Hi! I’m Michelle and I, too, am a Facebook addict. The thing that separates me from some of my fellow addicts is that I have no desire to recover. I feel like I use Facebook in the way it was intended—to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances. I don’t play the games, I don’t use the quiz applications, and I rarely post status updates. I do check it multiple times a day, often from my Blackberry. However, I try to keep my interactions from crossing over into “annoying” territory. Facebook was started when I was in college, so I was one of the original users as soon as it was offered at my school. At this point I’ve invested six years of my life to cultivating my profile—I can’t quit now!
One of my concerns as a high school teacher is how to keep my Facebook profile private from my students and co-workers. I don’t want to imply that my profile is full of profanity or inappropriate photos, but I worry about mixing the two areas of my life. One may wonder why I wouldn’t want to be Facebook friends with co-workers….this video explains my thoughts exactly! I prefer to keep my work life and my social life separate. As a teacher, it becomes extra difficult. The constant questioning from my students about why I wouldn’t be their Facebook friends became a distraction. My solution? I created a second Facebook—one without the privacy restrictions of my “real” Facebook. Now when students (and co-workers) search for me, they only find the “school-friendly” profile. My personal rules are that I don’t seek out students, but I accept every student’s request if they ask to be my friend (no playing favorites). It allows me a way to connect in a place my students are already checking daily (I’ve posted reminders about tests and projects as well as answered homework questions over Facebook), while allowing more control over the information that I put out there. The following articles discuss some of the pros and cons of teacher-student Facebook interaction:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/tech/news/6174564.html
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2008/10/10/schools-grapple-with-teachers-facebook-use/
1 comments:
I liked the video and can relate to it (not from my co-workers but from others.)
I also have the issue with the 4-H youth I work with. Right now I only have one Facebook account, but have numerous groups with different settings for what they can see. If a 4-H'er wants to be my friend I will say yes and they get filed accordingly. At one time I could see how my page looked to them, not sure if I still can. With the ever changing settings though, I always wonder if I want more than one Facebook personality.
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