Moving chairs.

Is the dark side of social media being honestly represented by educational-advocates? Several years have passed since I eagerly signed up for Twitter and Facebook. I think, for my sins, I’m in the first 5% who did. Before that, social was about writing and exchanging ideas via blog platforms. Social media, mostly Twitter – was a short-cut to what everyone wanted – more conversations, more endorsement and more agency.

But times have changed significantly. The world Tumblr is more searched for than the word ‘blog’. Most of those people whom I learned the most from (and had the most fun with) use Twitter for social-connectedness and entertainment. The dark-side is that social media (for educators) didn’t turn out to be the kind of ‘succeed’ culture expected, but a feed culture, where people either churn out the same old gruel or stare into their smart phone expecting for the unexpected to be fed to them.

Google Communities are not useful for those who built their educational-consultancy businesses off the back of Twitter and rhetorical fallacies. More and more, I see people whom have contributed most (not for profit) establishing string G+ communities and others. I drop back into social media to be social, not connected.

Twitter is not the most effective channel for connecting educators. It’s was the most effective channels for establishing a certain belief, at a certain time. Just as MySpace was once good for bands … there are now far better places – actual radio stations such as TripleJ Unearthed, where anyone can participate.

The dark side is appearing more and more. The media is finding it hard to point at games as violence and addiction epicentres – now that Reddit sleuths didn’t find the Boston bomber, but did managed to add a new victim.

The dark side for educators is that, up until now – rhetoric (in 140 characters or less) was sufficient to build a business. It was a great way to build an affiliate network and to establish that ‘disruptive’ was the source of school improvement. Now the money’s gone, the people are going and the messages are as out of place as 486×60 banner ad.

Where are you going more and more?

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