FACEBOOK!

I go on facebook... A LOT. Too much one might say, and I have been making a conscious effort to limit my time using it, and my boyfriend makes the joke saying, "Nicole, you know the newsfeed on facebook is not the  REAL news, right?" He is just hilarious........


 I think that facebook is a great way to stay connected with friends, and family, but at times it is a huge distraction that keeps me from being productive. In addition, it can be dangerous to share personal information, and can promote online bullying.  On the plus side, my brother is over seas right now and in addition to the time change factor, getting to a phone can be an equally as difficult piece to overcome.  I have been fortunate to have many more facebook conversations with him than I have phone conversations. For that, I love facebook.  


As I stated, however, facebook is a public website. Employers, parents, and students can all view your information depending on what security settings you have set up....and even then it gets kind of dicey. Therefore, I am very careful with what I put up on my facebook. I do not share my telephone number, my address, or any other contact information that could lead to harassment or other problems.


Going a long with the notion that facebook is accessible to the public, I do believe that there is a sort of etiquette that one should acknowledge when communicating with others.  Knowing that other people's grandparents, siblings, parents, etc can check their facebook walls, I makes sure that everything I post on there is something that I would show my grandmother. It has to pass the grandmother approval:)  


Facebook would be a great tool to use as a teacher if I were to create an alternate persona (other than my personal one) to allow for students to add me as a friend and use as a classroom resource...Facebook is a good tool to use with students because it is something that most of them use on a daily basis.  Why not make it productive, right?