facebook or face to face?

Social networks have become more and more popular over the last few years. At the beginning, I was rather sceptical of them and with my great fear of privacy issues I was one of the last in my group to join facebook. And I only joined to say in contact and share photos with my friends in Germany and Australia. I soon began to love this new technology and used it regularly.

thanks to this flickr'r

But in the last 6 months or so I’ve noticed that even primary school children are part of this social website.

This got me thinking. Of course, it was inevitable that children begin to access these sites as they seem to gain in popularity and “everyone” is part of it. This creates an even bigger pressure for children to be “on it”.

I then read the article “Want to be my friend? What you need to know about social technologies”  by Lamb and Johnson and  began to see that there is not much we can do to prevent this from happening.

Instead of restricting our children and students in the use of social networks, we have to educate them on how to use them appropriately, as well as on the dangers that come with their use.

The world has changed and children are growing up immersed in technology. We can’t and shouldn’t stop that, but we do have to ensure that our children and students are aware of the dangers that come with this technology. So don’t be afraid but be aware!