Social Media - Buck Review

Upon reading the first few lines of Buck’s article, I thought I could see quite a few likenesses in the social media lives of Ronnie and myself. I tend to, for the most part, communicate via Facebook to my roommates if I want to get the word out quickly or share a photo, as well as messaging classmates if we’re in a group project. However, as I continued on through the story of Ronnie, I was a little taken-aback. The list of social media sites that Ronnie was a part of seemed endless, I don’t know how he keeps up with all of that. While I have a few online accounts, I’m usually the last to hear about new social media outlets and am far from the “early-adopter” Ronnie considers himself. I’ve never worried about how many followers I have or keeping them at a specific number, but granted I’m not very up to date with all things technology. Frankly, the deep analysis that Buck gives just from reading through his public tweets freaked me out. I think that may be another reason Ronnie and I wouldn’t relate well to one another, I’ve never found the idea of posting personal things about myself on the internet for everyone to see very appealing. As snobbish as that sounds, I do believe that is the major difference between Ronnie and myself.

Buck’s statement about literacy practices being connected to academic literacy practices is a powerful one, and is only made more so by the social media narrative of Ronnie. As I’ve mentioned before, Buck is able to fully understand and know Ronnie through his activity on social media, and this is often dismissed as “kids just being kids.” But the fact can’t be ignored anymore, social media is an irrevocable part of student’s lives these days, and educators need to adapt. Social media has always been viewed as the enemy, but if used in the right context, can be a wonderful tool for teaching literacy.