Thing #18

I wonder how many new words have been invented in the last two or three years?  Probably more than those created prior to internet access.  When I was in high school, “birds tweeted” not people.  We called, wrote or visited our friends.  Facebook and Twitter are both filtered out by the security system in our schools, so theoretically students are denied access to these sites.  Though access to social networking sites has been blocked within our schools, even our elementary students know how to get around the security system.  Just recently, our School Board voted to assign a supervisor to monitor all social networking sites for inflammatory, subversive or insubordinate statements regarding students, faculty, curriculum, and/or facilities.  Her role is to stop cyber bullying, warn the staff of controversial activities, and report erroneous or negative information placed on the internet.  Several teachers have received formal reprimands from our Director of Schools, for statements they placed on Facebook.  Within our county, students have been reported for posting inappropriate photographs on their privacy sites after they went viral, so parents and teachers should monitor this very closely.   

In regards to Facebook and Twitter, I have warned both of my children to never give out confidential information, say anything derogatory, only “friend” people they know, to remember that once it is posted everyone has access to it, and it is there forever.  To insure their safety, I periodically review my teenagers’ interactions.  Unfortunately, it would be difficult for me to determine if they had secret accounts. 

In Humphreys County, teachers are discouraged from directly communicating with students, so using Facebook and Twitter would not be an appropriate means of contacting parents or students.  As an adult, I use Facebook to talk with my friends and discuss college assignments.  It is user friendly and has more useful options.  Twitter is a very powerful tool when used to call vast numbers of clients’ attention to activities or events, and the users can limit the number of “followers” they have.