Helping Students Understand Responsible Social Media Use

Just about every person today has some sort of social media account.  Some for work and some for just personal enjoyment.  Regardless of the reason for which we have them, there is a certain etiquette that needs to be followed.  We as teachers tend to understand this a little more than our students do.  I think that the true challenge for us as teachers is to try and help our students understand what is and is not acceptable, without taking away their self expression and making it their own.  With cyber bullying being a major cause of concern these days, and social media being a big proponent of this, we need to educate even more vigorously responsible social media use.  Another major concern of mine with our young people and social media is the availability  of our children/students to sexual predators.  It is really important that we make sure that things they post are not offering up information that would allow them vulnerable to these people.  Encourage them to not share locations or times when they may be home alone, or times they leave work late.  I know all the time I accept friend requests on Facebook from people I don't know.  This is not a good practice by me, but a horrible practice for students and children.  Encourage them to be sure of all friend  requests that they accept.  I would even encourage teachers to have a classroom page, and ask all the parents to view if occasionally and give pointers on how to keep their children safe while using social media.  As a coach I would routinely check my players Facebook pages.  Kids will be kids I understand, and we all know that our students, players, and even our own children make decisions based in the now and don't think about the future consequences of these decisions.  As I would look over these pages of my players and inform them of things that I felt was inappropriate.  Be it language, pictures, or anything that could be misconstrued as negative.  I will not get into right or wrong aspects of it, but more just general character.  Many of my players had college coaches looking at them, and I have many friends of mine that coach at the college level.  I know that they follow their recruits Facebook and twitter accounts.  I just always wanted to make sure that they presented the best image of themselves on their page.  Just the way I am.  I myself have had things wind up on my Facebook that did not represent the best image of myself, so I assure them I am not trying to be holier-than-thou.  I just let them know they can learn from others mistakes, and let that coach know he is getting a quality player with good character. One last note.  I don't judge.  Just not something I do.  I think that what people do is there own business and they can choose to share it or not.  As teachers we have that right as well, but we are held to a higher standard in the court of public opinion.  It may not be fair, but it is the way it is.   So we need to be careful what we put on social media as well.  You can be the greatest educator or coach in the world.  But one misconstrued post or tweet can hurt your credibility, and in these days it is hard to recover.  A wise man once told me it only take 1 oh-crap to ruin 1000 ata-boys.  But he also told me if your gonna be stupid you better be tough.  Just a thought.  Follow @CoachKD34