Social Media and Internet Censorship in schools

When someone says social media, what do you think of? Do you think of Wikipedia, Facebook, and MySpace etc.? Some people may forget that the majority of most news websites are considered as social media. According to thesocialpath.com, social media refers to any and all communications in which the individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of author and audience. In other words, if you are able to edit a webpage freely while also reading what others have posted, then it would be considered social media. In almost every high school across America, the use of any type of online social media is strictly forbidden. That goes the same for Alden High School. There are many different viewpoints to this issue. Some teachers and parents believe that social media in the classroom would be an “effective distraction.” This basically means that it would probably help some students accomplish their assignments, but for the majority of students, it would be more of a distraction. Other teachers and parents think it would be a great opportunity for students to expand their communication skills. With social media, you can usually chat with people who are editing the same page you are. Personally, I believe all of the blocks and restrictions placed on the internet by Alden staff are getting to the point where it is ridiculous. I know whenever I try to research a topic for class or something, I always find a good looking site that has all of the information that I might need. Then I click on it and find that it has been blocked. Understandably, some sites definitely need to be blocked, but I think it takes common sense to know that when looking at national news articles, it should not be blocked as personal pages/weblogs (http://168.169.1.108:81/cgi/block.cgi?URL=http://bigpeace.com/jfconnor/2010/12/02/terror-mastermind-seeking-release/&IP=172.23.38.246&CAT=WEBLOG&USER=IPGROUP&CE=0). Some students think that knowing what is going on around them in the world is very helpful. They can no longer get updated as effectively as they would at home because, i.e., this school blocks any type of opinion based pages. So yes, I believe a small part in the censoring of social media in school, but I disagree with the majority of the stuff they censor and block.