In thinking about social networking, I think of the community there as representative of any community made up of a variety of people that represent the culture. There is much talk these days about Multiculturalism. More than ever before people that represent different cultures are woven into the fabric of our country. In the past many people who came to the United States wanted nothing more than to “assimilate” into the culture. The term”melting pot” was coined to refer to the way in which many different ethnic backgrounds were assimilated into society, taking on the language, mannerisms, values, etc. of the mainstream. My grandfather immigrated from Italy after World War I. He married and had children, never teaching them his language or trying to preserve in them the heritage he brought with him from Italy. My father remembers his father speaking Italian only on occasion. He became American, adopting the language, the social mores, and values to become like those with whom he lived in a small town.

Almost one hundred years later it seems that those who come to this country do want to preserve their own heritage and are not quick to throw it into a melting pot where it will not be recognizable to them or anyone else. “Acculturation” is a term that more adequately describes the choice of those who come from another country or ethnic background today. They are more likely to hold on to their own beliefs and language even though they adopt many things from the new culture.

What does all this have to do with Facebook or other social networking sites? These communities are representative a culture made up of people from many different age groups, ethnic backgrounds, education, purposes- the list goes on and on. The thing that is unique about this culture is that it is relatively new and those that become part of the culture do so in varying degrees. It may be for some people that a social networking community may be a sub-culture in which they become immersed for a time. In order to do an ethnographic study of a social networking site, I chose to explore the culture of Facebook. Before settling on this site, I joined Twitter and also explored MySpace, but came back to Facebook. I began by creating a profile for myself and then set out to explore the site in order to learn how to interact as well as find out what others do as part of this community. The results of my exploration and observations are discussed in the following ethnography.

Facebook is a social networking service that has many applications. After joining the site and connecting with a couple of friends, one can explore the many groups and applications available. Connecting with friends involves searching for those who have Facebook accounts by searching one’s list of e-mail contacts. Invitations to become a friend may result in acceptance or not. People have the option of blocking someone from contacting them. If this happens, the person will be notified not to contact the other person. Making connections is one of the main reasons observed for using Facebook. It appears that people are connected around common bonds just as they are in face to face communities. Common interests, proximity, shared history, and relationships bring people together. This observation revealed that people enjoy talking to those they’ve not seen in a long time the same way they do when someone comes in from out of town (physically). While it is the purpose of people at times to search to make friends with people they don’t already know, it is apparent from this observation that the majority of connections are among those who do see each other on a regular basis. In addition, people often make an effort to find and talk to people they know, but haven’t had contact with in a long time.

Facebook was originally intended for use on a college campus. The original intent according to one source was to place pictures on a site where students at Harvard could log on and rate/ compare the photos. This precurser to Facebook was called “Facemash” and the student responsible was actually “called on the carpet” at Harvard for breaching the rules. He continued to pursue the social networking and used it for school related activities. The site expanded from its 2004 origins to include other college campuses and then in 2006, the founder Mark Zuckenberg opened the site to anyone with an e-mail address. Since that time, the site has grown at an amazing rate and includes people of all ages over 13 from all backgrounds.

The purpose for using Facebook varies greatly depending on the age and maturity level of the individuals using the site. Middle school and high school students are abundant in the community and seem to use the site most often to converse with friends, post pictures, and otherwise “hang out”. Observations of behaviors among these groups reveal that most of the friends are acquaintances that were not made via the site to begin with. There are groups joined by students of a particular school and members of the group post items related to that school, its teachers, administration, etc. These types of activities create an identity for the members and resemble conversations one might hear between students as they are commenting face to face about teachers they like or don’t like, etc. The pictures posted on some teenagers’ pages often document activities that are illegal such as underage drinking, however, as in the society at large, people know of these things and often don’t report it. So, while in “The Terms of Use”, it is stated that users may not do certain things, if it is not reported, it will probably go unnoticed.

Students are not the only users of Facebook and there are many reasons why people become part of such a community. Technology has opened up all sorts of avenues for people to pursue hobbies, businesses, and relationships that they may otherwise not have been able to do. This site allows for promoting a product, an idea or cause, or just about anything. People can use it to seek out others who may want or need what they have. One way to do this is the Marketplace feature of the site. People can place items for sale, trade, or even to give away here. It’s a convenient way to put things in front of those who may want what one has and it is free. Since the site is arranged so that users are grouped in networks related to geographical areas or schools, the marketplace feature only lists things in the user’s network, so logistically one could get to the seller’s place. Whether or not items for sale are monitored is questionable. Much like other things that go on that are listed as forbidden in the Terms of Use, it most likely depends on the offense being reported.

Another feature is that of listing events and placing them on calendars. When friends see the event posted, they can decide whether of not to attend. The site lists friends’ birthdays as events. There are electronic gifts that can be sent. These tiny icons are displayed and often offered to be sent free. After the free one, the cost is one dollar for the gifts that show up on the friend’s page along with a message composed by the sender.

Observations of Facebook reveal a very useful service that is used by many, many people. There are groups that have members in the tens of thousands. It appears that as this particular social networking site has grown from its origin on the Harvard campus, it has evolved and continues to evolve. While college students were first to this site, they have been joined by younger and older. People join groups or even start their own groups, but there is something for everyone. There are opportunities for positive interaction such as “poking” someone which is somewhat like a tap on the shoulder to initiate a conversation or one can make someone their enemy and use some other not so positive gestures.

In society, people gravitate toward the people and things in which they are interested. On Facebook, people gravitate toward people and things in which they are interested. Yes, social networking is relatively new, but it is not a passing trend. The culture is one in which people will acculturate, choosing the aspects of the culture that make sense to them and meet the needs they have. As more and more social networks develop, there will be those that provide more of a niche for some than others. There will always be those who enjoy the “multiculturalism” provided by experiencing as many as possible. The potential for interaction, learning, and creating a connected world is evident in these social communities.

I googled ethnography and social networking sites and found this blog about a study of Danish students and SNS use. The writer discusses the way the term “friends” is used on Facebook and other sites to describe the relationship between those who interact on the sites. The idea that there are some people who are tired of the superficial “friendships” is evident in the following quote from a Boston Globe article quoted in the blog.

“Now that Internet users have forged online relationships with the people they like, they can turn their attention to shaming the folks they hate.

With Enemybook, a new program that runs on the social networking site Facebook, you can connect to people you loathe, display their photos and evil deeds, and give them the virtual finger.

Enemybook is one of several new online applications developed by computer-savvy twentysomethings who say they are tired of bogus online friendships. In a dig at the notion of virtual networking, they hope to encourage people to undermine, or at least mock, the online social communities sites such as Facebook were designed to create.”

After reading this, I went back to Facebook and searched for “enemybook”.  I found that as well as “flippedoff”   Interesting……  It concerns me for students, though, because the potential to say things that one wouldn’t say in person is there.

The main problem I have with Stoll’s views is that culture has changed in that students today are very much different from the way they were in Stoll’s (and my) day. I can relate to many of the things that Stoll recalled about his experiences as a student. I am grateful to have had the rote memorization and drills that he refers to as part of my education that gave me good arithmetic and good “number sense” skills. Students (and their parents) today, however, don’t relate to this at all. The culture truly has changed. Today, students balk at having to memorize anything…… And, why should they? Anything they need to know is at their fingertips. The Internet makes so much more possible today than what was available to my generation. Technology such as calculators, computers with internet access are comparable to the technology of the pencil and paper of many, many years ago. Why work it out in your head, if you can do it with pencil and paper? Can you imagine a young person saying that years ago? I was against using calculators for all the same reasons Stoll espouses, but now that I have taught for a few years, I’ve changed my mind to some degree. Since calculators today are so small and inexpensive, they can be used as easily as pencil and paper. Knowing what to tell the calculator to do is more important than being able to do it quickly in your head or on paper.

I’m still inclined to believe that memorization and rote drills of some skills such as multiplication is the most beneficial way to learn these necessary skills. If this was done in the early elementary grades, students would be much more prepared to learn algebra in middle school and high school. Again, culture has definitely changed. I doubt that most younger elementary teachers would know their multiplication tables themselves because they were not required to memorize them. They would probably not be motivated to insist that their students memorize them either. By the time they get to middle school or high school, teachers don’t have time to spend on basic arithmetic skills because they must spend time “covering” specific content as required by the state.

I realize that Stoll wrote this book around the year 2000. I’m sure that if he wrote it today, he would say things differently. Why? Because the nature of the internet has changed. Computers are not just machines that run software and teach concepts the same way the textbook used to. Now, there are blogs, skype, etc. that make interacting and sharing knowledge much easier and more practical. Stoll mentions the fact that students can do work for school, like science projects, etc., downloading information from the internet while not really understanding what they are writing. This, in my opinion, is really no different than in my day, reading an encyclopedia and trying to paraphrase the content for a report of some kind. Today, the information is so much more accessible and there has always been the propensity for “just getting the assignment done”, but we have to understand that with the technology…….everything has changed and the culture is new and different. For example, just now, as I was trying to think of the word I wanted to use in the previous sentence….first, I used the word potential and I thought, “No, that’s not what I want.” I kept saying the word, but it wasn’t what I knew it should be, so I just spelled it out and then “right clicked” to get it to search Google for my word. It immediately found the word I couldn’t think of correctly. Not only that, but all I had to do was click on it to get the definition for propensity and I thought, “Yeah, what’s wrong with that?” I didn’t have to get up and go find a dictionary or thesaurus to find the word I knew I wanted, but couldn’t even pronounce, let alone spell correctly. Yeah, it’s a different world and the culture of education has changed.

One other thing. Even in Stoll’s time and mine, there were students who “didn’t get it”. Just as there are students today who are “left behind”, there were students then who were also “left behind” . It may be that Stoll, while I agree with MUCH of what he says, is not seeing the entire student population when he speaks of the best way to learn and “the good ole days” of education. The current has shifted and what worked before is not working now.

Anyway, I know I need to be more involved in the space in order to be part of the culture.  I’m just not gettin’ it.  Another interesting thing happened this morning, though.  I checked my hotmail and there was a message from”Angie” inviting me to join her
“MySpace”.  I checked her profile, thinking she was probably in our class.  I didn’t think I had created my own MySpace account.  Her profile said she is from Florida and no mention of Morehead.  At any rate, I accepted her invitation and found that I really didn’t have a MySpace.  So, I created one.  Then I tried to accept her invitation and was told she didn’t accept invitations from people she doesn’t know.   Go figure……..

That reminds me of something else that happened on Facebook.  A picture of a member of our class always appears on my Facebook page.  It says he is in my area or something like that.  Anyway, I’ve tried to add him as a friend twice.  The last time I did it, I was told I was going to get “kicked off”  Facebook if I sent an invitation again.

If any of you have any suggestions for me, I’d love to hear them and get help with this new culture!

“But a trustee in the audience shot back: “If you are the slightest bit motivated, you can get a 3.0,” referring to a common grade requirement for scholarships. And if failing to meet that requirement means some students can’t go on after community college, she said that was fine. “Not everyone needs a bachelor’s degree. We need good auto mechanics and carpenters,” she said.’

— Scott Jaschik

I agree with the trustee. Auto mechanics and carpentry are very respectable vocations. I believe that we should realize that there are many good professions that don’t require a 4 year degree. Education is a wonderful thing that alleviates many problems in the world, but we have gotten to a point in which we act as though those who get the most education are better than those who have less education. It seems that it’s the degree that matters more than what the person actually accomplishes. Many valuable jobs don’t require that degree ….. knowledge-yes …… experience…..yes….LEARNING….yes, but perhaps not the way in which we are accustomed. I’m reminded once again of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory and the various ways in which each individual is “smart”. We have been conditioned to think about academic intelligence as the ultimate intelligence and looking at others as somehow secondary or inferior. Traditionally, schools have functioned to teach to this type of intelligence. More recently, we see more differentiated instruction, but I think we need more change to bring about a system that helps students learn what they are best at. After all, who could be “motivated and wise” in an area that their brain just doesn’t function well in. Why ignore strengths to focus on avenues that will lead to dead ends (no degree or one that doesn’t help them ) for many. Equity and access t0 appropriate education is a creed we could all adopt. In many cases, all we do is teach students to play the game. To do what it takes to get the grades to go to college and get the degree. The focus is not really on learning. They play the game and then go out and learn things that are motivating to them. If education were geared more toward individual strengths, I think students would be more motivated to learn.

• Information seekers, analyzers, and evaluators
• Problem solvers and decision makers
• Productive and creative users of technology tools
• Communicators, collaborators, publishers, and producers
• Informed, responsible, and involved citizens (Solomon, p. 149)

The key word here is ALL.  Not all students are going to fit this criteria any more than they fit the mold of “school”  as we now conduct it.  I agree with the authors that professional development is going to have to be transformed to help teachers to utilize technology and incorporate it into the learning process as much as it is ingrained in the lives of students.  The last bullet (above) as a goal for all students is more attainable with careful consideration of the way in which each student approaches the prior ones.  For example, what motivates them to seek, analyze, and evaluate information?  They all do it, but it may not be the type of information seeking that “we” see as productive.  They solve problems and make decisions and if they have access to technology, they find ways to use it creatively.  Guidance and high expectations according to individual needs are important factors to be considered here.