Well, I haven't blogged for a few days. In fact, I haven't turned on my computer, except for work purposes. My brother called and asked if his family could stay at our place for a few days. They're having an elective C-section next week. That's no problem, but them my parents called and asked if they could come, too. My parents want to help look after his 2-year-old son and our 3 girls while their baby is being born. This has meant that renovations to our basement had to be put into high gear, so last week I came home from school, got into work clothes, and worked in the basement until 10 or 11 each evening. All that's left to do is install a faucet in the bathroom this afternoon, and then we're done! We have been living in renovations since before our 5-year old was born, so I'm not sure what we're going to do with having the use of our entire house (my wife already wants to paint our main floor and start making renovations in the kitchen...I asked her to wait until after this class was finished). Our basement is awesome: new windows, new bedroom, new bathroom, new everything, plus satellite TV (we only had one receiver until a couple months ago).
So, that's my long story. Renos done, but school work had to be put on hold.
I want to talk a little bit about Facebook. The past couple of months I have had to deal with three issues, two professionally and one personally, that involve what I would deem improper use of Facebook. I can't be very specific, but one involved a paraprofessional writing about a student, another involved a student bullying others using Facebook, and the third involved a family member posting something inappropriate on a university's Facebook page.
What is is about Facebook that makes people think that they can post whatever they want? Do they think the internet makes them anonymous? Do they think that writing something isn't as serious as saying something? Is it because they post something in their own house/bedroom and feel insulated from the rest of the world? I am struggling with how people misuse Facebook; how people that I know misuse Facebook. The paraprofessional almost lost her job, the student was expelled from school, and the family member...let's just say the family is going to have a "meeting" next weekend and express how unacceptable the family member's behaviour was.
I've actually struggled with posting this blog, and hopefully have not said too much about the Facebook incidents. I just hope that people realize that once something is sent into cyberspace, it's there for all of the world to see.
I really appreciated reading about your facebook follys. We've had a few ourselves: minor, but certainly irritating. One was with my daughter who uses facebook extensively. I asked her to remove some of the pictures that she had of my wife, myself, and my stepson: my wife is VERY security concious, and she disliked the thought of our images on the internet with our names attached to them. My daughter didn't know how to remove pictures from her account, which we found disappointing and disturbing: easy to post the pictures, apparently not so easy to delete them.
ReplyDeleteThe other incident was the near-bullying that was going on in my stepson's peer group via facebook. It wasn't quite bullying, but it was close. My wife has since worked with my stepson to close the facebook account until he and his peers are mature enough to make better decisions about their use of facebook.
I'm certainly not suggesting facebook is inherently evil. I am, however, agreeing that some people seem to lose their common sense filter when posting on it.
I like the saying, "Don't post anything that you would not want posted on the staffroom bboard.' I have always been very careful with what I say and to whom I say it! Best not to post anything that is questionable.
ReplyDeleteBesides, I don't care if you baked cookies, cleaned your toilet and walked the dog. Geesh, sometimes I get to wishin' I had that much time on my hands - to do the chores AND have the time to FB about it!!!