I’m lumping all of these readings together because they are all “pop press” articles (or, in the case of the NPR report, audio files) and because they are all comparatively short. They are:
- From NPR, “Facebook, MySpace Divide Along Social Lines.”
- From flexknowlogy, “Defining Creepy Treehouse.”
- From Time Magazine, Steven Johnson’s “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live.”
- From Mashable, “Zen and the Art of Twitter: 4 Tips for Productive Tweeting.”
Let me offer a few comments on these things as they appear:
Interestingly enough, I hear the NPR story “Facebook, MySpace Divide Along Social Lines” almost the same day that danah boyd spoke at U of M back in October. I blogged about boyd’s talk here, and about this NPR story here.
“Creepy Treehouse” is a sort of difficult term to define and I guess the flexknowlogy blog post isn’t exactly “popular press” stuff, but I thought I’d mention it here because of how it speaks to the challenges/perils of using stuff like Facebook or Twitter to teach. The way I interpret this is that students who resist things like Facebook in a class (like this one, like first year writing, etc.) may have this resistance both because they “feel violated” and because they want to keep some things about “school” separate from their “life.” And I think that students do have a point here.
The Steven Johnson article is a very smart and accessible article that I think does a better job than just about anything else I’ve read at answering the question “what’s the point of this Twitter thing?” I also think he is very right when he says this about Twitter and social media in general:
“Social networks are notoriously vulnerable to the fickle tastes of teens and 20-somethings (remember Friendster?), so it’s entirely possible that three or four years from now, we’ll have moved on to some Twitter successor. But the key elements of the Twitter platform — the follower structure, link-sharing, real-time searching — will persevere regardless of Twitter’s fortunes, just as Web conventions like links, posts and feeds have endured over the past decade. In fact, every major channel of information will be Twitterfied in one way or another in the coming years…”
And finally, “Zen and the Art of Twitter: 4 Tips for Productive Tweeting” is just that– pretty straight-forward tips.
I thought the NPR article was really interesting. I had no idea that it was dividing among racial/ethnic lines. I think MySpace has been slipping for some time now, but I never knew that there was such a stigma associated with it. I think the student that said something along the lines of Facebook only being the cool thing until something new comes along is pretty accurate, although I don’t think that it’s going to be twitter.
The creepy treehouse thing was interesting… never heard of the term before, although we’ve talked about the situation itself. I wonder if someone should just invent an application that combines blogs, wikis, social networking and the best of everything else in a specifically educational setting. Maybe that would nullify the creepy treehouse feeling if it was only used for educational purposes? (Disclaimer: If any of you invent this and get rich, I want my cut!)
I read the twitter articles before, and although I do think they lend some creedance to the usability of it, I just can’t bring myself to accept it. I don’t think the “cereal” analogy is all that convincing (mainly, because even though we start off a phone call with ‘how are things?,’ we don’t usually want to know in such detail as some provide in their tweets), but the example about the conference is definately interesting. And, unfortunately it seems that most people do not follow the 4 tips for productive tweeting… but i might have more respect for it if they did.
Good idea about the creepy treehouse thing, Dave! Maybe that someone could be you! Then you don’t have to worry about hunting someone down for your cut
If only I had the technical know-how to do such a thing. Maybe I will after Steve’s 444 class this summer.
That would be engl444.stevendkrause.com, in case anyone is curious. Also, folks interested in some “technical know-how” about some the stuff we’re talking about this term might also be really interested in the class I’m planning on teaching online and in Traverse City this summer, http://techforteach.wordpress.com
(We now return to your regularly scheduled class….
I think that I must have heard the NPR article at some time in the past, because I am sure I was aware of that. As a matter of fact, after I heard that, I asked my 10th graders about Facebook vs MySpace, and they basically countered that MySpace was ‘sooo old school,” I do see a difference, as the one person indicated, that the kids who go for the sleeze (pictures of themselves half clothed with a bottle of beer -at 15) tend to show up more on MySpace than I have noticed on Facebook.
Something that really struck me was the caution by the Ohio Dept of Ed to tell teachers to not use Facebook and such sites–this after I just accepted a bunch of my kids as friends. These are, for the most part, good kids and I reminded them that if there is something they do not want a teacher to see, they need to be careful about friending me…but I already saw one student’s questionable language, and now I am somewhat sorry that I accepted any students at all. On the other hand, I am thinking of using Facebook next year, or some other social networking site as a reminder to my students for major papers or projects….darned if you do, darned if you don’t……..I guess.
I will not be posting anything of a personal nature for them to see, but nevertheless, I certainly wouldn’t want to be censured by my district.
On a side note, our school motto for this year is “Stepping it up” (this was mandated by our principal). So, yesterday I was invited to join the “stepping it up” facebook group–which basically is a large group of kids (over 400) who are ANTI-stepping it up and ANTI-Collins writing (also mandated by our administration). Of course, I didn’t join (I like my job), but it was fun to read their “manifesto of sorts.” Then I began to think about it. It is a much less destructive way to rant and be heard than, say to grafitti a building, or have a sit-in or a walk-out. The kids seem to be having fun with it. I sort of wish I could join, but I won’t. I really see how Facebook can be used to ‘assemble the masses’ so to speak. Interesting!
As far as the creepy treehouse ideal, did I misunderstand it? I thought that if teachers had a site and invited the students to it, then it seemed like a creepy treehouse! I didn’t get that if it were truly all educational, it would be ok. I guess the answer is to create a Facebook and let the students THINK that you don’t want to share with them, then let them in! They are truly fascinated by the whole thing! I have probably added more friends in the last month than most of my students have!
As far as twittering, I can’t find it fascinating yet, zen or no zen. However, the Zen ideas would work better for me than the “am eating a ham sandwich on the porch” kind of entries.
Oh, Twitter! Yes, I too advocate for fewer ham-sandwich tweets and more tweets of substance — like Bill Gates’, for instance. Should we teach students how to zen-ify their tweets, though? Is it our job as writing teachers?
I jumped ahead a little and watched The Twitter Experiment in which a professor incorporates Twitter into a lecture course; in this context, I think the answer is definitely yes, since it would hopefully produce better comments in the course. However, what if Twitter isn’t part of the coursework? For example, the always poised Beth Sabo (GA, also in Ashlee’s and my 585 course) tells her students on the first day of class that she will refuse all of their social networking requests: a stance that I think addresses the creepy treehouse effect, but also doesn’t allow for the benefits that The Twitter Experiment did.
Does it always just depend on context? If so, how do we determine in which contexts it’s appropriate? I don’t want to be a creeper! I just want to facilitate student learning in the coolest way possible!
I actually think Twitter and Facebook are quite different in that regard. On the one hand, if I “friend” someone on Facebook (and let’s be clear: just because you’re my Facebook friend doesn’t mean you’re really my “friend”), it is a reciprocal arrangement– that is, you have to agree to be my friend as well. But with Twitter, you can merely follow me (or vice-versa) without the same arrangement. This is why Twitter is in many ways more of a “broadcast” medium.
The other thing is that if you use a #hashtag (as we did for our class, as they did for the Twitter Experiment, which we’ll get to soon), then all you have to do is follow that topic. This is another kinda cool thing about Twitter: try following it with a hashtag about something that’s going on right now, like a popular TV show, and you’ll see what I mean.
Good point! Twitter definitely isn’t as personal as Facebook, considering users don’t put as much personal information in their profile. Twitter also doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Facebook: photo albums, applications, blog-like notes, friend suggestions, etc. As a result, Twitter’s creepy treehouse potential definitely goes down; it seems much more appropriate for educational use, too.
So if I add you as a friend on FB you won’t be my real friend???
Well….
I think that one of the differences between being facebook “friends” as adults isn’t always to be “friends”, but to literally create a social netwrok. I may be looking for a job down the line and one of my old profs knows of one I could apply for. Or my prof could be attending a conference or publishing a book I’d like to hear more about, etc. Whereas friending younger students is more of the creepy treehouse effect.
I also agree with Steve though, Twitter is way different in that respect and could be used in some really innovative ways!
Creepy treehouses… eeep! I can definitely see why students would resist merging their social/personal lives with their academic/professional ones, but a creepy treehouse seems to result in more than just feeling as if one’s life is decompartmentalized. It’s — I don’t know — creepier! While reading this article, I found myself wondering about course management systems, like emuonline (I’m more familiar with CTools at UM, powered by Sakai) — are they creepy treehouses? Or are they only creepy when they incorporate tools like wikis and forums and chat rooms? Or does the treehouse (network, site, whatever) have to be one our students already use outside the classroom to become creepy upon our entre into it?
I heard the MySpace/Facebook NPR article last year and found it super interesting. I wonder what the numbers are six months later? Has the MySpace user-base gotten smaller? I know Facebook continues to grow. I agree that Facebook’s look is more professional — MySpace still has that mid-90′s clipart sort of aesthetic going on. It’s the social perceptions of these aesthetics that I find troubling. Essentially the kids quoted in the article are calling Latino people trashy, and I can’t help but see it as a chicken/egg thing: do they see MySpace users as trashy because more racial minorities use it (is that even statistically true?), or are the racial minorities trashy based on their choice of social network?
I too jumped ahead and watched the twitter experiment. I am torn-what do we do-especially in public school? College teachers have more leeway, but I am not supposed to LET my kids have cell phones in class, let alone require it! As for that experiment, I found it interesting, but I am not sure I am totally convinced that I would feel comfortable using it on a regular basis. Of course, some of the stuff we simply think about using now will probably be the norm in the future!
I love Big Bang Theory (which I am going to go watch here in a sec, by the way) and I love a remark that Sheldon said one day when one of his room mates noticed that he is hoarding his paychecks-he said he is saving up his money to buy stuff that isn’t invented yet. That so falls into the same kind of idea here–what we may not see as useful now will be the norm some day???
But, Carrie, as for your question or comment about Facebook: I personally think that it has more to do with its beginning as a college student website, there was already a more mature format incorporated into the system so that those who followed kind of used that as a template perhaps. Whereas the MySpace started more in high school and drifted down to the tweens. Therefore, as kids want to seem more grown up, perhaps they see Facebook as a more mature forum and reject MySpace because it seems too kiddish (to coin a word)? I don’t know–just a thought.
Judy, I definitely think you’re on to something with the origins of Facebook as a site for college students. I could see these origins contributing to the creepy treehouse factor. As more “adults” have joined Facebook, I also think the site’s profile as a cool thing has gone down, though it’s still one of the main ways people stay in touch and consume information. I’m not as familiar with the origins of MySpace. Was it really a HS thing? For some reason I thought it was originally populated by older people, but maybe that’s just my perception? I think it’s also important to keep in mind that is Facebook the Madonna of social networks: it keeps reinventing itself and adding new features to stay current, widen its audience, and of course increase revenue. Perhaps it’s getting close to running its course, but after six years it’s still continuing to grow and reinvent itself. I think Facebook will be around longer than many predict.
Have you heard about MySpace’s current reinvention? They are trying to update it so that it focues on music and media and such. I wonder if that will have any effect on its popularity… but I don’t know.
Yeah, they probably need to market to a new audience since they’ve lost so many people to facebook!
I think the music angle is working for them though– lots and lots of bands are still there.
It may have originally begun with the older people, but it went to high school level a long time ago–way before Facebook did. And you know that kids always want to try to be more adult………… so, the perception, I think, has stayed,
One other thing I forgot to mention:
Teens are super social (often naively so), and they are always taking up tools to facilitate their social lives. Remember the stereotype of the teenager monopolizing the telephone line for hours? It persisted until the invention of cell phones. Today everyone texts everyone all the time (“Beth Ann! Who are you texting 50 times a day? IDK, My BFF Jill.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nIUcRJX9-o). Facebook (and every other social network) is another tool for facilitating the social lives of teenagers. I think it’s actually a lot for young people to deal with and process along with their raging hormones and learning to drive and getting into a good college/getting a good job, etc. etc. Major props to teenagers today for surviving! The only way I survived high school is by avoiding drama — I don’t think I’d make it today!
I saw an article last year that said something like the average teenager texts at least 25 times a day (I text about 25 times a month, btw), and I remember asking my first year students about it when I taught 121 in the fall. “Yeah, that sounds about right,” was the basic response….
Just! Big Bang Theory is my favorite show (next to the ultimately nerdy Lost in Space
and the one I wish I could watch weekly but never have time!!! But that is a funny remark, there will be so many new technologies coming out that we just don’t know where things will be heading!
I did not know there was social division on the net like NPR stated. The first awareness that awakened me was Ashlee’s book review. The avatar’s being racial—feminists wow it blows my mind. I guess I never really considered that aspect before. The school I use to teach at really monitored My Space and discouraged using it. According to them (school officials), My Space did not have any limits to topics or language. It was unclean for young minds.
I do believe that there are “creepy treehouses” and educators should not try to make everything into an educational tool. There are such things as creative play and that is why FB, MySpace & Twitter took off so well with the youth. They could do it in theire own time and say what they wanted without someone dictating topics, methods and rules. They don’t always want to mix the two together. In the adult world, we want separation between work/ recreation or play. There are certain barriers we should not cross.
I need to post better tweets. I’n not use to limited words. But I can see the advantages of doing the zen thing. Why not make life better for yourself and others and have a direction. I do get lost in the flow sometimes.
Well said, Gloria! I think you’re right: we definitely shouldn’t try to incorporate everything into teaching/the classroom. I’ve found that teachers who use technology just for the heck of it are more likely to run into trouble/lose focus/fail because they didn’t consider beforehand the pedagogical benefits of a particular tool over another. I have several friends who are Instructional Technology Consultants at UM, and they get requests like this all time, especially from tenure-track faculty who don’t plan ahead and/or haven’t taken the time to consider all of their options depending on their pedagogical goals. Even though you say that you’re not as tech-savvy, Gloria, I get the sense that you are a lot more “with it” than many faculty today.
I agree too. I think I may have mentioned this before, but my wife actually does use Facebook to post stuff for her classes because she doesn’t have a web site (nothing like this, for example) and it’s an easy way to distribute stuff to her students who are all already on FB anyway. I’m not crazy about it because, well, it doesn’t seem necessary to me.
But I do think that part of my goal in a class like this is to expose you all to/share with all of you a bunch of tools/ideas and then let you figure out what works for you. Or what doesn’t….
I’m not a huge fan of mixing my personal/academic/professional life, so I really agree with the “creepy treehouse” idea. That might just be my personality though. I’ve always tried to have separate email accounts for work, school, and friends, and I use different blogs for different purposes. For me, I think that when lines of professionalism and personal relationships get fuzzy things can get really funky…so I wouldn’t ask my students to do something that I’d be uncomfortable doing.
I agree Andrea. I never mixed my high school students with anything outside of the professional classroom realm while I was a hs teacher. With grad students, that’s different, but with high school students, not appropriate for a young, single person like myself. IMO.
I think the age thing is important, and I also think that we’re crossing into a territory here where there is a difference between high school, undergraduate, and graduate classes. I don’t teach high school and never have, though I can easily see how some of this stuff is just off the table in a lot of public schools (though I will also point out that your mileage there will vary– lots of more progressive public schools are making use of stuff like Facebook, Twitter, cell phone commenting, etc., etc.)
In my own teaching, I’m more comfortable using this stuff in graduate classes than I am in undergraduate classes, I suppose because of the “more grown-up” factor. Let me put it this way: I’m perfectly willing to meet my grad students for a beverage of everyone’s individual choice at a place like The Corner, mainly because we all are very much adults. I wouldn’t do that with undergraduates.
BTW, there are a bunch of privacy settings for maintaining those categories of “my life” and “school” or “academic” life. Facebook allows you to put folks into lists and customize who sees what– for example, I have all of my “students” in a category, so if I wanted to block them from seeing something, I could.
Interesting, I didn’t know one could be that nit-picky about who they share what with! that’s pretty cool!
I think not sharing certian things with groups of people…i.e. students, is a great idea on FB. But can you do that with Twitter? I mean if people follow you can you block who does and does nto see what you post?
Yeah, you can block people from following you. I do that with various Twitter spammers– for example, I don’t think Louisville apartments don’t need to follow me. On the other hand, as long as you don’t say/do anything with Twitter that will get you in trouble, it doesn’t really matter who does (or doesn’t) follow you.
I found the NPR story about Facebook vs. MySpace incredibly interesting. I have heard the same thing– that MySpace is so yesterday and that a lot of its users are on there for, perhaps, trashy reasons. Now, I realize that this opinion was probably put forth because I belong to a certain social circle and a certain race. I had no idea that a lot of MySpace’s users are either Latino or African American and that a lot of them have duel accounts so as to connect with each of their friends.
Did anybody else feel that the comments made about not wanting to advertise to MySpace users so that a company doesn’t get associated with “those users” was pretty derogatory? I realize that it is a sweeping feeling and that the business community is one big high school popularity contest, but really?
And, as for whether Facebook is a fad of some kind… perhaps. So far other sites have tried to replicate its popularity and haven’t been successful, but I feel it is only a matter of time. We’ll see…
A perfectly-timed Chronicle article:
Facebook + academic integrity = a $10-million lawsuit!
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Student-Punished-for-Facebook/21974/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Is Facebook a fad? Probably. But social networking is here to stay. Facebook essentially does the same thing as MySpace, it just does it cleaner; however, Facebook is not all that elegant. How many times have the redesigned the interface over the last six months? My gosh, how many darn games do they need too! I predict the next competitor will present a cleaner interface and more elegant experience – who know, maybe Facebook II.
I have heard that FB is going down but I am not so sure about that. I dont have a Myspace and dont want one, but i agree that socail networking is here to stay.
I really know that Facebook has infiltrated my life when I want to click “Like” when I read people’s comments on our class blog. (*sigh*)
I like the NPR podcast. I know kids like to jump from one new fad to the next and I never thought about how these fads create social divides.
The tweet/twitter is not my cup of tea. I do not care for it much as I do not know who the heck is really following me. The idea of “follower” creeps me out.
I don’t get the Creepy treehouse thing and why it’s a big deal.
I don’t agree introducing zen meditation and thinking is good to do through social media and twitter use. It seems exploitative.
I thought the trends and statistics about Facebook versus MySpace were interesting as well, I’ve heard about this before and did notice a lot of similarities between what they were saying and what I was seeing/reading. It’s weird that even the technology we choose to use can define and stereotype us.
With Zen and the art of Twittering I think his point that social networking can become overwhelming is important. To a lot of us, it’s just good fun and a way to procrastinate and chat informally with friends, but to many, it just adds up to work. I like his point to try and learn something new. I tell my students, even if you think you know it all, there’s still something you can learn if you’re open to the possibilities, and it’s true for every facet of life, even Twitter I guess. I also like the “post not to fill empty space, but to add value” as well. It reminded me of the readings about chat rooms and YouTube from last week where people think that because their posts are anonymous they can say whatever they want. People should respond to add value and not insult.
I also loved the Creepy Treehouse article! I also thought the idea that using tools that mimic the tools students enjoy using on their own time is a part of the creepy treehouse effect. We talked about this in the summer class and how using Twitter or FaceBook pages as a way to make learning cool or fun can actually have a negative effect. Students don’t want teachers invading all aspects of their lives, they want facebook for themselves and not have to be forced to check the classroom facebook page, then it’s just a creepy treehouse and no learning takes place.
Well I have to say that Creepy Treehouse article creeped me out. I guess I was not sure what they were talking about totally. I think its about how kids can see things that are trying to pull them in, or am I reading it wrong? I know we talked about kids being online and this seems to tell us that we dont have as much to fear as we thought we did…..As for Facebook and Twitter I do see that they are very different. I am a big FB user and I like to see what my friends are saying and doing as well, but as for knowing what they had for breakfast, not so much. I mean there are posts that I see and say “do I really need to know that??” How much is too much? I dont care what any celebrity is doing at any given time really, but I am sure there are those that do and I get that idea about feeling connected to people like Oprah as a plus for some people. I am not big on the Twitter thing, but I get what the article is saying and see that it could have some potential to create and open the lines of communication for its users. I like the way it was used in the story that was mentioned, but to know what someone had for breakfast to to know that some celeb/sports figure just did or bought something does not interest me. I like the advice story that says if you want to hear certian things on Twitter then you need to post that way. I think if I ever did that I would post that way. All this technology has so much potential it is just a matter of how it is used and by whom.
So agreed… Cristin. I heard somewhere that one of the most frequent posters (or twitterers or tweeters–not sure what you call them) is Brittany Spears’ dad. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t give a care what he does!
I heard something interesting on the news this evening, though. During the big blowout at the White House today, VP Biden let slip a dirty word. Apparently one of the press secretaries commented on it on the official White House twitter account! I just thought that was funny.