The Horizon Report states in their 2013 findings that, "Social media is changing the way people interact, present ideas and information, and communicate. This caused me to contemplate, what impact this may be having on our children? As teachers, what affects are we witnessing in the classroom? Social media has definitely expand our ability to interact with people and present ideas and information. I believe interaction is different from communication. One important factor of communication is how we emotionally respond to what is being said to us. With the demand for higher test scores, removal of recess and the excessive use of technology to interact, our children have become unplugged from the human factor of communicating with each other. Everywhere you turn you observe them, head down, ears plugged and walking blindly around. We appear to be plugged into media and yet unplugged socially. I've witnessed time after time situations where our children our gathered together, a perfect time to talk, share ideas and thoughts, and just enjoy each others company and yet each of them are mindlessly staring into their phones, computers or iPads. I do realize there are other factors that contribute to this emotional void our children appear to be experiencing. And yes, I agree that emerging technology allows us to network, exchange our thoughts, information and ideas but is it really social.
The internet does allow us to reach far beyond our immediate environment but I feel it has removed the human factor from actually communicating. Without having opportunities to experience the feelings involved in emotionally connecting with each other, our children do not comprehend the consequences involved with posting personal revealing photos or making derogatory statements about their peers with merely a click of a key. They need opportunities to talk, debate, and laugh face to face with each other. Social media can't give them that.
It removes the personal emotional element from social communication, people become just a site, a place to jot down our mental ramblings, not a person with feelings. They are not able to see the hurt in someone's eyes when a mean statement is made or the infectious response true laughter (LOL) can have. As teachers it is our responsibility in partnership with parents to bring some balance back into this equation. Our society definitely benefits from social media but we must use these type of findings to consistently evaluate the impact that new technologies are having on our children.
