Social Media and Me: bff's

Social media and I are best friends.  Ok, well not really.  I grew up before social media was popular. Even before computers were the norm in most households.  Oh of course they existed, but they were more the exception - found mostly in the computer labs at school as opposed to at home on a desk. I still remember when apple computers were the norm.  When face to face conversations were the norm.  When you used a pay phone to call your mom if you were gonna be late.  When you hoped your phone cord was long enough to sneak the phone into bed and under the covers with you because the cordless phone wasn't reliable enough for the late night conversations you weren't supposed to be having.  Our social media was hanging out after school - till the street lights went on.  Then our social time ended...until the next day.  I watched as technology slowly changed - slowly became more prevalent in every aspect of our lives.  I used to be able to live without a cell phone.  Now I feel practically naked without it.  I must say that I love having the internet at my beck and call whenever and wherever I need/want it.  But I'm still not so sure about the social media part of it.  Yes, I have a Facebook account.  But I definitely don't get that "practically naked" feeling if I don't have access to it.  It does help me keep up with friends and family when I get busy, but I feel more like it enables me to have less personal relationships and more superficial ones.  I get to see what goes on in everyone's lives, but I don't get to participate in it just because I see it on Facebook - I miss that face-to-face connection that so easily gets pushed to the back burner.  I stay far away from twitter, though I do have an Instagram account. However, I've posted very few pictures to it.  Most of what I see on Instagram is a repeat of what's on Facebook anyway so what's the point?  I guess the point is, the children in my classroom are, and will continue to be, connected in ways that I am unfamiliar with.  In order to better understand them and their world, I must evolve, just as the technology has evolved.

Admittedly, I have dragged my feet, only using the bare necessities in order to stay connected. But in taking this class, I have decided to stop dipping my toes in the water and just jump in instead. So....here goes nothing....