Function and dysfunction

Marshall McLuhan observed that "we shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us." The utopian aims of those who created the internet and the World Wide Web have in many respects been realised and are growing in ever more exciting and diverse ways, yet this positive, functional angle has to be balanced with the more dysfunctional elements that are especially apparent in social media.

In terms of social media in education the dysfunctional elements include all the negative uses that many associate with new technologies. The ease with which uncensored or unedited opinions and information can be accessed by young people, the prevalence of abusive communications in the form of cyber bullying, the conviction that the network is having a detrimental effect on the way in which young people learn through the convenient availability of facts, the destruction of grammar and disinclination of people to read. Many attack social media for its links to atrocities carried out by contemporary villains, from the school bully to London rioters and Islamic terrorists. There is no doubt, like with all forms of communication, that social media has been used effectively by those who wish to harm others. But many fail to acknowledge or simply don’t know the positive function of social media for young people and the revolutionary impact it is likely to have on our lives in the future.

The greatest function of social media is the ability of people to collaborate and enjoy the benefits of collective wisdom. This is being realised in enterprises such as open source software, in the creation of collaborative websites like Wikipedia and through the ability to share photos, ideas, videos and thoughts in an unprecedentedly easy way. This opens so many doors for schools and educators who should be experimenting with these media to ensure young people can optimise the possibilities available through modern technologies and to equip them for their futures in which the collaborative tools of the internet will be a given in all aspects of life.