Resources
Frontline: Generation Like |
Frontline: merchants of cool |
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TEDxNYED - Henry Jenkins & PARTICIPATORY culture
Articles:
- Leander, K., & Goldt, G. (2013). Rereading ‘A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies’: Bodies, texts, and emergence. Journal of Literary Research, 45(1), 22-46.
Response
Themes of currency of likes, self worth and empowerment stood out for me when watching Frontline’s Generation Like. Thinking about social media as a marketing tool really makes you sit back and think about how this is affecting our kids.
Using data collected from consumers to market to consumers reminded me of the marketing strategies of the Lego Brand to use lead users to develop their Mindstorm product line, as discussed in Lauwaert, 2009, p. 63. Corporations are able to collect all kinds of data from kids and teens social media activities. They are able to leverage this information and do so in a very planned out, methodical way to maximize sales and promote their brand. Something about using kids and teens in this way feels wrong. When corporations are driven only by the bottom line they not likely to have the well being of kids, as a priority as well. This should be a concern for parents and educators as the well being of our kids is our job.
Being so focused on how many likes your posts receive on social media seems so narcissistic to many of us. Is this how our kids should measure their self worth? Many find this world of endless selfies and open sharing of very personal parts of people's lives to be self absorbed and unhealthy. We have moved from a world where defaults were set to private to a place where things are public by default. Many of our students have no problems sharing their lives in these public spaces. Through these public spaces their data is being tracked and used by big corporations. This is something that kids and teens should be made aware of. How are they being manipulated to retweet and like things online? These are conversations that we should be having with our kids so they are not simply using these tools without understanding the how and why social media works the way it does. Especially when these are tools that have become so ubiquitous in our society. Many of our students own their own devices and they need to be made aware and to question these types of issues.
Social media can make people feel empowered to share their lives, views and even to reach out to people. This is what I love about social media. It makes connection to other people all over the word possible. I have seen really neat connections between classes, authors, food Network hosts, Olympians,all through Twitter. There is no doubt that being able to connect to people can be empowering, like the teen we saw who loved the Hunger Games in the video. She trilled her tweets were recognized and retweeted by the actor she admired in the movie as well as the official Hunger Games Twitter account. My hope is that, as educators, we have our students question why being “liked” and “followed” makes them feel good about themselves. My question would be, what was it they contributed that drew people to like them? The young skater who is moving towards posting more raunchy videos of hot girls to get more likes is very sad. The young girls mother who noticed full body pictures of her young daughter got her more likes on her Instagram account was also interesting. She did not seem concerned about this and in fact was the one taking the photos of her daughter in pretty skimpy clothes. As an educator, I want my students to leverage social media but in positive ways. Where are the stories of kids doing powerful positive work that utilizes social media? There are some out there, we just have to look for them. Here is a few examples that I have come across:
#CHHSLetsTalk Campaign– social media campaign started by Calgary high school student Brett Rothery to raise awareness and funds for mental health.
@westhighbros– Twitter account started by Jeremiah a high school junior. Started as a way to fight cyber bullying, students tweet compliments to friends and classmates.
http://neverseconds.blogspot.ca/– Martha Payne blogged about her horrible school lunches and people paid attention.
@LeydenPride– High School Twitter account passed on to different students each week to tweet from a student perspective.
Why weren’t these more negative and shallow uses of social media the focus of Frontline’s story? Let’s shine the light on those positive stories more often instead!
References:
Lauwaert, M. (2009). From solitary to networked geographies of play. In The Place of Play: Toys and Digital Cultures. Amsterdam:
Amsterdam University Press, 45-69.
PBS. (February, 18, 2014). Generation Like. [PBS video 53:41 min]
Using data collected from consumers to market to consumers reminded me of the marketing strategies of the Lego Brand to use lead users to develop their Mindstorm product line, as discussed in Lauwaert, 2009, p. 63. Corporations are able to collect all kinds of data from kids and teens social media activities. They are able to leverage this information and do so in a very planned out, methodical way to maximize sales and promote their brand. Something about using kids and teens in this way feels wrong. When corporations are driven only by the bottom line they not likely to have the well being of kids, as a priority as well. This should be a concern for parents and educators as the well being of our kids is our job.
Being so focused on how many likes your posts receive on social media seems so narcissistic to many of us. Is this how our kids should measure their self worth? Many find this world of endless selfies and open sharing of very personal parts of people's lives to be self absorbed and unhealthy. We have moved from a world where defaults were set to private to a place where things are public by default. Many of our students have no problems sharing their lives in these public spaces. Through these public spaces their data is being tracked and used by big corporations. This is something that kids and teens should be made aware of. How are they being manipulated to retweet and like things online? These are conversations that we should be having with our kids so they are not simply using these tools without understanding the how and why social media works the way it does. Especially when these are tools that have become so ubiquitous in our society. Many of our students own their own devices and they need to be made aware and to question these types of issues.
Social media can make people feel empowered to share their lives, views and even to reach out to people. This is what I love about social media. It makes connection to other people all over the word possible. I have seen really neat connections between classes, authors, food Network hosts, Olympians,all through Twitter. There is no doubt that being able to connect to people can be empowering, like the teen we saw who loved the Hunger Games in the video. She trilled her tweets were recognized and retweeted by the actor she admired in the movie as well as the official Hunger Games Twitter account. My hope is that, as educators, we have our students question why being “liked” and “followed” makes them feel good about themselves. My question would be, what was it they contributed that drew people to like them? The young skater who is moving towards posting more raunchy videos of hot girls to get more likes is very sad. The young girls mother who noticed full body pictures of her young daughter got her more likes on her Instagram account was also interesting. She did not seem concerned about this and in fact was the one taking the photos of her daughter in pretty skimpy clothes. As an educator, I want my students to leverage social media but in positive ways. Where are the stories of kids doing powerful positive work that utilizes social media? There are some out there, we just have to look for them. Here is a few examples that I have come across:
#CHHSLetsTalk Campaign– social media campaign started by Calgary high school student Brett Rothery to raise awareness and funds for mental health.
@westhighbros– Twitter account started by Jeremiah a high school junior. Started as a way to fight cyber bullying, students tweet compliments to friends and classmates.
http://neverseconds.blogspot.ca/– Martha Payne blogged about her horrible school lunches and people paid attention.
@LeydenPride– High School Twitter account passed on to different students each week to tweet from a student perspective.
Why weren’t these more negative and shallow uses of social media the focus of Frontline’s story? Let’s shine the light on those positive stories more often instead!
References:
Lauwaert, M. (2009). From solitary to networked geographies of play. In The Place of Play: Toys and Digital Cultures. Amsterdam:
Amsterdam University Press, 45-69.
PBS. (February, 18, 2014). Generation Like. [PBS video 53:41 min]