think (or hope) would miss me if they hadn’t heard from me in a couple of days.

Social media is a luxury and if it disappeared, it would be a disappointment but not a disaster.

How do you feel about social media? Please share.

Free is Still Good

In I still like free from Blue Skunk Blog,  Doug Johnson shares,

“…I would urge teachers and techies alike to take advantage of free.”

I know that many people are suspicious of “free” because everyone believes that “nothing in life is free.” But I use a lot of free software and apps on my computer. I think it is important to realize that someday it may not be free so use it while you can. We should use the free things while they are available but just not depend on them always staying free. With this understanding, I believe it is great to use the free things.

I am a knitter and find a lot of free patterns online. Many people may feel the quality is not as good as paid-for patterns, but I have to disagree. Many are just as good or even better than some of the patterns that I have paid for.

I still use Blogger which is this free blog platform and have been using it for about 11 years. I encourage my students to use this platform for the blogs that I require them to have. I find it very easy to use and would definitely recommend it to others. I have tried other free platforms, but this is my preference. Thank goodness it is still free after all this time.

I’m glad the social media that I use is still free. I use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Ravelry (for crafters). I have been using all of them for a number of years and so glad I don’t have to pay for them.

I used to use other free platforms that have eventually gone to a paid subscription or disappeared entirely. I feel that this is just the nature of the beast. Things come and go and sometimes change is good. If I hadn’t been “forced” to find something new, I might have gotten in a rut.

How do you feel about using free things? Please share.

Social Media in Schools

In The case for social networks in schools yet again from Blue Skunk Blog,  Doug Johnson states,

“School is a place to learn from mistakes. Caring adults surrounding our kids can help rectify poor choices and turn the experience into a ‘teachable moment.’”

I don’t see how blocking social media from my students is going to help them be productive citizens in today’s society.

Many businesses use social media for advertising and connecting with consumers. I have seen every industry using this platform.

Colleges and employers are checking social media sites for prospective candidates.

If I allow students to use social media, I can guide them and help them learn appropriate ways to use it in order to be successful in their careers.

I can help them learn appropriate ways to interact with others.

This can be compared to driving a car. Just because some people use cars inappropriately (for example: speeding, evading police, reckless driving), I don’t see society stopping students from driving. We even have Driver’s Education classes in schools so we can teach  them how to appropriately and safely drive a car.

Some people read books that others may see as immoral. As a teacher, I try to teach students that reading can open their worlds and they have to choose what they like to read. When they become adults, they may choose reading material that many do not like or approve of but that is a decision the reader must make. We don’t stop teaching reading because the student may choose some inappropriate material to read.

Maybe we should have social media classes available to our students and offer it as an elective. We can show them how to safely use it. We can also show them what is appropriate and explain what may be inappropriate. In this class, we can also show them how colleges may use their information to decide whether to accept them as a student. Employers may use this as a way to decide if they may be a good employee or not.

I believe the more we try to convince the students that they shouldn’t be on social media, the more we are pushing them towards this. Some students like to rebel and this is one way for them to do so.

As an adult, I like and use social media. It is not illegal or immoral if used appropriately which I absolutely try to do.  I think I can be a good role model for students who use social media.

How do you feel about students using social media? Please share. 

Putting Your Best Face Forward

In Spend A Day In Someone's Shoes with Social Media from Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator, Lisa Nielsen talks about social media and asks,

“What is your profile saying about you? Who do you want the world to see?”

I think it is important for my students to look at their friends on social media and describe them. Maybe put them in categories such as positive, negative, complains a lot, inappropriate, funny etc. This will let them see what kinds of groups they are hanging around with.

It seems like so many people I know are connecting through social media and I learn so much about them from this. I don’t know whether all that I’m learning is true or not but I can make logical assumptions from the information I’ve seen.

I have one friend who is very depressed and shares when she is depressed with everyone. She seems to need everyone encouraging her to help her make it through the day.

I have several friends who love to travel and I look forward to seeing their travel pictures that they share. Of course, I love to travel too so either the pictures bring back happy memories or I see places that I want to see.

I have friends who love to hike and they share many of their hiking and nature pictures on social media. These are always fun to look at.

I have many friends who love their families and like to share a lot of family activities that they do together. This tells me that family is important to them.

There are some friends who love to share jokes or amusing stories. I look forward to these posts because they make me smile. When people are very positive and uplifting, I’m glad to have them as my friends on social media.

I have some friends who just like to complain. They complain about things that happen in their daily life or events that are happening in the world. They seem to love to complain. These people are not close friends to me and if they get too negative, I usually disconnect from our friendship. I don’t like to voluntarily bring negativity into my life.

After noticing this about my friends, I took a look at myself. I try to be positive every morning and others notice this because they have commented about it when I see them that they look forward to this. Apparently they like it because it has made a positive impact on them. I try not to talk negative about anyone or anything because I was brought up that “if I have nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all.”

Now if I do have a problem with a company or complaint, I don’t have a problem sharing it in hopes that the company will see it and resolve the problem. I also don’t make a habit of this so if I do post something like this, my friends know that I’m pretty upset.

I like to share educational posts that I write or find because many of the people I connect with are educators. Some non-educators appreciate the links to these posts also. Some people see me as a resource for information.

I like to share some funny posts that I get because I think everyone likes to smile. I won’t share anything that is rude, obscene or uses profanity but usually generally funny.

I try to remember that I don’t really know who my audience is. Yes, I have friends who are connected but I don’t know who they might show my posts to so I don’t write anything that would make me feel embarrassed if my parents or my employers saw them. This usually is a good rule of thumb to follow and students should start with this rule too.

Now that many colleges and employers are looking at social media, it is important to put our best face forward. This should start as soon as a person begins to interact on social media.

How do you think your profile reflects yourself? How do you teach your students to look at this and put their best face forward?

12 Social Media Tips

The other day the news was busy reporting about how a favorite for the NFL first draft pick lost out because a video surfaced showing him smoking pot through a gas mask and bong.

Now I have to admit that I know nothing about the NFL or the draft other than the movie Draft Day with Kevin Costner which was a great movie (of course, I like Kevin Costner in pretty much anything).

I do know that this was such a wasted opportunity by someone who had some talent.

I believe that all teachers need to start warning students as young as elementary school about their online presence. They may thing that their actions won’t affect their future but it will!

Here are some things that I think all students need to know:

1.     Your negative actions on social media may be dug out of space and come back to bite you in the butt! You may think you deleted things but don’t count on it. Maybe someone saved it for later use or saved it to show someone and it is there somewhere in space just waiting to ruin you.

2.     Great practice to follow if that if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.

3.     Don’t judge others and share your opinions on social media. You may change your opinion later on, but first impressions stick in people’s minds.

4.     Don’t share anything you do that might be illegal, or seen as illegal! (Don’t come back later and just say you were joking around. That doesn’t really impress people either!)

5.     Future employers look at your social media to determine what kind of character you have. Show them you have integrity through your actions!

6.     Future employers may look at your social media presence as far back as when you first started. Don’t think that things happened in the past don’t matter. They do.

7.     Don’t show off on social media. It isn’t cute there or in real life either.

8.     Be nice to people. That goes a long way on social media and in real life.

9.     Don’t blame others for whatever is going on in your life. Be responsible for yourself.

10.  Avoid profanity on social media. It isn’t professional and most people in your personal life honestly don’t care for it either but won’t tell you.

11.  Have a positive presence online. People will respect you for it.

12.  Don’t post anything anywhere that your mother would be embarrassed about if she saw it.

Do you have any other tips? Please share.