MySpace now has 72 million users1. That is larger than the populations of 213 countries2. Perhaps we could deal with the social online networks thing if we thought of it for what it is — MyNation. This is their digital nation. They are citizens, and they’ve never been taught digital civics.
1 Bulik, Beth S.. “How MySpace is Like World-of-Mouth Marketing on Steroids.” AdvertisingAge. 5 Jun 2006. Crain Communications. 15 Jun 2006 <http://www.adage.com/digital/article?article_id=109614>.
2 “List of Countries by Population.” Wikipedia. 15 Jun 2006. Wikimedia Project. 15 Jun 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population>.
Perfect point! I recently spoke with a 14 year old that told me she could tell who was an adult and who wasn’t by the vocabulary they used. She said that she can post anything she wants because she doesn’t put her personal information on. We need to teach students digital civics and teach the parents as well. Many parents are not exposed to the reality of the web and social networks.
I understand what you are saying, though I caution that ‘civics’ is an American course – it doesn’t exist in Canada, for example (the closest I can think of is ‘social studies’, but this, from what I understand, is very different.
See, the danger in representing MySpace as a nation lies in considering what sort of culture that nation should have. Should it be, for example, the American ‘melting pot’, or would (as I suspect) the Canadian ‘salad bowl’ be more appropriate? Is the objective of the nation the American ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ or the Canadian ‘peace, order and good government’?
I think that, like it or not, you will have to let the nation of MySpace develop its own culture, tempting though it may be to impose your own.
The words we would use in Scotland are not the same but the principle very definitely is! In most schools in Scotland the young people will not be allowed access to sites such as MySpace or Bebo (and often for very good reasons – we do need to protect them from harm and us from the courts!). The problem is that we don’t teach them how to behave on-line at all. We assume that if we put filters in place then we have done our job. Your point is well made and needs to be restated loudly and often.
We are currently reviewing much of our curiculum in Scotland under the heading “A Curriculum for Excellence”. This states the four capacities as successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. This doesn’t sound too different to civics.
I hope you don’t mind. I have used your comments in my blog at http://gordonsramblings.blogspot.com/
Stephen, I agree with your final paragraph. You say, “…you will have to let the nation of MySpace develop its own culture, tempting though it may be to impose your own.”
I think that imposing our view of what the next generation’s online culture should look like would be arrogant — and that’s probably the best that could be said about it. In fact, talking about whether it should look like a soup or a salad misses my point entirely — and that’s probably my fault.
MySpace… is a place with different laws of physics, different laws of economics, and different laws of property. Again, I agree that we need to leave it to them, to either hammer out a culture, or not hammer anything out, and let it emerge. We just need to realize that it is a legitimate and significant civil space, and do what we can to protect our children in those places where it intersects with potentially dangerous areas of our space.
It’s a difficult thing to talk about, but we need to shape our thinking into something that is useful, and not just reactionary.
Dear David, Stephen and Others,
I appreciate the comments you’ve made regarding MySpace. My one question for you is *do you have accounts there*? If you don’t, then please get one and add me (jbcoops@yahoo.com). I have to laugh at the politicians and educators who completely disregard MySpace out of hand and really don’t have any first hand experience with it.
That being said, I would warn any parent about letting their own kids have free reign at Tapped In, especially younger ones who want to fake their age and join this global community (currently at over 85 million members and growing at a rate of 200,000 daily). I have been there for a few months with my main objective being to see just how safe it is, and find ways to help make it safer without destroying the fun for the kids.
I do agree that students need their own place to congregate, without feeling that “our generation” (whether it’s parents or educators) are constantly looking over their shoulders at everthing they write. For that reason I’ve argued against computer monitoring software (electronic Big Brother) where parents could view each keystroke of their kid. I don’t think they should really eavesdrop on their kids and everything they do at MySpace, but they should be aware of a few things and have understandings with their kids:
1. Who are their kids’ friends? Just as IRL, it’s important that there are some guidelines there. If the agreement is that the kid only befriends people they know into their MySpace circle, that’s a good idea. However, if they want to add someone outside, then again, the parents and kids need to come up with a good protocol for allowing that.
2. Never meet someone they meet at MySpace without checking with a parent and being chaperoned when they do. Common sense. Don’t meet with strangers.
3. Be aware that as the biggest “wide open” social network, there are a number of hackers there. Login and password phishing (account stealing), redirects (to porn sites and elsewhere, automatic bulletin posting (you click a link from someone in myspace and then you automatically end up posting a bulletin *yourself*) and a number of other nasty hacks are going on. These things make MySpace very *unsafe* and people need to be aware of that. MySpace is doing what it can (short of shutting down javascripting and html which is what made it popular to begin with), but it’s the community itself that needs to self-police and have the “good drive out the bad.”
Well… there are my two cents. Another educator and I have set up groups there, and at Tapped In to discuss MySpace safety issues if you are interested in joining, please contact me.
Regards,
Jeff Cooper
oops… in my previous post I made the comment about “warning parents against letting students have free reign at Tapped In” it should have said “MySpace.”
Indeed, parents (and educators) may create accounts for students at Tapped In, which is a safe and secure environment for K-12 students. It is not nearly as fun as MySpace however, and is not wide open (no javascript or html programming).
Civics is a Canadian course…. see: http://www.civicschannel.com/indexc.php
See also my post on MySpace at
http://www.civicschannel.com/cblog/index.php