There have been numerous studies concerning how many hours teenagers spend online, accompanied by positive or negative conclusions (depending on who’s funding the study) drawn from said data, yet the point that these sorts of studies usually miss altogether is that it’s not about pinning down an exact number of hours—Teens today are literally
growing up online.

The internet has been internalized by the young as a social space upon which every experience, every desire, every dream, love affair, friendship and beef is photographed, videotaped, tagged, commented upon, and shared. The normality of exposing the details of one’s life in such a public forum can seem naïve, bizarre, and even outright dangerous to generations who remember a world before the internet. So much so that the majority of school districts across the country implement strict policies that prohibit social networking during the school day.

In theory the multilayered pressures of school during one’s teen years tend to be universal: the cliques, the social anxiety, the desire to fit in and be liked, the unwritten rules, the performance of clothes and hair. And while most teachers and school administrators can relate to the general idea of what it means to be a middle or high school student based upon their own recollections—How many can comprehend the true weight of identity modern teens are expected to carry, maintain and adjust on a daily if not hourly basis?

The days of attempting to assure a teen that they were only imagining that everyone is staring/mocking/laughing at them are long gone. In the age of smart phones, one has just cause to be paranoid. We live in a time where every trip and fall, every bad haircut or fashion faux pas is captured and shared on Twitter for all to point their finger and join in on the ridicule of complete strangers. No longer do you have present in the flesh to witness the dreaded after school fight; today it is often taped, uploaded, shared and replayed on YouTube. The pressure never lets up. The lights never go dim.

Of course there are positives to be found in this new technological social culture. Teens are in a constant state of self-expression. They’re reading, writing, learning how to edit and upload photos/videos, some are even literate in html code. A Myspace or FB page keeps kids from even the poorest households familiar with computers and technology in general. And recently we’ve seen how social media was used as a powerful tool in the struggle for social change in Iran, Tunisia, and Egypt. The question becomes: how can we apply this technology to bring about a change in attitude toward education? How do we utilize social media as a tool to build school spirit and bonds within the classroom?

A virtual social world is clearly a place where creativity thrives and is often rewarded with praise; it’s an avenue for the shy and socially awkward to lower their inhibitions and overcome the anxiety of face-to-face interactions. If teachers can harness this space there is an opportunity to blur the rigid lines of social hierarchies that often segregate students during school hours. And with most teachers being in their 40’s and 50’s, to whom this technology is foreign, clearly this is an opportunity for teachers in their 20’s and 30’s to lead the way and perhaps extend a hand toward bridging a generation gap that seems wider than any before.

The creation of a class page on FB for the year, as a means to engage on-line, might work best in an English class. Use it as a way to engage at basic level with extracurricular learning tools, homework help, study groups etc, but it could expand from there into the space of identity function. Perhaps the teacher could come up with rotating themes for each month that relate to the curriculum but also provide an opportunity to allow students to upload photography, music, video, poetry, and short stories that relate to the topic of the month; set up online galleries and contests that connect the page to the classroom. Allow students to vote for their favorites and give out informal awards; help students build an identity around academics and form a class circle that offers a safe space to draw out introverts and help focus extroverts. Clearly the youth are equipped to learn and integrate entirely new systems into their daily lives, perhaps it is the educational system that needs to hit the refresh button and meet teens halfway.