Why aren't we learning about social media?

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 I've never really understood why education seems to stay away from teaching students how to use social media.  In another class I'm in for ISLT, we researched different college-level courses and gathered data from their syllabi.  Interestingly, almost every class didn't use social media as a tool.  Whether for communication, collaboration, or research, it seemed that social media wasn't thought of.

This is strange.  Social media is around us wherever we go as we go about our lives.  Want to keep up with family?  Find any cool new restaurants in town?  Learn from some of your favorite creators?  All of that can be found on your favorite social media app.

And yet, we don't teach students how to use social media.  We don't teach students that this can be a huge tool instead of just mindless scrolling.  How great would it be if we could teach high schools about the importance of creating a positive and powerful online presence?  Or even how to build businesses off of their hobbies on various social media platforms?

This class has been the first in all my years of education (wow that makes me feel old) that has actually addressed and used social media.  And might I say it's done so in an amazing way.

But I hope education catches on more to using social media as a tool so that we all can have better relationships with it and understand its importance as a tool instead of a crutch. 

Comments

  1. VanessaJune 25, 2022 at 10:30 AM

    Alas, one of my research teams has a grant in review on this very topic. We want to develop a curriculum to effectively education youth. Not a gloom-and-doom, but a realistic and productive approach.

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    Replies
    1. Marisa BlackJune 26, 2022 at 3:32 PM

      I think technology advanced so quickly that we are just now realizing that.. wait a minute... we need to get ahead of this in our classrooms. It seems like the education system is playing catch-up a lot of the time because it's a perspective shift that many individuals have to take. I think It's hard to become an adult and adjust to a time where nothing looks familiar to how you grew up. However, I think it's changing slowly but surely because it has to. I remain optimistic because of professors like ours who are looking to educate youth using a realistic approach.

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