Untag me

I was walk­ing through the halls of our mid­dle school one after­noon and I saw a stu­dent wear­ing this shirt.

I thought to myself what a sim­ple state­ment and what a pow­er­ful message.

I look at the con­nec­tive power of social media, how it allows to you build on the tra­di­tional notion of com­mu­nity and expand the bound­aries of that con­cept.  But… what if you want a smaller com­mu­nity? What if you want to be less con­nected? What if you want con­trol over your connections?

“Untag me.”

Basil Kolani wrote a great piece called “This rev­o­lu­tion is already tele­vised…” where he talked about this in terms of cyber­bul­ly­ing, but what I am talk­ing about should not be con­fused with that.  What I am talk­ing about is slightly different.

“Untag me.”

Our school recently set out a set of social media guide­lines for our employ­ees to help them nav­i­gate these waters and under­stand how to han­dle con­nec­tions with stu­dents, par­ents and alums. What I am describ­ing is hav­ing your own set of per­sonal guide­lines for your life; being able to have con­ver­sa­tions with your friends and “your’ com­mu­nity about what you find appro­pri­ate and your own agreed upon terms of use.

This idea — and the con­ver­sa­tions that can be had — can be mod­eled in school.  They can be had dur­ing assem­blies, in home­rooms, in advi­sory peri­ods, about what it means to con­duct your life online.  Dig­i­tal Cit­i­zen­ship, 21st Cen­tury Skills, Online Ethics… what­ever it is we are call­ing it now, are all things we need to con­tin­u­ally teach.  In the end is about how to con­duct your­self as a good per­son; some­one who respects not only them­selves and their friends, but also those they may not be friends with.

You need to be able to say, “Untag me”.

Addi­tional Resources — updated 1/13/2011

• “Risk Reduc­tion Strate­gies on Face­book” from Danah Boyd @zephoria
• “Have you devel­oped your per­sonal social media pol­icy?” from Angela Con­nor @Communitygirl