Abstract
Thousands of preadolescents and adolescents are using social networking sites, and especially Facebook, on a daily basis. Given the public nature of most user profiles, as well as of the many social connections established online by young students and adolescents, it becomes obvious that integrating the richness of information provided by these websites into the pedagogical and counseling practice is currently a must. This paper intend to look at how the public "walls" of Facebook allow parents, teachers or counselors to develop further awareness on the evolution of a particular students or a group of students. Facebook's rich information allows a better understanding of students thinking and behaviors, since specific attitudes are openly expressed in their own words, or rather with "likes", or "dislikes" kind of labeling, while their interests and concerns became apparent by by analyzing the content they disseminate. Facebook virtual "walls" also provide further information on student skills (technical, artistic), or personality characteristics (sociability, narcissism, extraversion, openness to experience, lack of taboos, agreability), or creativity (as demonstrated by the original web contend they generate). Their involvement in volunteering activities (social activism), or their skills in developing relationships with peers (that one can appreciate by the size of their personal social networks) and their strategies in exchanging information (i.e., sharing photos with friends) provides also important data that may support the educational work. Representations of youth identity, in the post-modern sense of identity construction, can be assessed based on the self-presentations available on Facebook, by observing the types of photographs made public, or the frequency of profile information updates. Nevertheless, protecting the integrity of students' personal and social spaces, disregarding they are real or virtual, denouncing any "invasion" of unwanted or dangerous friends, establishing rules of ethics in teacher-student communication, and detection of particular problems in youth life (depression, anxiety, irritability or other kind of adolescentin “emergencies”) are important lines of action for the education counselor. Moreover, the concept of "pedagogical web" shows that the special relationship that teens and adolescents have with new media can be further capitalize on in the educational and/or counseling process in order to support a harmonious development of students personality. |
