Book Review: Talking Back to Facebook

Talking Back to Facebook: The Common Sense Guide to Raising Kids in the Digital Age

by James P. Steyer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

James Steyer, acclaimed founder of Common Sense Media, has written often in articles and websites on the affect that social networks are having on our children. In his latest book, Talking Back to Facebook (Scribner 2012), Steyer discusses worries on every parent’s mind about the social media engulfing our children.

With so much of education and play time revolving around digital devices like iPads, computers, Wii, apps, and more, parents have a right to be concerned and should question whether this tsunamic trend is healthy for a child’s developing cognitive and psychological functions. Steyer’s premise is that the obsession with Facebook and its ilk, as it seeps into younger and younger age groups, can be dangerous and must be controlled. To support his hypothesis, he covers important topics such as:

Will All Twitter Users Please Twand Up

I use Twitter to stay focused on my particular tech ed interest. Here are some of my thoughts:

• How Do You Use Twitter in Education
• 10 Ways Twitter Makes You a Better Writer
• The Official List of Twitter-friendly Words (for more words like ‘twand’)

I tweet about sites I find on that topic, posts I add to my blogs and questions I have about that. I DON’T Tweet on what I’m having for dinner or who is coming over that evening. I find Twitter:

• gives me a quick rundown of what my colleagues are thinking about
• tells me the top tech ed topics at the moment
• since I don’t link up with anyone other than people serious about my field, I don’t get annoyed by the fluff–there are lots of those people in the Twittersphere

What’s it Like to Be a Blogger?

Do you ever wonder who would sit in front of a computer and post articles, day after day, week after week, with no idea how many people are reading them or if they’ll ever make any money doing this? Are they frustrated journalists? Desperate housewives? Just plain bored and in need of a platform?

I’ve got the answers for you. I write five blogs as well as columns for this newspaper and Technology Integration in Education. I’m not paid for any of them (not a salary as a corporate blogger is), yet I happily do it. My reasons are varied, but I’ve been at it for several years, so it seems to be more than a passing fad.Here’s the breakdown:

• If you blog, you’re probably 35-45, or in a broader sense, 25-55 (check for me)

Social Media Explained With Two Maps

I love geeks. Who else could come up with this map?

Map of Online Communities, as seen through the eyes of the xkcd folk

What Do You Think of Facebook in Schools?

Social networks dominated by Facebook now account for 22.7 percent of the hours spent in front of a computer, a leap of 43 percent over last year’s figures.

What would you allow in schools?

According to the Neilson Co. report, the shift to social networks for communication caused a precipitous drop in email and instant messaging. Time spent emailing was down 28 percent and instant messaging dropped 15 percent.

If you don’t know what all the social networking stuff is, check out these two YouTube videos. They explain social networking in Plain English.

The question for schools is, how much of this should be let into the education environment. It’s way beyond the internet now. We’re talking about:

• YouTube
• Twitter
• Facebook
• internet access to email

These are all banned at my school. Yet, these are the sites that have kids excited about learning–excited about technology. So what are we doing? We’re cutting off the most effective avenue for keeping students interested in school because we’re afraid of them.

Does that sound right to you?

This column first appeared in my Examiner column © 8-3-10

Social Media–What the Heck is This All About??

Social Media in Plain English