Reflection Blog on Social Media in Higher Ed

I really enjoyed reading the article "Connected Learning" by Steven Mintz. I liked how he started off the article by quoting other articles that seem to think social media is not good for our society. Steven makes many great points to why social media is a positive move though. For example, Mintz states in the article "that interaction need not be face-to-face to be authentic and meaningful." I really liked the paragraph he wrote underneath this point which says, "Although it is sometimes said that social media undermines interpersonal social skills, discouraging prolonged, in-depth, intimate conversations in favor of all-too-brief interactions, in actuality social media increases the frequency of communication, complements face-to-face relationships, and enables long-distance interaction. It's number one causality: Social media sharply reduces time spent watching television passively and alone. Social media, in short, not only increases opportunities to connect, but ways that individuals can communicate." I thought this point was very true. Social media shouldn't be utilized everywhere, there is definitely a time and place for it. For example, social media shouldn't be used for everything like interviews, I find it better to do them in person. But social media is great for promoting yourself and also having connections. Lastly, technology is becoming bigger and bigger each and every day. We are now using a lot more technology in classrooms than we did in the past. So with that being said social media can be used in classrooms to further educate students. It's a great tool for teachers and students to utilize and learn from, but in my opinion should not be used everyday.