Social Networking: a new tool, not a demon

Two preliminary observations about use and overuse of online social networks:

>>I’ve noticed a number of pop groups now have a MySpace url, which puts them right with their audience. Good marketing...

>>On NPR recently there was an essay by a 23 year old who had been an avid member of either Facebook or MySpace for 4 or so years. She decided to quit cold turkey and remove herself from the OSN because she discovered she had nothing to talk about when she met her friends face-to-face. At her high school reunion she already knew everything her classmates cared to share; what was the point of the reunion? Ordinary small talk was useless—she already knew what they’d had for breakfast, what books they were reading, and the latest episode in their love lives— all from the social network. She decided she wanted a real life, rather than a virtual one with them.

And now, the personal opinions.
The attitudes in two of the articles seem to epitomize the ends of the continuum—OSNs good or bad.

I pasted this from the back page of “Creating & Connecting//Research and guidelines on Online Social and Educational Networking” to show the POV of this group’s research.
“The National School Boards Association is a not-for-profit federation of state associations of school boards across the United States. Our mission is to foster excellence and equity in public education through school board leadership.
NSBA represents the nation’s 95,000 school board members that govern 14,890 local school districts serving more than
47 million public school students.”


In comparison with the article “Get out of my space” by National Institute on Media and the Family, the NSBA’s study makes it seem that most concerns adults have about social networking by YAs are hysteria. Their percentages of people having problems are small, even very small. The NSBA finds great and greater use of online methods in the classroom, as well as giving statistics about, and support for, teens and tweens use of OSNs.

ME: Naturally, cases with lots of publicity or horror value, though few, will get the greatest press, and a consequent call by some for clamping down on the perceived danger (such as the recent case of cyberbullying that apparently led to a 13yo’s suicide.). The large gap that appears between some legislators and the techno-savvy people whose activities they wish to legislate creates all sorts of problems, often needless ones. OTOH, each time we have a new technology that makes it possible to communicate in a more “graphic” way, it takes a long long time for society to shake down and accept the difference. We all recall the stories of earlier movies and television, when even married couples slept in twin beds. How DID Lucy get pregnant (and wasn’t it amazing that they even let her appear pregnant on TV in the very early 50s?). Hearing steamy passages in audiobooks is very different from reading them from a page, especially when you’re listening without headphones in a public place (such as your car) with the windows open!

One telling comment near the end of the NSBA article implies that schools just have to get used to new technology before embracing it. Now expect students to use the Internet for homework. Wikis and blogs are sometimes created as part of class work and assignments. Some students who don’t shine in class perform better at the one-remove step of online communication. Currently OSNs are the way teens communicate with each other; others who communicate the same way are more likely to get their attention—be it advertisers or teachers, or libraries or someone else. OSNs have the virtue of feeling private and public at the same time. They can be somewhat like diaries.

And here’s an added bonus: Students who use OSN are likely to be practicing writing; even if they don’t use perfect grammar or spelling (who does?); they’re learning to put their thoughts into writing without the pressure of having to write “an essay”. It would be interesting to learn if there is a future or current correlation with the scores for the SAT essay section and students using OSN.

And finally—to answer the question: should VBPL use a social networking site to connect with teens? Yes. Like IM, it is another way to connect with customers in the way they’re using our locations (in this case, our virtual location). But it has to be accessible not just from the OSN site, but from the library web page, too, so current library users are more likely to find it and to share the information with their friends.