Be Careful What You Post - by Christine.

'Everyone Knows Your Name' Youtube Clip

When I first viewed this clip I was very impressed with the quality, the casting, and the way the ‘story’ unfolds. Set in an American high school and with other settings that appeal to teenagers such as the cinema, the actors do an excellent job of recreating realistic exchanges of dialogue and non-verbal communication. The girls are appealing to teenagers, and the men are particularly well cast. They represent the ‘Invisible audiences’ who may be viewing our profiles in networked publics (boyd, 2007).

As an adult I found the clip very powerful in delivering the message ‘be careful what you post’, but I was interested to find out students’ perception of the video. I screened it for one Year 8 class and three Year 9 classes and their responses were interesting. Firstly, the ‘what colour underwear today?’ question was lost on them. No-one could explain why the man asked Sarah this, the closest guess being that she must have posted photos of herself in her underwear. I explained the ‘game’ used last year to promote Breast Cancer Awareness. Women who used Facebook were asked to post what colour bra they were wearing as their status – the idea being that if ‘purple’ or ‘striped’ was your status, it made others not in the know, mainly men, wonder what you were talking about. This year’s Breast Cancer Awareness ‘game’ asks women to post where you like leaving your handbag as your status. A rash of ‘I like it on the kitchen bench’ or ‘I like it on the floor’ has other users jumping to certain conclusions.

Secondly, the students asked how all those people knew Sarah’s name. Here I was able to discuss Facebook’s privacy settings and how to adjust them. The lesson would have been much more powerful if I opened Facebook and demonstrated, although the risk here is exposing my profile which, although G rated and above board, may contain inappropriate posts by others in my news feed. Using ‘print screens’ in a powerpoint presentation would solve this problem.

Reference

boyd, d. (2007) “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics

in Teenage Social Life.” MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning – Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume (ed. David Buckingham). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.