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Pro: Facebook Isn’t a Learning Tool
by [|Benjamin Bliumis] The standardized hoops—such as Regents and SAT tests—through which today’s "successful" student must jump detract from time spent on meaningful learning and demand rote memorization. Children are encouraged to memorize poorly contextualized facts, instead of engaging deeply with texts, and to master "test-taking strategies," treating tests as games rather than as forums for the display of knowledge. Interestingly, the rising popularity of social networking sites among children mirrors and exacerbates these negative trends in public education. Yes, Facebook //could// be used by children to share articles with educational and thought-provoking content. But the reality is that children are using Facebook to share homework and test answers, dropping their education through the cybercracks of a cheater’s paradise. Hence my agreement with [|the New Jersey middle school principal] who recently made headlines when he decried the effects of Facebook on his students’ education and asked parents to forbid their children to use the social networking site. Children are also using Facebook to exchange messages and play games with cyberfriends. As fourth grader Stan Boflovski explains on a recent episode of South Park, Facebook is great because "You can message your friends, play Yatzi …, even start your own virtual farm and have your friends visit it." But Mafia Wars, online Yatzi, and other games played via Facebook have little to no educational value. Nor do idle messaging, texting, gossiping, and "cyber-bullying." In the larger scheme of things, cyber-messaging threatens the maturation of real-life social skills. As a middle-schooler during the advent of the Internet, I myself experienced delusions of sociality, falsely believing that I was having meaningful interactions with friends online. In retrospect, these lacked the physical dynamics that breed healthy relationships. Furthermore, virtual gaming robs children of developmentally important outdoor experiences. The obesity epidemic is only a gross manifestation of the more general need to get kids off chairs and couches and away from keyboards.