The Potential of Facebook
by Thomas Brown
When thinking of Facebook I think of information. You can be informed about your friend's lives from the most mundane everyday things to life changing events. If you study the information you can learn about the people you are friends with. Some of the things you learn may even change your friendship with them. Facebook right now is mostly used to let your friends know what you ate for dinner or what you are doing for the day. People get too caught up with the meaningless posts and this time could be used to be more productive. If you see something interesting that you agree with you can hit it with the all-powerful "like" button. The "like" button is changing the landscape of Facebook. Companies are catching on and are paying lots of money in advertisement in order to get a piece of the "like" pie. Imagine what could happen if the popularity of the "like" could catch on to literature. Since the invention of writing literature has moved the human race throughout time. If people are moving to an increasingly digital world then literature must move with them.
I think all this power that Facebook has could be used for something better than finding our what your friends had for dinner the previous night. Let's take this information and use it for people to learn! Much like how Blue books were used to help the masses learn, Facebook can be used the same way. Instead of spying on someone's wall to see what they are up to, how about spying on their wall to see what interesting things they have read? Facebook could be a powerful digital library for all forms of literature. This could be an important step in re-introducing literature to the youth of today. More and more you see younger children with their faces glued to some kind of glowing screen. Words printed on paper are becoming old fashioned with the younger generations. Where is this going to lead? Are the youth of tomorrow going to abandon the books of yesterday? This is a scary proposition to think about. In order to get young people involved in literature you must find a way to made it appealing to them.
This is where Facebook could play a very important role. This virtual playground is where young people spend their time. Some even spend more hours on this site in a day than they do offline. If this is going to be a growing trend then things that are in the outside world need to go digital or be left behind. I imagine a literature side to Facebook where you can invite your friends to join you. There could be poetry and all genres of novels. There could be a daily poem on the front and if it tickles your fancy maybe you will toss it a "like". Soon this poem is being liked by all of your friends and it is being shared across timelines. Now a piece of literature that was gathering dust on a shelf in a library is being shared and viewed by an audience that has never been exposed to it before.
Is this just a vision of something that is unobtainable? Not with the advancement of technology, this vision is becoming more real everyday. The teachers of tomorrow are going to be forced to change the ways that have been taught in the past. If they just adapt to the way children are being brought up then perhaps literature could be re-introduced as subject just as important as math or science. Literature teaches you ways to think that you wouldn't get in the other subjects. This is why literature is so important to our youth and why it is so important to adapt to the changing world. A vessel such as Facebook is just the tool that we need to connect the world of literature to the younger generations.
When thinking of Facebook I think of information. You can be informed about your friend's lives from the most mundane everyday things to life changing events. If you study the information you can learn about the people you are friends with. Some of the things you learn may even change your friendship with them. Facebook right now is mostly used to let your friends know what you ate for dinner or what you are doing for the day. People get too caught up with the meaningless posts and this time could be used to be more productive. If you see something interesting that you agree with you can hit it with the all-powerful "like" button. The "like" button is changing the landscape of Facebook. Companies are catching on and are paying lots of money in advertisement in order to get a piece of the "like" pie. Imagine what could happen if the popularity of the "like" could catch on to literature. Since the invention of writing literature has moved the human race throughout time. If people are moving to an increasingly digital world then literature must move with them.
I think all this power that Facebook has could be used for something better than finding our what your friends had for dinner the previous night. Let's take this information and use it for people to learn! Much like how Blue books were used to help the masses learn, Facebook can be used the same way. Instead of spying on someone's wall to see what they are up to, how about spying on their wall to see what interesting things they have read? Facebook could be a powerful digital library for all forms of literature. This could be an important step in re-introducing literature to the youth of today. More and more you see younger children with their faces glued to some kind of glowing screen. Words printed on paper are becoming old fashioned with the younger generations. Where is this going to lead? Are the youth of tomorrow going to abandon the books of yesterday? This is a scary proposition to think about. In order to get young people involved in literature you must find a way to made it appealing to them.
This is where Facebook could play a very important role. This virtual playground is where young people spend their time. Some even spend more hours on this site in a day than they do offline. If this is going to be a growing trend then things that are in the outside world need to go digital or be left behind. I imagine a literature side to Facebook where you can invite your friends to join you. There could be poetry and all genres of novels. There could be a daily poem on the front and if it tickles your fancy maybe you will toss it a "like". Soon this poem is being liked by all of your friends and it is being shared across timelines. Now a piece of literature that was gathering dust on a shelf in a library is being shared and viewed by an audience that has never been exposed to it before.
Is this just a vision of something that is unobtainable? Not with the advancement of technology, this vision is becoming more real everyday. The teachers of tomorrow are going to be forced to change the ways that have been taught in the past. If they just adapt to the way children are being brought up then perhaps literature could be re-introduced as subject just as important as math or science. Literature teaches you ways to think that you wouldn't get in the other subjects. This is why literature is so important to our youth and why it is so important to adapt to the changing world. A vessel such as Facebook is just the tool that we need to connect the world of literature to the younger generations.