Meme from Heather Morrison on Pinterest.

The culture of participation that was just starting to take shape during my childhood and teen years is something that I have not participated in much. If I have participated, I have done so at the behest of my friends who wanted to create a funny video or one that replicated what was a current trend at the time. I have never quite been comfortable with putting myself out there online. I really don’t actively press the like button on many things either. Instead, I have been more of a ‘lurker’. I still find wonderful communities that create the content I regularly I consume, but I just do not participate in them beyond that.

This new aspect of our culture, and kid’s access to it, has made it so that most of the kids we teach will be on social media frequently. However, this does not explain why these kids are on social media websites for so long, why they feel it would be hard or very hard to cut social media out of their lives completely, or why they seem to get more attached to it as they get older (you can find more specific info and numbers from this Pew Research Study). I do not want to understate the fact that social media is engineered to be as addictive as it possibly can be to ensure that people stay on it for longer. That is certainly a big factor that causes our students to be online for as long as they are. (read about social media addiction here). However, I think another big factor for why they stay online for so long is FOMO (read this article to learn more about FOMO).

Graphic from Neha Sahu.

If they are not connected to the internet, and their peers, at all times, they could miss a joke that the rest of the class picks up on and be left out when no one wants to explain it. If they don’t keep up to date with people’s posts, they might miss an invitation to a gathering or party. Without being connected even for a night, these kids can lose social capital, influence among their peer group, and/or their connections to various groups outside of their immediate community. Sometimes the fear of being the odd one out, who doesn’t get the references, can be the main driver behind a kid’s social media obsession. Kids could also be searching for a community with similar interests when they cannot find in their physical proximity. The internet makes it easier to find these groups of people and bring them together, just like YouTube, blogging, and link compiling sites did in the early 2000s (info from Michael Wesch’s talk). These kids likely already feel divided from the physical communities they take part in, so they try to find that connection elsewhere.

Graphic from Mind Star Health.

Note: As I reflected on the above thoughts, it makes more sense why the kids I grew up with, and those currently in school, cannot seem to put their phones down. When you are in your teens and trying to figure out or affirm who you are, you often turn to your peers or outside communities for help and validation.

As for the classroom, online participation culture can be used in many ways. We can ensure that all students are able to use and understand social media and technology regardless of whether or not they can access it on their own. We can get students learn how to post and participate through a learning by doing model, like what we have been doing all throughout this class. Obviously, there need to be ground rules laid down so that students are responsibly posting and interacting with each other. We also need to make sure that they remain safe while online. Schools can also use the internet to connect to classrooms all across the country or the world. We can expose students to different viewpoints, perspectives, and cultures as well as how that impacts everyone’s version of ‘common sense’. Students can see creators interacting with each other in real time. For instance, students can follow and respond to larger discussions like the ‘Man vs Bear’ discussion that took the internet by storm a few months ago and continues to be referenced.

Despite these wonderful uses, students also need to be aware of the presence of misinformation and disinformation online. It gets harder and harder each month to figure out what is real and what isn’t. While blatantly false news articles are where I remember it starting, there are so many tools, like Photoshop, Deepfake, and AI voice generators, out there that are used to spread misinformation and disinformation from the mouths of politicians or from your favourite artists (see Taylor Swift AI Scandal). These tools were made to feed into the participatory culture of the internet, but are now also being used for nefarious purposes. As Michael Wesch stated during his talk, it was difficult even back in the early days of YouTube to determine whether or not someone was faking their online persona. How can we expect today’s kids to figure it out when there are these tools that make it near impossible to determine when something is fake? If at all possible, we need to teach our kids strategies for determining whether or not something is real/true.

What do you all think of this?