The dangers of Twitter and FB

I have no account with either....and never will. 

My kids have had iphones since they were in middle school.  I never allowed them to text me.  I wanted to hear their voice, so I could tell what they were up to.  Even as they leave for college they won't text me, because they know I may or may not answer.  If you wan't something from me, then call and ask me.  If you want to say hello, then call and say hello. If you want to know how I'm doing, call and ask me.  I will always do the same.

I don't have voice mail.  I will rarely use email.  The person in the office next to mine will email me a question......and I'll either yell the answer back or stand up and walk over to his office.

We have become a society of people who can't talk to each other......I know why.....I'm not interested in playing along.

I get all that you wrote Rog.....and it doesn't change a single thing for me....and it never will. I don't need a big time saver in my life, because that will just free up time to do more work that I don't want to do.  I don't even care if someone can't get ahold of me right away.....if you can't wait then find someone else or take care of it yourself.

I remember when my boss made me wear a pager....25 years ago.  I dropped it into every puddle I could find whenever I had the chance.....I even ran over one (on purpose) after a foot chase of a suspect.  My boss wanted me to call him right now so he could ask what happened and tell me what to do......nah......I'll call when I'm done doing what I'm doing.

I'm not a Luddite.....I understand the "benefits"......I just don't need them in my life.  For sure, there are people who don't really want to deal with me because they know I won't call them right back or text them right back.....fine with me...get someone else.   I doubt most people need them as much as they think they do either.

This is an interesting conversation.  I get what you are saying regarding not needing technology, but that also means that you shouldn't complain when it passes you by.  

I recently had a conversation with my mother-in-law.  Seems our synagogue is no longer sending a paper monthly newsletter.  Some of the older people are really upset.  I thought to myself, email is not something new.  And the internet is not new.  How long should an organization continue to lose money printing things like newsletters.  Say there are 1000 members and 100 don't have email and 10 are unable to access the internet.

Move the same conversation to low income households.  Should school districts be forced to use paper as well as electronic communications.  What % of people must exists to continue down the paper trail.

I will note, I do not use facebook.  have no account.  I often get very mad at businesses when they offer content only on their facebook page.  (like BT)  Ultimately, I take responsibility for my inability to see their content.  I choose to not use facebook.  Maybe the elderly should do the same and take responsibility for not keeping up with the times.

Velo - sticking my hand out and talking to people is never going to pass me by.  It's a damn shame it has for most people as they run around with their noses buried in a screen doing the busy work of their day (a weird way to "save time" if you ask me).  As for whatever technology might pass me by, no worries, I was apparently born without the complaining gene.....I don't care what you do. (collective you of course)  But I'll tell you this, I have been called selfish more than once because I won't set up voice mail or answer calls or texts or emails if I don't want to.  I always find it funny because, to me, I think it's selfish if you think I'm going to drop what I'm doing just to answer a call or text.  I return just about every call or text I get (and about 20% of emails).....when I  get around to it.  If that doesn't work for you, call someone else.

Admittedly, I have different rules for my kids.....I pay for their phones.  If I call, they better answer.....and don't text me.  They can make their own rules when they pay for their own phones.  And when they call me I don't miss it.

I directly supervise 12 people.  Under them are over 80 more.  I'm responsible.  I don't know ANYTHING about all of the technology they use to do our work.  If I have to learn that, I don't need them.  They come to me for the how and why.....I count on them, and send them to the training, to use the latest and greatest to get it done.  It works well.

When I retire in a few years I'm moving mostly off the grid and away from "the public".  I'm just not much interested in the way the world is headed.  Again, I'm not complaining, enjoy the hell out of it.....but I'm not interested.  I'm not worried I'll miss something. LMAO

Of course I'll stay in touch with my kids......and I hope to have many days with any grandkids that I can add to the one I have.  But they're mostly going to have to come to me....I've done my job.

In my future is a lake, a boat, some  hunting, and quite a bit of sitting on a porch watching my wife and her horses  Ya'll can take technology wherever you want.  Again, I'm just not interested.

I think being able to take it or leave it depends quite a bit on what you do for a living. I have friends who leave Facebook or don't have accounts, and I can respect that. I've thought about closing my account, but I do probably 75% of the marketing of my art business on Facebook and Instagram. I went painting on Thursday, posted a photo of what I painted, and had it sold by that evening. For me, it's business, and it's a really amazing marketing tool. It connects me to collectors in a more personal way than my website, postcards, and blog were able to 10 years ago.

I also lead my mountain bike team, and people who don't/won't/can't do social media are a royal pain in the . We have a Strava team page, a Facebook group, AND a TeamSnap account, all in an attempt to get ride and race info to people. We still have people join the team who won't join any of the above because they "don't do social media," and then they complain that they aren't feeling connected. What do they expect - the leads to individually call all 138 members of the team to invite them to rides? Email newsletters go to spam - for this type of thing, social media is actually excellent at connecting real people. The people who show up and ride and have beers face to face are the ones who are savvy enough to get online and find the ride schedule. 

It's not all bad. 

I  get the business model......makes perfect sense.  As for the members of the club who don't do social media.  Get one of them to take responsibility for contacting the others.....you make one call to that person, that person contacts others as their group decides.....done.  If they don't get the info,  they can figure out how to adjust.  You did your part.  No whining.

Interesting discussion. I am going back to teaching full time 2nd grade this year(start next week) after 10 years being home with my kids. In that time Smartboards have become a very popular classroom tool. That ship totally passed me by while I've been home with my kids . I spent the last 3 years working as an aide and when I had free time I taught myself how to use the Smartboard through Youtube videos. Now I'm creating interactive lessons on the Smartboard for use in my classroom while my coteacher is still generating piles of copies. I walked in my classroom the other day to a stack of papers that is at least 1 entire ream of paper just for notes/lessons for the first 2 weeks of school. It seems like the notes home could be emailed, the content on the worksheets can be created in a more engaging activity on the Smartboard and she would have only ran 40 copies of the spelling list instead of using so much paper! 

But at the same time the ease of texting/social media creates a new twist of setting boundaries with parents. Even working as an aide I had parents sending school/work questions to my personal FB account. Other coworkers report that parents send them multiple emails/txts throughout the day while they are teaching and are put out when their messages aren't responded to immediately. 

Pros and Cons I guess. Wish me luck lol. 

I am a certified high school English teacher but jobs are scarce in this area, so I have started as a sub.  My first assignment is in a 6th grade ELA room.  It, too, has a smart board and I have no idea how to use it.  I'm planning on playing with it tomorrow during planning meetings, but I am old-school so I would rather grade papers that have their actual writing on them and be able to write responses to them. I have no idea how long this particular assignment will last so I am writing the lesson plans and setting classroom policies.  I am totally out of my element.  In regards to FB, I am not giving that information out to my students or their parents.  I am also not giving them my personal cell phone number.  They can have my school email address and number but too many bad experiences with giving out my personal info causes me to not do that any longer.  If the district wants me to give them that information, they can pay for my phone or buy me one.

Oh man....you gals took the thread to "teacher issues". 

I've got plenty to say, but I need to think about how I want to say it because I have so much respect for what you do and how hard it is, especially today with social media and "connectivity",  which places a whole 'nother layer on your work....but I'm aggravated with ya'll too. (your profession, not you personally)

Stand by...........I'm holding my place here.  LOL

I'm preparing to be offended.......

You guys finally have a couple of women posting in here... don't scare them off!!!

My kids' classrooms have these and they are pretty cool. It's like a big touch screen - it's super interactive for the teacher and the kids.

I've been really impressed by technology in the classroom in my daughter's public school. She's got her own google account and knew how to create and publish a website by the time she was in 4th grade. It makes school work more interactive for the kids (they can work on homework together remotely), and I think they like the tech side - makes a presentation about history more fun. She's going into 6th grade this year and required to have her own Chromebook - made me raise my eyebrows a bit, but I guess that's how they do a bunch of their work. 

My son goes to a private Montessori school and they have no technology in the classroom. It'll be interesting to see how he picks it up. He'll probably grow up and be all, "get off my lawn!" about email like LB  

LOL.....I'm going to let it go.  The truth is, I've almost never even had a conversation with any of my kid's teachers.  I didn't see the need.  The rule in our house was that our kids deferred to their teachers direction and classroom management while in their classroom.....period.  It was not open for discussion.  Now, we've had hundreds of discussions with our children about where/when we, as parents, don't agree with teachers....but it ends there.  I don't complain to teachers, or to administrators about teachers.  The job is hard enough without parents interfering.  And to us, it's good training for the real world where you aren't always going to like your "boss" or supervisor......might as well get used to it. 

All 5 of my kids have either graduated or are currently enrolled in college, so the idea that we needed to meet with teachers in order for our kids to be successful doesn't hold much water with us.

The ONLY time we ever spoke with teachers and administrators was when they blindsided us for a "conference" where the entire idea of the meeting was to convince us to have our son medicated for ADD.......you might imagine how that went for them. LMAO

Years later the Principal came up to me at a track meet (he was a recreational runner), during the time my son was breaking every distance record at his High School, along with most meet records in the area in the 800, and told me that he was wrong about recommending that he be medicated.  I said, "Jim, I thought we established that 8 years ago." 

You could have said what you wanted lol. I was just teasing about being offended. My daughter has ADHD. I was on some ADHD forums for parents for several years and believe me I have read my fair share of comments from parents bashing the profession. It's stinging and sometimes I think I must need my head checked signing back up for this. I was honestly very hesitant for a long time in large part due to the very negative impression so many people have of teachers and I was kind of content with being an aide. But, the fact is that I am really good at this one thing - helping children learn. I don't mean to sound like I'm tooting my own horn, there are plenty of things I'm not good at too ha ha. I have also lived this experience raising a child who doesn't fit the mold in the regular classroom. I've got the kid who can't sit still, who is making science experiments in her desk when she is supposed to be "listening" (I can tell you she hears more when her hands are engaged than she does when you make her be still), who blurts out and forgets to raise her hand, who is so smart yet struggles to focus to complete her homework. 

I won't be the teacher telling any parent to medicate. I'm not a doctor, I'm an educator. It's my responsibility to create a learning environment that meets the needs of all of my students. If my students aren't excited to come to school and if they don't believe that they can learn then I have failed. I don't care if you need to stand on your head - I can figure out a way to teach you to read . 

Getting 5 kids through college sounds like you must be doing something right! 

Thanks LB. Right back at ya .