I Love Me Some Me!

Welcome again to the sound studio, where today we are talking about socializing electronically! That's right, it's social networking. Now before we get in too deep, let's talk about social networking. What is social networking exactly? Well, I don't know if there is a specific answer that clearly encompasses everything involved with it. My slimmed down simple version of social networking is it connects everyone in the world to everyone else instantly. If I wanted, I could hook up my webcam and talk to someone in Japan. I could see them and connect with them. Now there are some older senile people who see that and say, "Well, why don't you just pick up the telephone? It's the same thing! Or write a letter! Or send a telegraph! Or send a carrier pigeon! Or the pony express!" And I would say to that person, "Well older senile person, by using a webcam, it's free of charge and I could actually see them and their surroundings. I could see their home, their workplace, their family. I could actually connect with them. And also, pigeon's couldn't fly that far and the pony express has been dead for a few hundred years."

Now there are some weird effects of social networking and the current young generation in general, besides Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. The current young generation is in love with itself. Of course, we could look back in time and say that about every young generation. But back then, those young people didn't have the ability to tell everyone what they're doing at that very moment. For the first time, you could announce to the whole world that you are going to the bathroom. And you actually think they care. For some more issues and sociological aspects of social netowrking, check out this video by KSU professor Mike Wesch.




So why does social networking matter? In case you missed it in the video, it states that it is not controlled by a few people, it is not one-way, created for networks and not the masses, "transforms individual pursuits into collective action," and it makes group formation really easy. If you noticed in the video also, it talks about the sense of self and what it means. Social networking lets you be whatever you want to be. Everyone acts a certain way around certain people. We do not act the same way we would around our parents as we would our college roommates. We have a different self alone with our significant other than we do in public with them. Social networking allows us to be whoever, without the constant glare from society, without someone always looking right at you to tell you differently.

Now what does this all mean with say, oh I don't know, education, to pick a topic completely at random? Well, listeners, here's what it could mean. Kids nowadays know technology. They know it better than anything else. Make them use it for school. Assign a video post of something. Have them give a speech online through Skype or some other chat thing. Have them blog about an issue. These are great things for students because it's a way for them to get their opinion out there without having people watch them do it. It lets them remain quasi-anonymous. It lets students be themselves and not act for anyone. Or perhaps it lets students act out in a way that lets them get their point across in a way that would not have been so elsewhere. Watching the above didn't really change my views on social networking in education because I already shared a basic sentiment with it. Social networking is a good thing, and if you don't believe it, well it's here now, and it looks here to stay, so we better get used to it and use it for our advantage instead of trying to fight it. So concludes another feature in Obaratone's sound studio. Make yourself a great day. I am going to the bathroom.