Socialable? I doubt that.

I am mostly addicted to facebook, I think -- along with the several million other Generation Y'ers who check their computers on a daily basis. And I am mostly addicted to Gmail, checking it with OCD-like frequency. I'm not quite a twitterer yet, but I'm on my way. And also constantly hooked up to a stream of music--Ingrid Michaelson, Eddie Vedder, and Jon Foreman telling me about loving others and what God is and all the other things I believe about life......that I will one day find true happiness and romance and all that.

So, the question is...what do I think about social media...especially in light of education?

Well, I would say, social media is incredibly useful...

...and it absolutely misses the point.

Social media, though, I'm afraid, is too much. Too much indeed. We have become so ENTHRALLED with technology that it has grown into our minds--changed the way we relate to each other--changed the way we see the world. I wouldn't be surprised if babies started being born with iPhones mutated into their tiny hands.

Humans were never meant to stare at a screen for 4, 5, 6, 8, 12+ hours of the day... we never should have sold out. If it were up to me, I'd vote to have us camp with the Masai in East Africa somewhere... grow food out where the sun still shines. Forget computers. They just complicate life, eat up our time, give us tension headaches!!

We certainly don't need anymore headaches, but that doesn't mean that we won't snuff ourselves out with these social media mercenary machines. They are SO useful. No longer should we have to sit face-to-face with people. Think of all that actual social interaction we could avoid!

And we don't even have to call. No awkward voice messages. No misspoken words. Just text. Give me black-and-white, and I will communicate with you. It's easy, it's fast: the path of least resistance....and yet we find ourselves the most lonely, most isolated generation since Cain and Abel, even with all of our tweets and status updates. It is not the real deal--it can never compare.

I'm not cynical. I just think that social media has eaten us like a hungry bloodsucking beast. But that is the world we live in. If we can't rid ourselves of it, then at least let's strike balance. Education should utilize every tool necessary to teach the younglings about how to be successful--to learn the things that society thinks is important so that they can, one day, make money and pay taxes and become respectable Americans. But let's never forget the value of a teacher speaking to students. Let's never throw out relationship in the name of efficiency. That would truly be tragic, as if John Keating never lived....as if he never tore out the pages in that textbook...

I can't imagine sounding a barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world....in a 140> character tweet.



"This is a battle, a war, and the casualties could be your hearts and souls." - John Keating