No Twittering in the Classroom: Two Dangers of Social Networking Sites in School

Should we allow the use of social networking sites in educational settings by teachers who find that such utilities help them to teach more effectively? Some schools are banning Facebook, Twitter and similar sites because of privacy concerns. Many people insist such websites are merely a distraction in the classroom, or worse. (See ‘Facebook in class, a bad idea?' CBC 2009/08/26)

Nearly everyone agrees that students should be taught certain skills such as how to navigate cyberspace safely, how to do research online and how to utilize digital technology. But the broader implications of the internet must be considered when powerful electronic tools and utilities become part of the curriculum. There are two implications that are particularly dark, what I would like to call Soma (based on Aldous Huxley's Brave New World) and Big Brother (based on George Orwell's 1984).

It is myopic to try to justify techno-twitter in classrooms based upon the obvious usefulness of the internet, but that is what researchers at the University of Minnesota did when they "discovered" the pedagogical powers of MySpace and Facebook (‘Educational Benefits Of Social Networking Sites Uncovered' ScienceDaily 2008/06/21). The findings were that, when asked what they learned from using social networking sites, "the students listed technology skills as the top lesson, followed by creativity, being open to new or diverse views and communication skills." But all in bits and bytes! In the final analysis the medium is the message: fragmented data streams are the end result, not holistic learning.

Social Networking Sites Are Soma: They Lead to Mental Retardation

Neil Postman pointedly entitled his book Technopoly because technology can deprive us of the "social, historical, metaphysical, logical, or spiritual bases for knowing"-he also wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death, another title worth considering here. It is dumbing down our education to have students interacting with view screens and monitors (like they do not get enough of that at home) instead of interacting face-to-face with instructors and class-mates--be it around a table, in a laboratory or out in the field. But maybe that is all our schools can afford, since judging by recent funding cuts education does not seem to be much of a priority.

Social Networking Sites Are Big Brother: They Silence Discourse

Postman argues that soon we will not need to fear an Orwellian censor of books because no one will want to read one as we are "drowned in a sea of irrelevance" on our "descent into a vast triviality." Culture can survive the internet, however, if everyone is on the same wavelength, so to speak.

On Star Trek: The Next Generation there is one computer, whether you are on a starship or on planet earth. In contrast, around the world today there are millions of websites, each with their own little group of users—the opposite of mind-control is mental instability. Granted, it is all linked via search engines, but nevertheless Facebook and MySpace profiles quickly become isolated internet addresses.

Students get trapped into cliques easily enough at the best of times, but on the internet the problems of fashioning a social identity are compounded. And any possibility of a pro-active political voice, the in-your-face trademark of rebellious academia, gets lost in the fragmentary nature of cyberspace.

A truly social universal network would be welcome in the classroom, but until we have one should we not avoid introducing what could turn out to be black holes in the fabric of civilization?