Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Snapchat. Whaaaaaa????

Representing 2010: "I had this guy leave me a voice mail at work so I called him at home and then he e-mailed me to my Blackberry and so I texted to his cell and then he e-mailed me to my home account and the whole thing just got out of control. And I miss the days when you had one phone number and one answering machine and that one answering machine has one cassette tape and that one cassette tape either had a message from a guy or it didn't. And now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It's exhausting." --quote from He's Just No That Into You.

Today's version (paraphrased from a student who was telling me about a guy she liked): So Adam Snapchatted me to tell me to Facebook him and then his Facebook IM said to hit him up on Twitter. I did and then had to go so told him to Insta a picture to me later and I'd text him once I got it. We are such good communicators." Huh?

Let's face it. Times: they are a-changin'. Phone calls are archaic and simply texting is so old school. Teens today have to simultaneously Snapchat, Facebook (although slipping away from younger generation), Instagram, and Tweet, to keep up in a social manner. So what are we, the teachers, to do with this? Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I suppose.

I'll be the first to admit--and I may be aging myself a bit here--I'd prefer to just send a simple email. I've asked students for email addresses so that I may simply communicate with them that way. They stared at me as if I had two heads: "you mean my IM?" Huh? NO! YOUR EMAIL!! Even that is fading away to this new generation.

I'm not a complete buffoon: I have Facebook and Snapchat but make it my policy to never accept student invites until AFTER they have graduated. After all, I have photos of me hanging out with friends, being silly, and gasp, from time to time, there may be a beer in my hands. How can I allow students to see this? In short--I don't. HOWEVER, recently my eyes have been opened  and I've seen the error of my ways. No, I will continue to "decline" requests to friend/follow/etc on my own personal social media sites. But I absolutely see the value in using social media as an educational tool.

As teachers, we must hop on this technological train of social media or risk being left behind, flailing around like the geriatric idiots we are at risk of becoming. I now know that I need to open new social media accounts specifically for work which begs the question: how?

The following video provides AWESOME and awe striking statistics that relate to teens and technology.

 

 

Calah Kulm

Warden High School

Warden, WA