Does the good of social media outweigh the bad? There are solid talking points for both sides of this argument, but no clear winner. I work at Belmont Middle School, and one of the big problems being discussed in academic circles is the use of social media by the students. Cyber bullying, inappropriate messages, threats and sexting dominate the current landscape here. Most of these incidents happen outside of school hours, but lead to discipline at school. These types of things have led one school district in Iowa to make some interesting moves. The Iowa City Community School District just received a $187,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to contract a company that will monitor students' social media accounts for potential warning signs that students may hurt themselves or others. There is not a lot of information known about what exactly will be done, or how it will be done, but it is a pretty interesting move. Will this set a precedent nationwide, and what are the ramifications of this action? Is it a violation of privacy, and how does someone dictate exactly what amounts to a “potential threat?”
How would you feel if you knew that your social media accounts were being monitored? I believe that this would shift how we behave accordingly, however I do not think it will necessarily prevent things. In my opinion, students will find other ways to express themselves, and find a way to operate in the same kind of manners outside of the all seeing eye. I see this causing more problems than solutions, not to mention the ethical debate that will take place if someone is disciplined for something they have not actually done. Do you think this is a step in the right direction, or a solid step off a cliff?
First off, I enjoy the pun you made with your title. But when I went to Inter-Lakes during 2009-2014, the threat of cyberbullying was definitely real but it was surprisingly not on social media at least not publicly. Usually, the cyberbullying that happened on social media platforms was behind closed doors through the Facebook messages. Though I witnessed a decent amount of cyberbullying on Microsoft’s online service for it’s Xbox 360 called Xbox Live. A large amount of the cyberbullying happened over the voice chat in Call of Duty lobbies, with no official way of reporting it to schools due to issues of providing proof cyberbullying was just a way of life back when I was in high school. But the idea of the school watching social media might cause the students to become more crafty with their cyberbullying.
ReplyDeleteBut I feel like regardless of what we post on our social media we are being watched anyways whether it be by our bosses, the school systems, and even our government. So whatever we post we have to be aware and tailor our posts so it doesn’t negatively affect our own personal demeanor
I thought it was interesting reading your blog post how you started to talk about how we would like it if officials from our school started monitoring our social media and honestly I don’t wouldn’t like that at all. Not that I have any bad content on my am social media that I should be worried about but if Plymouth were to monitor every picture I post I would restrain some of my content. Especially my fake Instagram, my finsta I definitely would be embarrassed if officials from Plymouth were to see that. I think it’s sad that cyber bullying is so popular in today’s society. It’s depressing the fact that people have to hide behind a screen to act how they really feel. This is something that for sure needs to be monitored and I think it’s okay if middle school accounts are getting monitored because they are so young they shouldn’t be posting anything that is even slightly offensive to someone else.
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