The Value of Social Networking Software

Doug Johnson, at the Blue Skunk Blog,  is hosting an excellent essay from Jason Jason Johnson, the technology coordinator at Lowell School, on The Case for Social Networks.

Teen blogs are not about the technology – they are about feelings of belonging and being loved.  They are about trying on different personalities.  They are about someone who feels isolated connecting with others who share their interests or insecurities.  They are about all the same things that have existed for hundreds of years, hidden in notebooks and scribbled on bathroom walls and whispered over telephones. The content of MySpace.com bears discussion, not obstruction.  It is where some schools and parents are looking to better understand and aid their children and students.  Our dialogue should teach them to use the site effectively and about what they can hope to accomplish with it.  As the National Research Council report on protecting children from internet pornography analogized: “Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can install locks, put up fences, and deploy pool alarms. All of these measures are helpful, but by far the most important thing that one can do for one's children is to teach them to swim.”  We all need to be training more swimmers.

Larry Magid's essay on MySpace Safety

Liz's previous posts on MySpace and teen internet presence.

Part I--Blogging, social networking sites, schools, and risk for teen users
Part II -- Schools Banning Access and Banning Students' Online Presence
Part III--An Overblown Fear: The Internet Predator
Part IV--The Real Risk: Other Students' Cruel, Rude, or Illegal Behavior (or the Poster's Own Cruel, Rude, or Illegal Behavior)
Part V--The Benefits of Blogging, Personal and Educational
Part VI--What Should Parents and Schools Do?

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Comments

[Ron]

I came across a few years back and I still admire today (itsteens.com).

I had my younger daughter, age 16 using their advice column. I was first sceptical about allowing my daughter to use something online but later I felt more comfortable that she could receive confidential advice and she only had to talk about things she wanted to. The website had other teenagers like herself giving her advice. Although it is not your professional therapist giving your daughter advice, I like the fact she can get advice from someone online anonymously through the Peer-Peer Advice Counselling.

My daughter really found the advice column helpful. She in fact decided to volunteer later on as one of the peer-peer advice counsellors. I was proud to see that.

ItsTeens.com also has a column where teen creativity is encouraged by having the poetry column. Teen poems are published and other teens can read them. These poetrys can be 'rated' out of 5 stars by people who read them. This is a neat idea.

The others features they have on the itsteens.com website are the usual features other teen sites have like e-cards service, etc. But somehow, I found the e-pals service to be a bit unique.

I would definitely say the http://www.itsteens.com website deserves 4.5 stars out of 5. It is worthwhile checking out.

Ron

[Ashley]

I completely agree. Social Networks are like swimming pools, they can be dangerous but at the same time if kids have the resources and knowledge to be safe than its ok. I know these comments are from a few months ago but i wanted to share an article that recently came out about MySpace partnering with National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Cybertipline to make the social network a little safer for teens.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114463105359921424-2tG12tTj91Y1i1TKhO19OLZr6TQ_20060417.html