Social Networking

Well, I had a landmark moment two weeks ago. I finally opened a Facebook account. My oldest and youngest sons both accepted me as "friends." (So now I have to be very careful about how intrusive I am . . . and much more respectful of them.) Alex claims that he has a Facebook account with his given name, but I can't find him in the list of Nick's friends, Morgan's friends, or a general search . . . so is Facebook capable of security settings that ward off certain people? I'm curious. Right now, Alex seems to think that I'm choosing to not contact him electronically.

I have more questions, though. Right now, I was trying to upload a profile picture of myself (finally) and it didn't work. "Problem loading page." Well, Nick already has a bunch of spring break pictures (many of him with girls) and he's not even home from Florida! How can I be so inept? I think I'll need to have one of my boys give me a little tutorial on how this all works. I don't have time right now to go poking around too much.

It's fun to see who shows up in quick searches, though. I've already connected with some of my former NP students (speech team kids) with whom I've been wanting to talk in quite a while! It's amazing how quickly the "friends" connections get made!

I'm not sure I would ever use this technology as a middle school educator, but it sure is fascinating to see how kids use it. Talk about new literacies! Commenting on one another's photos, leaving messages on each person's "wall," etc. Very interesting!