A string of early morning tweets sent by the President of the United States on Saturday accused the former President of tapping phones at Trump Tower prior to the election. Aside from the fact that he provided no evidence to substantiate these allegations (and misspelled the world “tapp”!), President Trump also called President Obama a “Bad (or sick) guy.”
Ouch.
In all fairness to the current President, social media is still a relatively new phenomenon. Those of us who didn’t grow up with it didn’t get any guidelines or receive mentorship on its responsible use. The iPhone is, after all, only 10 years old. The fact that it provides instant and unfiltered access to the whole darn world is (or at least should be) a mind-boggling notion to those of us over 40. It’s understandable then that adults make social media faux pas, or even worse, sometimes use it to hurt or shame others. In fact, a whole book on this topic—called Shame Nation: The Global Epidemic of Online Hate—is due out soon.
So, I wish that instead of visiting St. Andrew Catholic School in Orlando on Friday, President Trump could have stopped by Journey Charter School in Southern California. Because on that day 6th graders in our Cyber Civics classes were learning about “responsible social media use.” They were hard at work discussing and creating social “norms” they would like to see in in the online world, and because adults have done such a good job at leaving a gaping void as to how to use the Internet responsibly and civilly, these students came up with a number of excellent ideas. For example,
“Think Before You Tweet”
Or, even better…
“Think Twice”
Here are some their other relevant ideas:
“Don’t Be Mean Online”
“Don’t Post Fake Things”
“Don’t Say Bad Things”
“Don’t Swear”
“Don’t Post Between 11 and 8”
And my favorite:
“Be Humble”
These “norms” get posted on a wall where they serve as constant reminders, guiding the students’ online practices. Of course, these kids still make mistakes when it comes to the using the incredible power of social media wisely. But usually, because they have hashed out these norms and more (like asking permission before tagging one another in a post), in advance and in person, they help one another online too.
After all, we can all use a little help when it comes to being smart online.
