I have had many thoughts on participatory culture, especially from different aspects of my life. As a mother, I have been very careful (or so I thought) regarding my son’s presence. I have a two-year-old toddler, and I love to take many pictures. I could write about him all day on any social media platform. But hearing how many toddlers have a social media presence or even babies while in their mother’s stomachs makes me realize I have not done the best job I can.
As a teacher, I can say I have not done anything to enable students to use social media and participate in the trends (only because I am not a teacher yet). But looking at Micheal Wesch’s Video I have come to realize just how far back participatory culture goes and how far it will continue to grow. Everyone just wanted to be a part of the new beginnings of social media, especially YouTube. Now, this has drastically changed to TikTok and the amount of likes on Instagram posts and amount of reposts on VSCO posts. I can say personally, when I post and do not get notifications right away from people liking my posts, I think, what did I do wrong?
I think in schools, we now need to be worried about if children are communicating more amongst social media rather than face to face. Children and students need to create relationships with their peers that they see every day. Having a good idea of how to communicate through social media is something we need to teach in schools and ensure students understand the effects of their digital citizenship. Such as what they post will follow them around for the rest of their lives and can hinder how someone sees them. But we also now need to teach children how to build and form relationships with the rest of the world face-to-face.
While reading Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022 I realized how involved certain teens and their families that have a higher income have more access to social media and these trends. Some students might not have access to laptops and phones, making certain assignments hard to complete. I think for these challenges, we need to be more inclusive as teachers with assignments and give students the ability to use computers at school and not send homework home as often. I think having access to these technologies is great, especially for assignments and research. However, I am scared of the long-term effects and how much the stats will grow with it being more accessible in classrooms. Students can get caught up in the negatives of social media and its growing popularity instead of their benefits. As mentioned before, I think it is incredibly important to educate students about social media and how “trending” things do not always get you to where you want to be in your life.
As a mom, I can say I will look more into the posts of my son, and I will also be (when he is older) having a long talk about his digital footprint and all the wonderful things the internet has to offer. But as well as how it can be harmful and when he knows that life isn’t about trending… It is about living… The same goes for my future students.
I really liked how you talked about telling your son, as well as your students, that yes, it exists, and it can be great, but only when used responsibly. It is important to note that, as teachers, we are also partially responsible for teaching things like digital citizenship and social media use to our students. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts!
This was a great post, Alyssa! I notice that you respect the use of social media but only if there is a balanced approach alongside in person social interaction. I like that you gave both the parent and teacher approach to this as well. When I was young, I used Kik, MSN and BBM (on blackberry phones) to message my friends but I mostly did so when I was at home and alone. Otherwise when I was with friends, I usually stayed off of these social media messaging platforms. Do you think that you will be able to put yourself in the shoes of your students and even your son when having these conversations about how to balance social media and face-to-facr interactions with peers?