Bill MacKenty

myspace, teens and education…

myspace, teens, and education

This post was written by an old student of mine…it’s an excellent question.

Hey Mr. Mack, did you see last night or a few nights ago in the news about these two sites?

I didn’t see the actual show,  but I have been reading and seeing an increasing amount of concern about blogs like myspace and facebook. We had an issue here at the Edgartown School when some students posted some innapropriate pictures.

Do you think that they are “bad” and dangerous!?!?  All my friends have them and its pretty much the only way I can talk to them.

Bad? No. I don’t think these places are bad. but I DO think we need to use them wisely. When a 13 year old girl posts pictures of herself with few clothes on, and then gives her ADDRESS…it’s just not very smart, eh? 

A lot of these sites allow you to make your profile “private” and only people you trust can see your site!  I think kids should use this feature!  There’s actually an important lesson in this:  it’s not technology which is bad or good, it’s how we use it which makes it so…

I like your idea of poll to see how many students use myspace or similiar blogs (yahoo360 comes to mind)