Hello world, this is my first attempt at blogging. My name is Morgan Smerek. I am your average generic middle aged male, caught inbetween Gen X and millenials. Growing up our schools used floppy disks in Mac 1s until 7th grade, and then jumped to Mac books. This blew my mind, mostly because I grew up poor and didn’t have access to computers outside of school. In highschool everyone had the first Iphone and teachers were using SMART boards. Since then the world has completely changed, and the trend is to become more reliant on technology.
I have absolutely zero blogging experience, and quite frankly I hate social media. That being said, I have noticed that my career and hobbies would benefit from a presense on the internet. My instagram account has never been active because I always treated it like a forum and only subscribed to people I actually liked to be updated on. My handle on there is GenericWhiteDude. https://www.instagram.com/genericwhitedude/
THIS IS SO COOL!
I LOVE that we have opposing sides concerning social media! I got a phone at 13 years old to text & call only my parents after sport practises, clubs and when with a friend. It had strict restrictions so it meant nothing to me because I wanted to play phone games or text my friends like many of the other students did in my grade (greedy, but this is what the reality of social media is). My parents took out restrictions after I turned 15. Social media can be a great resource when used appropriately, but students are often not taught how to use it correctly which can cause devastation. Typically if you have access to the internet, you will have access to anything you want. I have heard of students in the 8th grade (12-13 years old) who have had Tinder before. Here is a reading expressing the concerns of young children using Tinder…
Tinder Reading: https://www.verywellfamily.com/what-every-parent-needs-to-know-about-tinder-2609052
I like murder mysteries and documentaries and The Tinder Swindler on Netflix reminds me of the darkness social media can have. Here is reading about it…
The Tinder Swindler: https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/who-is-tinder-swindler-real-shimon-hayut
I have seen many cool projects come from a 3D printer and would love to have one someday as well. I am excited to watch you grow to use social media in a professional way to benefit your students’ learning, and to see what you come up with!
You are absolutely hilarious! I do think that we are stuck in a weird time. I feel like I have an identity crisis because I do not fit in with those 5 years younger than me, but also not really with those 5 years older than me! My husband also hates social media! I am sure this course will, hopefully change your mind!