Facebook Perils: Article summary and comment

Facebook relates to the specific composition objectives of developing the awareness and understanding of voice and audience. LaRoche and Flanigan (2009) note that students enter college and work discourse communities with unrealistic expectations regarding their rights to free speech, and they fail to recognize what constitutes private versus public expression.

Many students assume that The First Amendment protects their right to free speech and by extension protects them from punishment for posting their social life online. This assumption is false….Facebook pages are often created and maintained without considering the potential audience or appropriateness of the postings. (p. 31).

LaRoche and Flanigan surveyed 118 undergraduate students and 45 employers to assess their tendencies and values. Their research presented images from alleged Facebook posts and, perhaps not surprisingly, found significant differences in what employers and students found appropriate or offensive. Additionally the researchers note:

• Intentionally or by accident, Facebook users tend to make public their private lives
• Government and law enforcement have full access to all Facebook accounts
• Campus police sometimes crack down on drinking and student behavior by watching the site.
• Postings have been used to expel students
• Over 20% of students will add any person who seeks to friend them.
• Some colleges ban athletes from Facebook.

Many of these points may come as a surprise to students. The researchers conclude that while students at public institutions may have the right to free speech, that right offers no protection from suffering the consequences of that expression.

It might be easiest to ban Facebook, but doing so would preclude instructor presence in teachable moments. This is where students are (96% of students surveyed in this research, and none of the dozens of surveys published in the last 3-4 years have shown fewer than 85%). The recent incident involving student use of facebook illustrates a need, and this need is within the student learning outcomes defined by the college, specifically

• to collaborate respectfully with others,
• to communicate effectively (and that requires audience awareness),
• to demonstrate an understanding of the broad diversity of the human experience and the individual’s place in society.
• Use technology efficiently and responsibly.

In Chinese, a word for crisis (危機) combines two radicals, the first means danger, and the second means opportunity. All learning comes with risk; we can’t teach a constructivist model of knowledge and give students the sort of experience that Dewey deemed sine qua non of learning by hiding from potential dangers.

LaRoche, C.R. and Flanigan, M.A. (2009) “Facebook: Perils, Perceptions and Precautions.” The Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 6(5), 31-38