Playing Nicely Online

Parents at Santa Barbara Middle School, an independent school teaching grades six through nine, were recently given a window into their young teenagers’ mysterious world of social networking. A survey of the school’s students yielded findings that were both expected and alarming: More than 80 percent of those who responded are on Facebook and nearly 70 percent use Skype, a face-to-face video chat service. Parents were also alerted to a Facebook application called Formspring, which opens users up to anonymous comments and is ripe ground for bullies.

“We took the survey to better understand how social networking is affecting the students, both positively and negatively,” said John Seigel-Boettner, who teaches a social studies and life science class to sixth and seventh graders. Seventy five of the school’s 105 students answered the online survey. “We want to try to steer them away from the parts that aren’t so good,” Seigel-Boettner said. “Not knowing all the places they go, it’s hard to steer.” In particular, he and upper-school English teacher Jesse Wooten distributed the 24-question survey to solicit feedback about cyberbulling, and about social networking’s impacts on homework.

Parents who attended the workshop to learn about the results voiced concern that Facebook and Skype are serious distractions during homework time. One quarter of the responders reported that they have a social networking site “on” most of the time while they’re doing their homework, while 42 percent said they “never” have it on during that time. Some commented on the homework issue. “I’m so distracted by social networking but I still do it,” wrote one responder. “I think I don’t do full work when Facebook is open, it takes me ten times longer,” reported another. “It is very helpful and a big distraction,” wrote a third.