Blog #4: Social Interaction
Social interaction via social media has now become a staple in the environment around us. People are just a message a away from communicating to others across the street, town, state, or globe. Even though the word around us is emerged in the social media platform, some do not realize how it is changing them. Many users of social media are missing the "social" aspect of the device. They are forgetting that social media is formed by a collaboration of people. Whether it be viewers, consumers, or just day to day conversation. Social media takes anywhere from two to a body of people to make it "social".
Why is it important to realize that social media takes two? Many users of social media are forgetting that they are making content for others to watch and read. Turner and Hick's said that, "teenagers did not view the writing they did in online spaces as "real writing" (p.107). People (not just teenagers) are using the social media platform as a space to put their thoughts out in the world, without realizing they are creating actual content.
This is one reason why there is cyber bullying. People are not thinking that there is a real person on the other side of the screen. They are not thinking of the emotions that they can create through their writing. Social media was created as a means of communication between person to person. It was a way to put arguments out there for viewers to see, not a means of arguing.
I can't help but think of former President Donald Trump. He used Twitter as a means of arguing not argument. He didn't care how his Tweets would effect him or others. Millions of people were viewing his content, yet none stopped an thought, "Wow! That such thought-out writing." I can't imagine what an impact president Trump's social media could have been toward linking our county together instead of dividing it, if he would have only been educated on how to form a proper argument via social media. ***Below is a link to President Trump's tweets.
https://www.dw.com/en/donald-trump-twitter-hides-tweet-for-glorifying-violence/a-53613072
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/29/1002396/twitter-labels-trump-shooting-tweet/
As educators of future generations, it is our job to educate our students how to create quality content on the web, as well as educate them that the post they are making is a means of socialization. teaching students to be MINDFUL of what are they are looking at and creating on social media is a start.
We need to teach students to MONITOR what they are reading on social media, as well as IDENTIFY the claim being addressed. We must teach students to NOTE evidence that others use in an argument to judge if it is a valid claim (p.109). Teach your students how to DETERMINE if a person on social media is reputable, and see if the author of the post has FACTS to back up his argument. Not only do we want our students to understand an argument, but we want them to UNDERSTAND the counter argument. And the final thing we can teach our students about social media is by far the most important. Teaching students what is important and not important to post, share, tweet, etc. on social media. Teach LEVERAGE of students responses. How will uploading the social media content benefit you, as well as the community around you (p. 110).
References
Turner, K. and Troy H. Argument in the real world. Heinemann Publishing, 1 Nov. 2016, www.heinemann.com/products/e08675.aspx.
You’re so right about how students aimlessly scroll Facebook or Twitter and put content out into the world without knowing it’s content. They do not realize that it counts towards reading and writing. I keep thinking about the statement “but what if we could help students make the pivot to recognize that it is indeed reading and writing” (Turner and Hicks,2017,p.107). How do we do that? How do we make them realize?
ReplyDeleteReference
Turner, K.H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts: Arguments in the real world. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Good point about the notion that reading and posting to social media is in itself a form of socialization. There are many great aspects to this, but a lot of pitfalls as well. Turner and Hicks (2017) note that "we must encourage students to be be mindful as they participate in social media" (pg. 108).
ReplyDeleteReference
Turner, K.H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts: Arguments in the real world. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Haley,
ReplyDeleteYou are right about the influences that we get from others on social media. There are definitely some that have way more influence than others. We are the ones that have to learn to keep those things from making us feel certain ways. We also have to teach our students to be able to look past those “tweets” or “posts” that seek to sway our opinions. This is where we have to follow the MINDFUL acronym. Hicks and Turner say, “read like a writer, write for a reader, and be mindful of both roles as you produce arguments that can be shared on the web” (p.108) This is what we have to do and teach when crafting and sharing on social media. Think about something before we just type and share. It can come back to bite us later or influence others to something negative. In the article, Fake News on Social Media: People Believe What They Want to Believe When It Makes No Sense at All, the authors say, “The speed with which information can be disseminated on social media creates an opportunity to rapidly spread fake information.” (p.1344). This is very serious when it comes from someone with great influence. Their “tweet” could be shared thousands of times in a matter of seconds. The only thing we can do is teach ourselves and our students not to jump the gun with that share button. Our future generations need us to instill the critical thinking skills to make better decisions about what we read, write, and share.
Turner, K. H., Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the real world: Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts. Heinemann Publishers.
Moravec, P. L., Minas, R. K., & Dennis, A. R. (2019). Fake News on Social Media: People Believe What They Want to Believe When It Makes No Sense at All. MIS Quarterly, 43(4), 1343–1360. https://doi-org.ezproxy.montevallo.edu/10.25300/MISQ/2019/15505