Social Software

This is an area that I have a lot of interest in in my professional career as so many students are using these sites as a tool in their personal lives that it would be beneficial to include them in an academic way.  For the sake of this post I decided to look at the following four social software sites: Delicious, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

After reading through each sites’ terms of use pages I found that there were many similarities and blanket statements that were made.  For instance, each of them made a statement about the terms of use and privacy statements being able to be changed at any time (some even recommended that users check back regularly!).  Both Facebook and Linkedin use and cite Truste online privacy seal and services in their policy while the other two did not.  Twitter made a specific mention that people’s information would be shared with the world as that is the purpose of their service (“You are what you tweet”) while the others mentioned the ability to hide information.

When considering whether these sites would be useful or appropriate to my students I have many thoughts.  When I polled the students at my school I found 98% of them used Facebook as their main social network.  Only 5% used Twitter and many did not know what it was.  0% used Linkedin, but some mentioned that their parents used it for business.  And despite seeing its value and introducing students to the Delicious bookmarking sites they seem to have very little interest in using it.  This left me with a decision to try and meet them in the place where they conduct business.  The problem with being on Facebook is the backlash from some staff about having to be a “friend” with students in order to interact with them on the site.  Of course, anyone who has ever used Facebook knows that the term “friend” does not mean the same thing on the site as it does in the real world.  This has led me to create the quote that: “those that are most against educators using Facebook have never used it themselves.”  It is amazing that often the same people who criticize this social network are also the ones that promote Twitter.  The problem with Twitter is that the whole purpose is that the world will see what you are writing.  What would make using Facebook any different?  Many would argue that it is the nature of the pictures and messages on walls that create the danger.  If this is the case then it is the way the student uses online sites that needs to be changed and educated not the site itself.  When I asked one student why they use Facebook rather than Twitter they responded: “Why would I use Twitter when I can only post a message of 150 characters when I can do the same thing on Facebook, but also have pictures, videos and all my friends in one spot with a chat?”