social media technology

The appropriation and repurposing of social technologies in higher education.

Web 2.0 is revolutionizing communication, social interaction and just about anything else you can think of.  By their very nature, Web 2.0 applications are interactive and open.Institutions of higher education are increasingly incorporating social media tools into their pedagogy.  

Higher education cannot ignore the sweeping changes that social media has wrought. Claiming issues of privacy and safety, the academy is appropriating and repurposing these tools.Rather than embracing the "open" nature of these Web 2.0 tools,higher education is locking them down, enclosing them within course management systems that require authentication and have restricted access.

It is clear that commercially available online learning environments, i.e. WebCT, Blackboard, Angel, Moodle etc are not engaging students.  They are clunky, boring and difficult to use. As this article points out, they are also “dependent on pre-digital metaphors which are increasingly anachronistic as new media gains in significance.” These course management systems are built around dated academic frameworks, the critical essay. New media is built around the visual and digital. New media is radically altering our concepts of “writing” as we have previously conceived of it.

We need to integrate the long held traditions of the academy with the new values of social media. To ignore the social media technologies, facebook, blogs, social bookmarking applications is to negate how the majority of the population spends much of its’ time.  Social media will revolutionize education, it will shift the balance of power once closely guarded within the walls of the academy to the crowds beyond the palace walls.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose! (The more things change, the more they remain the same)

The Dating Game-1960's

The Dating Game-2011

In Hancock, Toma & Ellison’s article, The Truth about Lying in Online Dating Profiles, the authors state that online daters lie. Nine out of ten participants in their study lied about one the assessed variables, height, weight and age. The caveat was that the magnitude of the deception was not that great. So, 81% of respondents lied, but not THAT MUCH!  Would it be okay to date someone who lied a little, but not someone who lied a lot? Are there in fact, white lies and black lies? 

These lies they go on to say, are not self-deceptions but are in fact intentional.  As in I think I weigh 110 lbs. but whoops, I must have been mistaken! It is more that I am sure that someone will like me better if I shave 10 pounds off my weight, say I go to the gym religiously, and I was born in a decade that began with the number "6" rather than "5"

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I grew up watching the television show, The Dating Game, in the 60's and 70's. A “bachelorette” would pose questions to 3 "bachelors". At the end of the game, she would choose the one who appealed to her and go on a date. Fast forward fifty years, a woman flips through profiles, writes an email, and hopes for a response back.I am not sure things have gotten better in love-land or really changed that much. Anyone who argues that people lie more online than offline should watch the Dating Game episode in 1978, when serial killer Rodney Alcala was chosen by  bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw as her "dream date". Something about him creeped her out (he was in the midst of a killing spree), and her instincts served her right and she never  went out with him.

Of course people lie about their height, weight and age. Everyone expects the photos to be a little dated, the weight (if you are female) a little higher, the height a little lower (if you are male) and the age a little lower for both men and women. The real concerns are actually more serious. Many (perhaps a higher percentage for men) lie about their marital status, their relationship status and many other factors about their lives. Whether you are pursuing a relationship that begins online or offline, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware).

Sherry Turkle

Sherry Turkle

This past friday night I attended a lecture given by Sherry Turkle at the Princeton/Columbia Club.Sherry Turkle is the Director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self and the author of (mostly recently) of Alone Together--why we expect more from technology and less from each other.Her perspective is that something has gone amiss in our culture, we no longer focus on one another, but look to technology to create our sense of intimacy.Her talk focuses on three mains ideas; technology is re-defining our sense of intimacy, today's adolescents are growing up in a tethered world, and our democratic notion of privacy is ending.


Her talk focused on the impact that technology is having on our lives.We are living with technology in a distracted world. We text everywhere, even at funerals. Our presence, and lack of presence with one another is redefining our relationships. We are deeply attached to our gadgets. Technology has become the architect of our intimacy, and is a substitute for intimacy. We must carefully measure the costs of technology. One of my favorite quotes from Dr. Turkle from the evening was: "Just because we grew up with the internet does not make the internet grown up". We must learn to be present to one another.


She also discussed the damage that technology is causing for adolescents.By being tethered to their technologies, they are always "on", and suffering from performance fatigue.This is enabling an emotional style of "I share, therefore I am." She warns parents that if we do not teach our children how to be alone, they will only be lonely. For adolescents, they are growing up in a culture of distraction, and need to understand what it means to have "sacred spaces". This is a concept that Dr. Turkle defines as a private space, to be able ago have a conversation with yourself. In psychoanalytic terms, this is how the self begins to define itself. Having a conversation with oneself is modeled after conversations that we have with others.This is a generation that is growing up texting, typing and cannot have a conversation. They would rather text than speak on the phone. Technology is redrawing the boundaries of solitude.Dr. Turkle believes that we are abandoning ourselves to our technologies.

She closed her talk again warning us of the long "electronic shadow"that the internet casts. It is defining our notion of privacy and democracy.She discussed the implications of Larry Page's (CEO of Google) comment that privacy is not a relevant social norm. Dr. Turkle countered with the idea that intimacy is only possible with privacy.Her closing words were: "We make our technologies and they in turn shape us."