[Teaching_Composition] Facebook and constructed selves

[Michael Day]

Chris,

I've also been on both Facebook and Myspace for a year or so, after a group of us from the Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research decided to do a panel at the Indianapolis Assessment Conference on using FB/MS as a model or vehicle for something like an eportfolio.  Although it's tempting to think of FB and MS as "self-sponsored discourse" that will motivate students to do writing that isn't "obliged" (Doug Hesse's terms), we found that most students want a space separate from academic surveillance where they can "be themselves."

I haven't used it either with classes, and take a fairly cautious approach.  I don't give a lot of information or share a lot of photos, and have frequent arguments with my daughter about what she shares and who will see it.  Students, employers, or anyone else who wants to look, can use the "corpus" we present on FB, MS, blogs, and even plain old web pages to "construct us a beings," and it's interesting and sometimes frightening what they come up with.

Conversely, I've had TAs in my office incensed at what their students have written about them in FB, and have had to caution them that it's really none of their business.

To the question of embodiment and self on FB, I think Spencer Schaffner's work is relevant.  He's exploring "the ways Facebook profiles enact and celebrate the strategic representation of the academic "face" (as synecdochic self) while succumbing to auto- representation via a list of predetermined attributes," and gave an interesting presentation on this at C & W 2006 Online. Gina Maranto and Sarah Robbins have also had their students do research in FB and other social networking sites.

And, of course, Danah Boyd's work on social networking and identity is valuable in this context:

http://www.danah.org/papers/

"Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism," recently mentioned on the WPA list, may also be relevant:

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/17/rosen.htm

In case anyone is interested, you'll find random notes on FB/MS and writing classes (including a lot of commentary from technorhetoricians on the Techrhet list) from a presentation I gave about a year ago at the URL below.  Yes, I know that in Internet time, this is ancient...

http://www.engl.niu.edu/mday/gpacw06.html 

And Kathy, I just loved your post about how students constructed you as a grad TA!  It's a familiar subject in my TA pedagogy seminar these days...

Michael

Michael Day
First-Year Composition
Northern Illinois University

>>> Chris Anson <chris_anson@ncsu.edu> 11/28/2007 4:26:16 PM >>>
The notion of embodiment and self as it's manifested online is really  
interesting. How do students construct us as beings, not just conduits  
of knowledge and advice? A year ago, I asked my sons (16 and 19)  
whether I should set up a Facebook account. Shock and instant pleading  
not to. Facebook is not, they explained, for my generation. A year  
later, I took the plunge anyway--things had changed a bit, they said.  
My older son had been urged by one of his professors at UNC-Chapel  
Hill to visit his Facebook page, which he had set up to communicate  
more easily and informally with students and to share more of himself  
(i.e., that grocery-store Other). I soon discovered that half a dozen  
faculty on my campus had pages, and since then (a few months) I've  
been friended by perhaps three dozen people in the field, as well as a  
bunch of my sons' friends and a bunch of graduate students and, very  
recently, some undergraduates I've had in my classes.  But I find  
myself feeling cautious and a little hesitant when I'm using Facebook.  
While others seem to use it constantly, I visit it maybe once a week  
unless prompted by someone else. Has anyone else used Facebook, and if  
so, what have you experienced?

On Nov 28, 2007, at 6:45 AM, Kristie Fleckenstein wrote:

>
> Susan's ethos question and your response, Doug, were also in the  
> back of my head as I read through NCTE's Inbox this morning, esp.  
> the section on the NCTE blogs...the ones where participants posted  
> responses to NCTE in NYC?  Traci Gardner's response blog addressed  
> the question of teachers blogging: should teachers be blogging and/ 
> or participating on social networking sites?  I guess some school  
> systems are urging teachers to avoid both.
>
> Doesn't it seem as if part of the concern stems from issues of  
> embodiment--life outside of school, life as something other than a  
> talking head?  (I remember when I was in grade school--I saw my  
> second grade teacher in the grocery store, and I was shocked.  What?  
> Teachers buy food?)
>
> Fascinating and important, all of this.
>
> Kris
>

-- 
Chris M. Anson [Web site]
University Distinguished Professor
Director, Campus Writing & Speaking Program
Box 8105, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC  27695-8105
(919) 513-4080