The article, "Social Networking in Undergraduate Education" reviews how technology has affected undergraduate learning. Does it make it easier, better more interactive or completely the contrary? After reading the article and looking over the results, I can only partially agree with the results of the questionnaires submitted. Three distinct results and conclusions really caught my attention. One was that Facebook helped people strengthen relationships. I disagree, although it is easier to maintain connections the relationships don't become stronger in my opinion. The relationships' depth and quality are restricted by social media itself. Conversations are impersonal, never face to face, they lack emotion and give you a distant feeling to a relationship. Another conclusion that caught my eye was that the majority of students say that social media bring a community together. I think that statement is very ironic. Yes social media keeps you up to date on What may be happening in your community but you only see what has been chosen to be posted, thus your connection is limited. Also the more time you may spend on social media the less time you actually get to interact with these people face to face and really actually get to know the meaning of having a relationship wit h those who live around in your community. Lastly there was a conclusion which said that certain tools like Blackboard help the learning experience and I do agree. Social media can help with education but it needs to be channeled for that purpose. I think that Facebook, due to its social and entertainment commercials, apps and constant feeds can distract from learning so something like Blackboad can be used for education and it would yield great results for members to interact on the topic or class at hand.
I couldn't agree more with you regarding your thoughts on Facebook's false sense of community. I think it's important to remember the audience of the survey, which was a group of college students taking a business course. Many of these individuals probably already had an opinion that FB is a positive online tool before even taking the course. I would be interested to hear what the results of the survey had been in administered to the instructors of online courses, who might have a more objective opinion.
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B.A. In exercise science, I have participated in numerous sports including soccer and track and field (1500m) at the collegiate level. I have worked with young athletes for years and seek to keep helping athletes and people interested in athletics in the clinical setting.