Searching for "sociology"
Plan for presentation on social media impact in a “sociology and family” class.
Zuo, Jiping <jzuo@stcloudstate.edu>
“Media, Technology, Market, and Cosmopolitan Communities”
https://kahoot.it
Valentini, C. (2015). Is using social media “good” for the public relations profession? A critical reflection. Public Relations Review, 41(2), 170-177. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2014.11.009
http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dkeh%26AN%3d108299204%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0363811114001817
p. 172 there is no doubt that digital technologies and social media have contributed to a major alteration in people’s interpersonal communications and relational practices. Inter- personal communications have substantially altered, at least in Western and developed countries, as a result of the culture of increased connectivity that has emerged from social media’s engineering sociality (van Dijck, 2013 ), which allows anyone to be online and to connect to others. Physical presence is no longer a precondition for interpersonal communication.
The Pew Research Center ( Smith & Duggan, 2013 , October 21) indicates that one in every ten American adults has used an online dating site or mobile dating app to seek a partner, and that in the last eight years the proportion of Americans who say that they met their current partner online has doubled. Another study conducted by the same organization ( Lenhart & Duggan, 2014 , February 11) shows that 25% of married or partnered adults who text, have texted their partner while they were both home together, that 21% of cell-phone owners or internet users in a committed relationship have felt closer to their spouse or partner because of exchanges they had online or via text message. Another 9% of adults have resolved online or by text message an argument with their partner that they were having difficulty resolving person to person ( Lenhart & Duggan, 2014 , February 11). These results indicate that digital technologies are not simply tools that facilitate communications: they have a substantial impact on the way humans interact and relate to one another. In other words, they affect the dynamics of interpersonal relations
the impact of social media on dating patterns (e.g. more like shopping around for a commodity) and dating relations (e.g. more temporary, unstable), along with many positive effects as well
1. Goal: introduce students to” a) social media b) the sociological impact of social media on family and dating issues
2. Learning outcomes: a) at the end of the session, students will have firm grasp of popular versus peer-reviewed (academic resources). b) students will be able allocate sources for information c) students will be able to evaluate [and compile? Zotero] information d) students will be able to discuss the impact of social media in general e) students will be able to discuss and evaluate the impact of social media on family and dating f) at the end of the session, students will understand the concepts of netiquette and privacy (digital citizenship, digital anthropology)
3. Possible q/s for the class:
a) why Tinder, Hinge, etc.?
These are the best pickup lines with the highest success rates, according to dating app Hinge
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-pickup-lines-with-highest-success-rates-according-to-hinge-2015-9
what other social media? Can Instagram, Twitter and FB be counted in this mix?
Is Instagram Flirting Really So Bad?
http://www.askmen.com/dating/dating_advice/social-media-dating-advice.html
b) what is so different in the dating scene? how did social media changed the scene?
“I’ve been surprised at what a real impact Facebook has on romantic relationships,” Galena Rhoades, clinical psychologist at the University of Denver, said in Allison McCann’s BuzzFeed article, How Facebook Ruined Dating (And Breaking Up Too). “And I do think Facebook is playing a bigger role in relationship formation and relationship disillusions.” http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/05/11/dating-and-the-impact-of-social-media/
c) how do family values change, based on the changes in [online] dating?
d) how does online dating differ across race, gender, sexual orientation, age and cultures
e) privacy, security, surveillance
f) mail brides on steroids? how does online dating apps change dubious practices?
g) does online dating impact marriages? are marriages better or weaker after online dating?
Finkel, et al. (2012).Online Dating: A Critical Analysis From the Perspective of Psychological Science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest. 13(1), pp. 3–66. http://www3.nd.edu/~ghaeffel/OnineDating_Aron.pdf
the authors say “yes” to online dating but “we see substantial opportunities for improving the way online dating is practiced. Some of this improvement can come from closer collaboration between scholars and service providers.”
4. possible collaborations. The topic of online dating, social media in particular, is of interest to specialists from Communication Studies (Usera, Fullick), Anthropology (Bocanete), Nursing (Couch), Gender Studies (Robinson), SCSU Counseling and Psychological Services (Houdet) .
E.g.:
Usera, D. (2014). Online Dating Interactions: A discursive look (Dissertation). Graduate College of The University of Iowa, The University of Iowa. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/13255554/Online_Dating_Interactions_A_discursive_look
Fullick, M. (2013). “Gendering” the Self in Online Dating Discourse. Canadian Journal Of Communication, 38(4). Retrieved from http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2647
Bocanete, A. C. (2013). All-male Mobile Dating Apps and their Users in London… After the Magic Wears Out (Dissertation). DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/12884810/All-male_Mobile_Dating_Apps_and_their_Users_in_London…_After_the_Magic_Wears_Out
Couch, D. (2006). Online dating and mating: the use of the internet to meet sexual partners (Master of Public Health). La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/12639192/Online_dating_and_mating_the_use_of_the_internet_to_meet_sexual_partners
Robinson, B. (2015). “Personal Preference” as the New Racism: Gay Desire and Racial Cleansing in Cyberspace. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 1(2), 317–330. http://doi.org/10.1177/2332649214546870 http://sre.sagepub.com/content/1/2/317
Houdet, A. (2014, August 11). Online Dating Services and McGill: A Study of Usage and Perception (POLI 311: Techniques of Empirical Rsearch Paper). Mcgill, Montreal, Canada. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/7935047/Online_Dating_Services_and_McGill_A_Study_of_Usage_and_Perception
bibliography:
and https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2014/09/25/online-dating/
Synopsis
UWire and The Guardian have a long list of reports. Academia.edu has also plenty of serious academic research. While UWire and the Guardian are explicitly centered on the Anglo-Saxon world (with one exception of report on Iran), Academia.edu presents a great choice of cases from around the world (different cultures) in mostly serious academic research
The Tinder-Is-Satan Arms Race Heats Up Further http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/08/tinder-is-satan-arms-race-heats-up-further.html
The History of Digital Desire, vol. 1: An Introduction http://saq.dukejournals.org/content/110/3/583.short
Stampler, L. (2014). The New Dating Game. Time, 183(6), 40. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3daph%26AN%3d94317888%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
Kite, M. (2015). Click and flick: romance is being killed off by the brutal marketplace of dating apps such as Tinder. Spectator, (9729). 12. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dedsgao%26AN%3dedsgcl.401492069%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
Hobson, T. (2015). Tinder feelings: Can mobile dating apps move beyond the promise of a one-night stand?. Spectator, (9740). 22. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dedsgao%26AN%3dedsgcl.411742748%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
(2015). My Tinder date wants to be friends with benefits. I want to be serious. What now? Swipe Right is our advice column that tackles the tricky world of online dating. This week: weighing the benefits of casual liaisonsGet help making your profile work: forward screenshots to askevaguardian@gmail.com for a personal critique and upgrade; Swipe Right is our advice column that tackles the tricky world of online dating. This week: weighing the benefits of casual liaisonsGet help making your profile work: forward screenshots to askevaguardian@gmail.com for a personal critique and upgrade. theguardian.com. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dedsgao%26AN%3dedsgcl.409945005%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/16/swipe-right-online-dating-friends-with-benefits-relationships
Wood, M. (2015). Led by Tinder, the Mobile Dating Game Surges. The New York Times. p. 8. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dedsgao%26AN%3dedsgcl.400230809%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
http://www.lexisnexis.com/lnacui2api/api/version1/getDocCui?lni=5F7B-R7N1-DXY4-X3K7&csi=6742&hl=t&hv=t&hnsd=f&hns=t&hgn=t&oc=00240&perma=true http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/technology/personaltech/led-by-tinder-the-mobile-dating-game-surges.html
(2015). Tinder hooks up with Instagram to woo new users to the dating app; Dating app overhauls its user profiles with photo app integration, and extended information pulled from Facebook. theguardian.com. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dedsgao%26AN%3dedsgcl.409944725%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
(2015). Brand love in the time of Tinder; Thanks to dating apps such as Tinder, relationships are changing, but does that include the ones we form with brands too?. theguardian.com. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dedsgao%26AN%3dedsgcl.409800099%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
(2015). A look at modern day dating – Tinder and Match.com. UWIRE Text. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA401448144&v=2.1&u=stcloud_main&it=r&p=PROF&sw=w&asid=4b52e991d97812282b4651b5c2276ca9
ROBBINS, A. (2015). Sex and the (Newly!) Single Girl. Washingtonian Magazine, 50(8), 68.
Serjoie, K. A. (2015). Iranian ‘Tinder’ Seeks to Encourage Marriage But Not Dating. Time.Com, N.PAG. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dmih%26AN%3d108327379%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
Rhodan, M. (2015). Meet Willow, the Dating App That Won’t Judge You By Your Looks. Time.Com, N.PAG. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3df5h%26AN%3d100947723%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
Rutkin, A. (2015). Hackers can see your dating pics and chat. New Scientist, 226(3022), 20. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dulh%26AN%3d102818153%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
Grigoriadis, V. (2014). Inside the Hookup Factory. Rolling Stone, (1221), 24-26. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3daph%26AN%3d98976542%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
Jamie, N. (2015, July 9). London launch for US dating app that rivals Tinder. Evening Standard. p. 55. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dkeh%26AN%3d103711119%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
Internet and the Male Homosexual Identity: A Critical Reading of the Online Dating Space for Homosexual Men in Bengaluru. (n.d.). Retrieved August 18, 2015, from
https://www.academia.edu/14656772/Internet_and_the_Male_Homosexual_Identity_A_Critical_Reading_of_the_Online_Dating_Space_for_Homosexual_Men_in_Bengaluru
Going Offline: An Exploratory Cultural Artifact Analysis of An Internet Dating Site’s Development Trajectories. (n.d.). Retrieved August 18, 2015, from
https://www.academia.edu/14184813/Going_Offline_An_Exploratory_Cultural_Artifact_Analysis_of_An_Internet_Dating_Site_s_Development_Trajectories
Five Tips for Dating Online. (n.d.). Retrieved August 18, 2015, from
https://www.academia.edu/14078925/Five_Tips_for_Dating_Online
Old and New Methods for Online Research: The Case of Online Dating. (n.d.). Retrieved August 18, 2015, from
https://www.academia.edu/13924873/Old_and_New_Methods_for_Online_Research_The_Case_of_Online_Dating
Remediating the Matchmaker: Arranging Marriage Online in the South Asian Diaspora in America. (n.d.). Retrieved August 18, 2015, from
https://www.academia.edu/13897347/Remediating_the_Matchmaker_Arranging_Marriage_Online_in_the_South_Asian_Diaspora_in_America
Stranger Stranger or Lonely Lonely? Young Chinese and dating apps between the locational, the mobile and the social. (n.d.). Retrieved August 18, 2015, from
https://www.academia.edu/13895551/Stranger_Stranger_or_Lonely_Lonely_Young_Chinese_and_dating_apps_between_the_locational_the_mobile_and_the_social
Roeffen, C. (2014).
Mobile dating: Romance is just a swipe away Tinders’ Romantic and sexual interactions (Bachellor’s Degree). Urbane Technologieen, Netherlands. Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/8899473/Mobile_dating_Romance_is_just_a_swipe_away_Tinders_Romantic_and_sexual_interactions
Lemke, R. (2014).
Sexual Liberation on the Internet? Sexual Internet Use of MSM in 50 Different Countries. Mainz: Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet. Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/8662454/Sexual_Liberation_on_the_Internet_Sexual_Internet_Use_of_MSM_in_50_Different_Countries
Kogovsek, T., Svab, A., & Kuhar, R. (2011). Intimacy Transformed? : Perceptions of Love, Intimacy and Partnership Among On-line Daters in Slovenia.
Annales,
21(1), 177–186.
https://www.academia.edu/7988186/Intimacy_Transformed_Perceptions_of_Love_Intimacy_and_Partnership_Among_On-line_Daters_in_Slovenia
Cacioppo, J. T., Cacioppo, S., Gonzaga, G. C., Ogburn, E. L., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2013). Marital satisfaction and break-ups differ across on-line and off-line meeting venues.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
110(25), 10135–10140.
http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1222447110Fullick, M. (2013). “Gendering” the Self in Online Dating Discourse.
Canadian Journal Of Communication, 38(4). Retrieved from
http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2647
Phillips, J. (n.d.). Online Dating: How Culture Affects Self-Presentation of Match.com Users. Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/3845104/Online_Dating_How_Culture_Affects_Self-Presentation_of_Match.com_Users
Chow, E., Coulombe, D., Garcia, V., Vuu, D., & Wade, J. (2009, May 23). Culture, Power, Cyberspace: Age and Gender in Online Dating Websites: An Analysis of User Profiles on Mingles.com. Retrieved from
http://anthrocyber.blogspot.com/2009/05/age-and-gender-in-online-dating.html
Masden, C., & Edwards, W. K. (n.d.). Understanding the Role of Community in Online Dating. In
Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 535–544). Seoul, Korea.
http://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702417
https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-10-29/rise-of-selfie-deaths-leads-experts-to-talk-about-a-public-health-problem.html
The countries where the highest number of reported fatalities are India (100), the United States (39) and Russia (33), which head a list of more than 50 nations. Spain, with 15 deaths, is sixth alongside Australia.
Liliana Arroyo, a sociology PhD and author of a book on the subject,
| He is author of Judging School Discipline: A Crisis of Moral Authority (Harvard University Press, 2013); coauthor of Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates (University of Chicago Press, 2014) and Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (University of Chicago Press, 2011); as well as coeditor of Improving Quality in American Higher Education: Learning Outcomes and Assessment for the 21st Century (Jossey Bass, 2016), Improving Learning Environments: School Discipline and Student Achievement in Comparative Perspectives (Stanford University Press, 2012), and Stratification in Higher Education: A Comparative Study (Stanford University Press, 2007). He received a Masters of Education in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. |
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To RSVP ahead of time, or to jump straight in at 2 pm ET this Thursday, click here:
To find more information about the Future Trends Forum, including notes and recordings of all previous sessions, click here: http://forum.futureofeducation.us/.
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more on Future Trends by Bryan Alexander in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=future+trends
Thursday, August 27, 2PM
To RSVP ahead of time, or to jump straight in at 2 pm EDT this Thursday, click here:
This week we’re exploring the disorganization of American higher education, and wondering if its chaotic nature is really academia’s superpower. On Thursday, August 27th, from 2-3 pm EDT we’ll be joined by Stanford University professor David F. Labaree, author of A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education.Dr. Larabee has devoted his career to the historical sociology of American education, with a particular focus on the role that consumer pressure and markets have had on schooling at all levels.
Mariya P. Ivancheva, Rebecca Swartz, Neil P. Morris, Sukaina Walji, Bronwen J. Swinnerton, Taryn Coop & Laura Czerniewicz (2020) Conflicting logics of online higher education, British Journal of Sociology of Education, DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2020.1784707
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080%2F01425692.2020.1784707&area=0000000000000001
The advent of massive open online courses and online degrees offered via digital platforms has occurred in a climate of austerity. Public universities worldwide face challenges to expand their educational reach, while competing in international rankings, raising fees and generating third-stream income. Online forms of unbundled provision offering smaller flexible low-cost curricular units have promised to disrupt this system. Yet do these forms challenge existing hierarchies in higher education and the market logic that puts pressure on universities and public institutions at large in the neoliberal era? Based on fieldwork in South Africa, this article explores the perceptions of senior managers of public universities and of online programme management companies. Analysing their considerations around unbundled provision, we discuss two conflicting logics of higher education that actors in structurally different positions and in historically divergent institutions use to justify their involvement in public–private partnerships: the logic of capital and the logic of social relevance.
Unbundling – the disaggregation of educational provision and its delivery, often via digital technologies
Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot’s (2006) framework of different orders of justification, connecting them to the sociological literature on institutional logics
We suggest that more explicit and nuanced national and institutional policies need to be produced around unbundled provision, which are cognisant of emerging trends in and dangers to the evolution of unbundling at public universities.
Unbundling the traditional university ‘bundle’ affects not only property, services and facilities, but also administration, evaluation, issuing credentials and even teaching (Wallhaus 2000, 22). This process involves separating educational provision (e.g. degree programmes) into component parts (e.g. courses) for delivery by multiple stakeholders, often using digital approaches (Swinnerton et al. 2018). Universities can unbundle on their own, offering individual credit-bearing modules outside bounded disciplinary curricula, or in partnership with OPM providers, offering MOOCs or credit-bearing courses or programmes. Proponents of unbundling suggest that the disaggregation of television and music production and its re-aggregation as on-demand digital content like Netflix or Spotify could represent a template for universities (Craig 2015; McIntosh 2018).
The introduction of market logic into the sector happens even if higher education is a stratified positional pseudo-market with scarce excludible resources only available to groups with access to a few prestigious institutions; its outcomes and value are difficult to measure in purely economic terms
Under accelerated marketisation, Tomlinson (2018, 714 and 724) argues, higher education is reduced to the latter frame and measured in terms of income generation, employability, consumption and performativity. Building on this framework, and relating it to unbundling, we identify the emergence of two organisational logics of higher education: the logic of social relevance and the logic of capital.
Institutional logics are ‘supra-organizational patterns of activity by which individuals and organizations produce and reproduce their material subsistence … [and] symbolic systems, ways of ordering reality… rendering experience of time and space meaningful’ (Friedland and Alford 1991, 243). Unlike new institutionalism, which remained focused on processes of institutional isomorphism or the replacement of a static single logic by another, the institutional logics perspective offers a more dynamic multi-level view: a plurality of logics coexist in complex interrelations within organisational fields like higher education
the tendency of an organization to imitate another organization’s structure because of the belief the structure of the latter organization is beneficial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isomorphism_(sociology)
McMullan, T. (2018, April 26). How Technology Got Under Our Skin – Featured Stories. Retrieved April 2, 2019, from Medium website: https://medium.com/s/story/how-technology-got-under-our-skin-cee8a71b241b
anthropocene
Like the circle-bound symmetry of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, the meat and bones of the human race are the same in 2018 as they were in 1490. And yet, we are different.
Michael Patrick Lynch, writer and professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut.
“The digital revolution is more like the revolution brought on by the written word. Just as the written word allowed us to time-travel — to record our thoughts for others, including ourselves, to read in the future — so the internet has allowed for a kind of tele-transportation , breaking down barriers of space and physical limitation and connecting us across the globe in ways we now take for granted, as we do the written word.”
In the book Self-Tracking, authors Gina Neff, a sociology professor at Oxford University, and Dawn Nafus, a research scientist at Intel, describe this phenomenon as a shuffling between physical signs and observed recordings: “The data becomes a ‘prosthetic of feeling,’Advocates of this “prosthetic of feeling” argue that self-tracking can train people to recognize their own body signals, tuning the senses to allow for a greater grasp of biological rhythms.but what if the body-as-data is exploited by the state, or by an insurance company that can predict when you’ll get diabetes, or a data analytics firm that can use it to help sway elections? The Chinese government is going so far as to plan a social credit score for its citizens by 2020, giving each of the country’s 1.3 billion residents a reputation number based on economic and social status. What is particularly subtle about all this is that, like a scientific épistémè, our way of thinking is perhaps unconsciously guided by the configurations of knowledge these new technologies allow. We don’t question it.
Hannah Knox. Computational machines are “shaping what we expect it means to be a human”, Knox wrote for the Corsham Institute’s Observatory for a Connected Society.
Facebook goads us to remember past moments on a daily basis, the stacked boxes of tape in Beckett’s play replaced with stacks of servers in remote data centers in northern Sweden.“There is reasonable evidence that [the internet] has reduced our internal memory ability,” says Phil Reed, a professor of psychology at Swansea University.
Moderate tech use correlated with positive mental health, according to a paper published in Psychological Science by Andrew Przybylski of Oxford and Netta Weinstein at Cardiff University, who surveyed 120,000 British 15-year-olds.Again, the crucial question is one of control. If our way of thinking is changed by our intimacy with these technologies, then is this process being directed by individuals, or the ledgers of private companies, or governments keen on surveilling their citizens? If we conceive of these systems as extensions of our own brains, what happens if they collapse?
Brain-machine interfaces (BMI) are coming in leaps and bounds, with companies like Neuralink and CTRL-Labs in the United States exploring both surgical and noninvasive processes that allow computers to be controlled directly by signals from the brain. It’s a field that involves fundamentally changing the relationship between our minds, bodies, and machines.Kevin Warwick, emeritus professor at Coventry University and a pioneer in implant technology
Zygmunt Bauman: “Social media are a trap”
The Polish-born sociologist is skeptical about the possibilities for political change
RICARDO DE QUEROL 25 ENE 2016
https://elpais.com/elpais/2016/01/19/inenglish/1453208692_424660.html
Leeds University where he is now Emeritus Professor of Sociology.
his theory of liquid modernity in the late 1990s – which describes our age as one in which “all agreements are temporary, fleeting, and valid only until further notice” – he has become a leading figure in the field of sociology.
People no longer believe in the democratic system because it doesn’t keep its promises. We see this, for example, with the migration crisis: it’s a global phenomenon, but we still act parochially. Our democratic institutions were not designed for dealing with situations of interdependence. The current crisis of democracy is a crisis of democratic institutions.
If you want more security, you’re going to have to give up a certain amount of freedom; if you want more freedom, you’re going to have to give up security. This dilemma is going to continue forever. Forty years ago we believed that freedom had triumphed and we began an orgy of consumerism.
The situation in Catalonia, as in Scotland or Lombardy, is a contradiction between tribal identity and citizenship. They are Europeans, but they don’t want to talk to Brussels via Madrid, but via Barcelona. The same logic is emerging in almost every country. We are still following the same principles established at the end of World War I, but there have been many changes in the world.
Q. You are skeptical of the way people protest through social media, of so-called “armchair activism,” and say that the internet is dumbing us down with cheap entertainment. So would you say that the social networks are the new opium of the people?
A. The question of identity has changed from being something you are born with to a task: you have to create your own community. But communities aren’t created, and you either have one or you don’t. What the social networks can create is a substitute. The difference between a community and a network is that you belong to a community, but a network belongs to you. You feel in control.
Social media don’t teach us to dialogue because it is so easy to avoid controversy… But most people use social media not to unite, not to open their horizons wider, but on the contrary, to cut themselves a comfort zone where the only sounds they hear are the echoes of their own voice
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more on sociology in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=sociology
Seven Bricks to Lay the Foundation for Productive Difficult Dialogues
OCTOBER 16TH, 2018 By: Annie Soisson EdD
https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-classroom-management/seven-bricks-to-lay-the-foundation-for-productive-difficult-dialogues/
There are three basic ways that I hear faculty talk about difficult dialogues-
in-class dialogues that were planned but did not go particularly well;
in-class hot moments that were not anticipated and that the faculty member did not feel equipped to handle; and difficult dialogues that happen
during office hours or outside of class.
- Think ahead about what topics you are teaching and whether hot moments might be triggered. Plan for structuring those moments intentionally. Are there readings that honor multiple perspectives on the issue? Are there opportunities to have students adopt perspectives that may not be their own? What skills do students need to be able to successfully engage in the discussion?
- Know and communicate the learning goals and the connection to the course overall for each potentially hot topic. What kinds of questions could you pose that would most effectively help students meet the learning goals? What conversational structure would best help you meet those goals? You will find many concrete suggestions for a variety of ways to conduct conversations in Brookfield and Preskill (2005).
- Build community, trust, and a supportive climate. Often overlooked is the understanding that the relationships students have in the classroom with each other and with you need to be created intentionally and nurtured. On the first day, introductions can be shaped to be a little more personal than just names and majors while not being intrusive. Depending on the size of the class, you may choose to have students talk in small groups, or as a whole group. Scaffold activities to foster relationships among students each week. Model the kinds of behaviors you would like to see.
- Have a statement on your syllabus about the environment you hope to create together. Describe your expectations and how you would like students to approach the class. For example: “I want to take a moment to clarify how I want you to approach the readings. The first rule is: Don’t take the readings as gospel. Just because something is printed doesn’t make it absolute truth. Be critical of what you are reading. I have chosen many readings precisely because they are provocative. If you find yourself strongly disagreeing with a reading, that’s fine. I encourage strong disagreement. However, if you disagree, you must clarify in your mind the reasons and evidence upon which you are basing your disagreement. At the same time, keep an open mind. Listen to what the readings have to say. Think about what other experiences you have had and readings you have done that might corroborate the course readings. Give yourself time to reflect on the information, insights, and perspectives offered in the readings” (Sulk and Keys, 2014).
- Create shared goals and guidelines for dialogue and post them. You may have a few of your own to add at the end, but let students generate their own list first. This gives them ownership, and the collective generation lets them discover shared values. One of my favorites to add is “look for the truth in what you oppose and the error in what you espouse” (Nash, 2008).
- Help students develop skills for productive conversation as part of the learning. Use active listening and perspective-taking exercises. In Western society, argument is often the mode of conversation. We frequently expect that students will be able to address challenging issues devoid of passion (and if you go to faculty meetings, you know that even we are not always good at this). Skills like paraphrasing, summarizing, and building on each other’s thoughts need to be consciously taught, modeled, and practiced in the classroom in order to support successful difficult dialogues.
- Start early in the course with lower-stakes conversations, and build to more difficult ones. This gives students the opportunity to build trust, and gives you time to help them develop their skills. Vary the types of questions—perhaps use some hypothetical questions like, “What would happen if…” “In a perfect world…” Or experience-based questions such as, “In your experience…?” Or opinion-based questions like, “What do you think about…?
References:
Online book: Start Talking: A Handbook for Engaging Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/cafe/difficultdialogues/upload/Start-Talking-Handbookcomplete-version.pdf.
Brookfield, S.D., & Preskill, S. (2005). Discussion as a way of teaching: Tools and techniques for democratic classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Nash, R.J. (2008). How to Talk About Hot Topics on Campus. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Sulk, G. and Keys, J. (2014). “Many students really don’t know how to behave!”: The syllabus as a tool for socialization. Teaching Sociology, 42 (2), 151-160.
Annie Soisson is associate director of the Center for the Enhancement of Learning & Teaching (CELT) at Tufts University.
