Facebook

My thoughts in general: We've talked about Facebook before, but something struck me while I was on Facebook the other day. I logged into my account, and I saw that a friend of mine had posted a video. In the days of embedded video, this does not surprise me, but it does kind of struck me as an interesting way to represent oneself. Not only does Facebook allow someone to post information about interests (favorite music, movies, books, etc.) and to post photos, someone can also post videos. I had the thought that adjectives and other descriptors are almost obsolete in defining someone. We have arrived at the point where we define ourselves by media. I know this is nothing new; we've had these discussions before, but it hit me in a different way the other day. Thanks, Facebook, for revealing to me how illiterate I am without media.

My thoughts on application: The world in which students are growing up expects them to define themselves by media. They converse using media (in addition to having mediated conversations). Media itself has become a language. I know because I do the same thing. In the classroom, this could be a discussion in itself. All the tenets of media literacy come back to and grow out of these ideas. I know this is really basic, but Facebook helped bring me back to the foundation of the need for media literacy education. So, with students, I think Facebook could be used as the jumping off point for discussing media literacy. This is a pretty simple blog, but I think it is good to remember the basics every so often.