Social Media "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"

Social media can both negatively and positively affect our students lives.  When it is used in a positive way it can highlight what our students and athletes are doing in education and activities.  This type of communication can make students feel good about the things they are involved in.  Teachers posting students learning in the classroom is a great way to communicate to the community about what is going on in the school.  When the adults in the community can see what is going on they can talk to our students about how those things have helped them become better students and better learners.  Coaches can post updated information with regards to their activities.  This provides an active feed to the public about how things went on a particular date or even how they are going during an event.

On the other side of things social media can be used as a negative tool for communication.  When these tools are used to intimidate, annoy, or antagonize individuals it can lead to cases of bullying or harassment.  In these cases social media can be a weapon for students and can cause harm to individuals who may not know how to handle what is being done with social media.  This weapon does not cause physical harm directly to any of the victims, but it can cause psychological harm which may lead to physical harm.  When this happens we tell our students to do the following; block the individuals, stop following the feed, take screen shots of the information, share the information with the proper authorities, and never respond to the individual posting the information.  We also remind students who are victims of this type of activity that those who are posting these things are trying to avoid dealing with their own shortcomings or problems.  By posting things about others they are avoiding fixing their own problems and trying to bring others down to their level.  Don't allow for them to bring you down.  Stand your ground as Joel Penton would say and focus on your goals.

This year we have brought in local law enforcement to talk about consequences of misusing social media.  What has been pointed out is that social media is not as anonymous as our students may think.    Technology was built to be traceable and if the information needs to be traced back for good reason then it can be by the developers of different media.  My advice is don't post things to hurt others as it will not help you personally move on in your life and achieve your goals.  Stop following feeds that are built to hurt or embarrass others.  It may be humorous to you for a while, right up until the day you are made fun of or attacked on the feed.

JS