I am loving the incredibly rich conversations I have had lately about the colliding of worlds Facebook is bringing about for people. So many faculty, technologists, family, friends, etc. have all mentioned or brought up recently the idea of identity.
I'll use my mom as an example, hopefully she won't mind - she's on FB so most my "Friends" see her anyway. Here she is as a college President who, my entire life, would never even go to the grocery store in sweats or take out her trash in anything less than "acceptable" dress. Literally, and sometimes we lived as far away as 30 minutes from her schools. She always said as an administrator you never know who you will bump into. So imagine my surprise when she took the plunge into Facebook. She has had fun connecting with old friends, current friends, my friends, my brother's friends, and wait....even her collegues. That is where her questions started coming up...her Chancellor is a "Friend" and recently commented at a live meeting..."I've seen Linda's grandchildren!" Her worlds have suddenly collided.
Are "worlds" colliding? Or are we redefining our "worlds"? I think we are redefining. Our students perceive relationships very differently than Baby Boomers who have historically had very different personas. Non-millennials are attempting to place their perception of self, their clearly defined relationships, inside and environment like Facebook. A dilemma poignantly illustrated here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrlSkU0TFLs All the while Millennials are forming their perceptions of self and of relationships in FB. For younger generations there are no "borders" being crossed as those borders look very different from their perspective.
A comment recently made to me by a colleague suggested a possible exception...what, she said, of when the "Dean of Admissions" Googles students to consider admitting them to their college and there are posts of "sexual harassment" or something...she said "sexual harassment is sexual harassment" it will affect their decision regardless what generation they are. We've seen it happen already time and again.
To this I suggest two thoughts..first, when that "Dean of Admissions" is no longer a Baby Boomer but a Millennial it will not matter, because they will be seeing these references from a very different perspective. Currently, we are inflicting Baby Boomer perspectives on Millennial frameworks. The current "Deans of Admissions" and other non-Millennial decision makers need to practice that which we preach. Not all "resources" are valid resources. As teachers, we do not accept, Wikipedia for example, as a valid source for reliable information. Why on earth, would anyone accept Facebook comments, or blog posts, as a valid source for major decisions?
What Face do you wear? Might you consider a new look?
7 comments:
Hi, Jennifer...
You bring up an intriguing topic and one that I give a lot of head time to. The daughter of a colleague works for Facebook and he got me interested in it last semester. Along the way one of my current students asked to be a friend. I said ok but felt really weird about it and was definitely more reserved in my activity while she was in my class. Now, I have a policy that I do not accept current students as friends in Facebook but, after they are no longer my student I will.
However, my concern is not just limited to students but extends to colleagues as well. I am connected with many of my colleagues now in Facebook and sometimes forget whether or not I should "really be myself" or be more careful about things I post or sign up for. At the present time I opt mostly to just be myself and figure things will get sorted out later if there is ever an issue.
I concur...a very interesting perspective which I had not considered before. very curious. I too have been reserved on who I have accepted yet am still facing exactly as you have described. But I have to differ in one area...sexual harassment is legally defined and so I do not think there would be legitimate different viewpoints on it. However, the question becomes is it the right of the admissions office to review things not submitted by the student in their application. At least the community colleges wil not likely have to deal with that one. signing off...Jennifer's mom
Donagee - I could understand not having students as friends it could be awkward and inappropriate. I had someone say to me just today that possibly its our job to teach students these different "versions" of themselves that when addessing a teacher is different than addressing their best friend and I can't disagree although I do think those arenas are blurring and not as distinct as they once were and soon might be different all together.
Mom, I would think of all people, you would understand that any one can make a claim about another person, with no substance what so ever. So how could you possibly say that? Just because it has a legal definition does not mean that the person spewing it has validity. I can think of a few union members, board members, community stakeholders, etc. that have made disparaging accusations of people in my life that I know for fact were not true. In one case, they even took them as far as court, multiple times, so it would seem to me that a "legal" term - the source should be considered and then scrutinized and quite possibly be considered false. Legalize does not in itself imply truth.
ah so the challenge is on eh? I apparently was not clear. I believe you said that what is considered harassment today by my generation may not be considered as harassment by the younger generation. As such, the younger might write something on face book that the admissions officer would see and then possibly not admit them to college. I am suggesting that the younger generation had better learn what sexual harassment is by definition and avoid it. It's kind of like all those piercings young people are doing... I saw a young man on the cash register yesterday.. he had at least 6 piercings in him face...it was all I could do to not tell him to take them out and heal up the holes. He will not get any responsible job looking like that. Likewise a body full of tatoos. It may be ok for his generation but it is my generation and yours that is going to be doing the hiring of him.
So how was that in changing the subject. :o)
Actually I think its right on subject. How many of your friends from high school and/or college would you say have tattoos? If you had to guess? Do you have a number in your head? Approx. %? Would it be less than say - 10% you think? I can tell you more than 50% of my friends have at least one tattoo. Ask a 20 something year old and I can promise that is even higher. What I'm alluding to is that culturally acceptable behavior changes, and thank goodness I have to say for certain things. Not to be harsh but you actually will not be hiring this - already employeed (mind you) young man with the tattoos and/or piercings because you are retiring in the next year or two. It is my generation and younger who is next up on the hiring line ():o) and tattoos are much more "acceptable" in my generation than yours and will be more so in the next. Do you not remember how appalled you were when I got 5 piercings in my left ear? (yes, in college i had that many) I am not disagreeing that such physical choices don't make a statement, we wouldn't do it otherwise, however the perception of those statements change over time.
Likewise, back to the sexual harassment, I was thinking of FB or blog entries that make claims like, "he's such a perv he made a pass at me." Taking such comments as valid is where I raise concern. It is very easy, VERY easy, say if you have a grudge against someone, get yourself 15-20 different free email addresses and blogs and write disparaging remarks about someone. Then we have "Boomer" Deans of Admissions Googling names only to come across them and then think ... "hmm, its not like it was one person saying it, i read it on some 15 different blogs"... and make a judgment based on that. Younger generations realize how easy it is to fabricate these "authentic" looking websites - thank goodness - and therefore are more adept at realizing how subjective they really are - eventually these forms of communication will be no different than hallway gossip.
My thinking is we have a clashing of cultures the younger students who have 3 and 4 blogs and think nothing of it and the Boomers who perceive the world outside such paradigms and then place those belief systems on these new cultural systems.
The clashing of cultures is probably not a whole lot different than what my generation faced with the older generation.
Lets look at those tatoos...I am not talking about the pretty little butterfly on the small of your back...I am talking about total arms being tatooed..sorry kiddo, but I don't think any hospital will give that person more than a janitors job. Nor will a university likely hire them for any advanced level position. It is offensive to too many people and certainly not professional. are we to say that forums like FB can forever change the topography of our existance? You are right it does encourage the freedoms you mentioned earlier as did Donagee but society doesn't change that fast.
This reminds me of one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes where George's worlds were colliding:
George: Ah, you have no idea of the magnitude of this thing. If she [Susan] is allowed to infiltrate this world, then George Costanza as you know him, ceases to exist! You see, right now, I have Relationship George, but there is also Independent George. That's the George you know, the George you grew up with -- Movie George, Coffee Shop George, Liar George, Bawdy George!
Jerry: I love that George.
George: Me too! And he's dying, Jerry! If Relationship George walks through this door, he will kill Independent George! A George, divided against itself, cannot stand!
***
While you think we are redefining, I think our worlds are colliding. For George, it was Relationship George vs. Independent George. For us, it could be our Professional Self vs. Personal Self. There are certain aspects of our personal lives that we don't share with our employers and vice versa. People in general are extremely judgmental. We pick and choose which of our many selves we are depending on the social situation we are in. We wear different faces around family, friends, co-workers, and people which we are newly acquainted. We have different levels of comfortability with our social groups that determines which "face" we wear.
The tattoo example is a good one. Older generations are less accepting of body modification than younger generations. I worked with a woman who was always well-dressed and even complimented her many times on her attire. I did not notice that her attire was always 3/4 sleeve or longer. One day, she shared with me that her arms are 3/4 sleeved with tattoos. She was fearful that other people at work would judge her character based on these tattoos. She didn't want to be perceived negatively, so she chose not to share that "face" at work. With social networking sites such as Facebook, co-workers are often added as "friends." How do you think co-workers would react in this scenario if they viewed photos on Facebook and saw all of the tattoos? It would be the talk of the office... "Can you believe she has a tattoo of ______?" and "I didn't think she was like that?"
I've added co-workers as "friends" with a hesitant *click* while contemplating whether or not I want them to know my Personal Self. Admittedly, I am careful about the comments I make and materials I post. I enjoy writing on controversial topics, but I do not make personal attacks or intentionally offend. It's a happy balance between my Personal Self and Professional Self making sure that worlds aren't colliding. I think we are the only ones that know our true selves. We think thoughts that remain unspoken. It's all about discernment. A person may be hard-working, bright, and professional on the job, but at a sporting event they are a foul-mouthed, beer-drinking, fanatic. This image may be perceived negatively by some, but it has absolutely no impact on the type of worker this person is or their professionalism in the workplace. It's no different than when a supervisor asks you to do something and you respond, "Certainly, I'll take care of it right away!" and you're thinking, "You've got to be f*&$ing kidding me!"
I agree that Facebook comments, blog posts, and other internet resources are not a valid reference. For the many reasons you've said, there is no way of authenticating them. It's too easy to create multiple fake accounts and falsify information. Sexual harassment can be defined, but it's unfair to make false allegations against an individual without valid evidence. I am surprised to hear that colleges are making admission decisions based on this information. You could very easily Google a student name and find a pornographic image that the student's friend created in Photoshop as a joke. This may appear authentic to the eye, but those of use who have used Photoshop know differently. There is absolutely no way to verify that vulgarities, sexual comments, and/or racial slurs were produced by the student applying. Besides that, what ever happened to freedom of speech and expression?
The difference between older generations and younger generations is that everything is documented. It's different when something is said verbally in a group of peers with the same ideals or beliefs than when it's written and passed around electronically. There's no more "he said, she said," it's documented in an e-mail or on the web. Our lives are online in blogs and photographs. Our thoughts, opinions, comments, they're all out there. Everything we need is at our fingertips, just Google it! We are living in a digital world with more online social connections that ever, but we are physically withdrawing from society. We are creating new identities to hide our true identities in order to reveal ourselves without worrying about our worlds colliding.
Worlds are definitely colliding here... divided against ourselves, we cannot stand.
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