School Vs. Social Media

Teens gossipping over social media

The Glendale article displayed the school's attempt to monitor students' social medial accounts. This benefits the society because it can alert the school if any kids are demonstrating risky behaviors, signs of suicidal thoughts, and any traces of cyber bullying. Once detected, the school may contact their parents who can seek help for their children. However, this action by the school can also be seen as an invasion of privacy towards the students. Many take this claim, and state that the tracking of social media is crossing the boundary between school life and personal life outside of the campus. This also conjures the questioning of whether or not it is the school's responsibility to deal with these problems.

A student protesting against the school's invasion of privacy

The school was not fully justified for its actions. Glendale school representatives stated they do not  intend to invade or "rat out" the teens, but are simply monitoring their media for the benefit of the kids. For example, Christopher Chung declares,"They have a good purpose for what they're trying to do." Also, Sheenan proposes "It's designed around student safety and making sure kids are protected."

In a short Video clip, the motives of the school are clearly stated; to protect the students.

If a program like this were to be used at San Ramon Valley, I personally would not mind. Although, I could see how some may see it as an invasion of privacy, I feel one would only believe that if they had something to hide on their social media accounts. This would most likely be a very common issue, because many teens are unaware of how their posts, pictures, tweets, comments, etc. uploaded to a social media site can affect their futures. For example, many colleges look at social media profiles of applicants before accepting their students. They often deny acceptance to students with obscene/unwanted kinds of posts. This link demonstrates these types of negative profiles. People may also not understand that bullying is harassment and can lead to the loss of an innocent peer. Below is a video on cyber bullying, and how our advancement in the age of technology has been affecting our society.