Interesting…

I’ve been substantively misrepresented…

Graduate student Jonthon Coulson, the only student member of the task force, said employers are turning to Facebook.com to screen potential employees.

“If you can’t defend something on your profile to an employer, don’t put it up because they will find it,” Coulson said.

Regardless, it was a good weekend. We spent time with my grandfather, taking him to restaurants and driving him out into the mountain/countryside. The Earth here is so raw and jagged. Buildings and population are sparse. It seems more natural – rough, unyielding – and I find a certain amount of solace just staring bleakly and blankly at it from a crowded back seat.

There’s been plenty for me to think about, both generally in my life and from discoveries made during the trip. Lots of fodder and free time has given me an opportunity to sit back and be considerate of the world and my place in it as of now. I find a certain amount of contentment in such reflection.

Thanks for stopping by, and being an NPR listener. I’ll admit that it’s kind of cool to peak my head up into the limelight, even if only for a moment, to share my insight about the pressing issue that is online privacy.

My feeling is that students are using the technology to keep in touch, scout job prospects, get furniture from graduating seniors…in other words, amass social capital. For those familiar with the work of Robert Putnam, of Bowling Alone fame, I dare say that social networks are serving the same functions as were his bowling alleys (I was always convinced that bowling had little to do with democratic participation.)

So how do I reflect on regulatory efforts? Not entirely disdainfully. Identity theft is a real concern, both on- and off-line. The ease with which one can physically locate someone has increased, and for some this is surely cause for concern. But I honestly believe that such abuses are rare, and over-hyped. The benefits far outweigh the risk, and they aren’t given enough (read: any) attention.

I also worry that such efforts are constraining a generation that has been radicalized by the actions of a unitary executive that I feel needs to be stopped. America used to have a lot of public spaces, but now discussing politics at bars, in classrooms, or on the streets can be anathema. The facebook is one of the most lenient and discursive forums open to our generation, and to regulate or censor it borders on suppressing first amendment rights. I am also confident that doing so will further radicalize our generation, in a time when we need to be mending bridges, not destroying them.

Feel free to comment, or email me directly. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

A fellow NYC TFA ESLer. And she’s got links to a lot of other teachers on her blogroll, as well. Perhaps it’ll prove a handy resource in a few months…

Discovery in News archives leads to publication of unseen photographs tracing progress of civil rights movement through Birmingham.

(Cohn is an MU grad.)