Tweens are using social media (
Facebook/
Twitter/YouTube/
MySpace) a lot more these days - they post pics of their friends and family, watch episodes of Fred or
Justin Bieber videos (that's how he was discovered, actually), and follow their favorite celebrities on Twitter (or not, as
Miley Cyrus famously quit Twitter last year) (check out MsTwixt's list of
Tween Celebs on Twitter) and bands on MySpace (including
Honor Society,
Selena Gomez and
Emily Osment). And in recent days, we've all witnessed how social media has been used for good - more than $6 million has been raised in the U.S. alone towards earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, much it driven by social networks and text messages.
Demi Lovato even took to Twitter to encourage her fans to get involved to help.
Some of this takes away from studying and certainly shouldn't be done in school, but should schools totally block them? The debate is on, with proponents of blocking social media sites claiming that they are a distraction at best and used for
cyber-bullying at worst. Opponents of banning social media in schools are beginning to grow, claiming that they're simply a new channel (not unlike mobile phones) and can actually be used to monitor and pre-empt social problems. Slate magazine, an online opinion blog, recently ran
an op-ed on the subject.
Full disclosure: MsTwixt uses social networking a lot (you can follow us on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/MsTwixt, join
our Facebook page, or see us on MySpace at
www.MySpace.com/MsTwixt), but this is about tweens using social networks.
What do you think?
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