Getting Social

I've always been a chameleon. The greatest survival tactic I know is to try to fit into any setting. Styles would come and go depending on my friends. Who can forget the long hair and roach clips with feathers, the camo ball caps, the parachute pants? None of those things were really me. When I stepped on stage, that was the closest to "real" as I got, and frankly that was usually an idealistic self image that I presented so that no one would see how terrified I was that someone would see behind my curtain, so to speak.

As a person that has spent most of his life avoiding letting anyone see his "real" self, social media presents some interesting challenges. Even as a gamer, I never had conversations or really even liked games that had a chance of exposing me as a person. Now, here I am having to jump with both feet into all manner of personal exposition. Facebook, Twitter, Blogging! Is there no end to the places I'm forced to interact, albeit asynchronously, with the entire world???

In this new world where Millennials are happily posting pictures of underage drinking, describing sexual preferences, and all manner of amazing debauchery, I see that I need to come to grips with my puritanical online self and start embracing a more social online presence. I'm not suggesting that I start describing my sex life, or bashing people at work, but rather that I at least attempt a small bit of the online lifestyle many young college students think perfectly normal.

I've certainly ranted about the need to embrace this social media, but I suppose I need to walk the walk. To this end, I reach out to my fellow education professionals. We need to stop complaining that our students don't know how to learn, or regarding technology as a distraction. The world has changed, just as it always does. We've got to get with the program! This is evolution, fellow instructors. We evolve, or we die out. This week I'll be playing with Twitter, Netvibes, SlideShare, and various other groovy technologies as I learn about them. Wish me luck and feel free to join me! theedugeek