I created this photo prompt and used it as an optional warm-up. The results were interesting. Students care far more about numbers of friends, followers, likes and favorites than what I had thought. Here are a few of the student quotes (posted with permission): "I check Facebook first thing in the morning. If no one liked what I said, I start the day depressed." "There's a rush to having ten likes all at once." "I try to tell myself that it doesn't matter if I lose followers, but it hurts." "Sometimes I take a picture on Instagram and all the hearts make me think that I might be a good photographer. It's encouraging." I am still a fan of social media and the notion of being connected. But I'm seeing how friend count, quantified numbers and Klout scores all have a dark side with adolescents. True, friend count was an issue before Facebook (spoken from someone who was never part of the in-crowd), but this feels amplified and quantified in a way it never was before. So, my lingering thought is this: We need front porches now more than ever before.
