An Alternate Reality / Alternate Rules?
Submitted by fredjahns on Tue, 2007-03-06 00:53.
I think there is something to the notion that many young people don't necessarily see their digital world as being a part of reality that it is. There's a bit of a disconnect for some, I believe, and a perception that us adults aren't there. My students are technically too young to have a myspace account (although I don't doubt many do). I get the feeling that with much of the social networking activities, young people are presenting themselves in the context of this alternate reality and 'say' or 'do' things that their future selves will regret(?) Yes, this is nothing new, in general, but this activity is far more visible and potentially archived.
A bit of rambling thought:
As far as the libraries presence in myspace/facebook, I can, indeed, imagine all the potential benefits. As I keep thinking about putting myself, as a librarian, into myspace, I also think about how my students act and speak at school and wonder about the potential interaction in myspace. I understand the necessity of keeping interaction in this realm on a certain level. However, being in K-12 education, I also realize that interaction with young people carries with it the potential for issues, emotional, mental, and physical. How would/should a library, or librarian, respond to such issues when they arise within the context of myspace/facebook? If I'm wanting my students to 'friend' me, wouldn't I need to be prepared to respond in whatever way? But, how does a library maintain that certain level of 'professionalism' when you're putting yourself or your library into a realm thats really all about casual friendship? What I'm thinking is that if we are going to put ourselves out there, to expect to be acknowledged, it's not fair to... to say okay, here I am when you need some library help, or when we need you, but we can't get involved in any other way(?)
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Really interesting comment.
Really interesting comment. It would seem in a K-12 setting, in particular, you have to establish a certain kind of relationship with students. But you're entering a whole new territory--theirs!--with myspace or whatever, where the rules are completely different. And then how does that affect the face to face relationship when you're back at school?
Yes, thanks for adding that.
Yes, thanks for adding that. Particularly think about if casually viewing students myspace pages and coming across something questionable. If you were at school, you know the expected or required response you should give. But in this other context? Because its like you're overhearing a conversation that wasn't really meant for you.