I have a little bit of street cred with my students: I was involved in handing out their iPads, and more often than not I can help them troubleshoot tech issues. But when the subject of social media comes up it still produces spontaneous eye rolls among the fourteen year olds in my class. It’s as if they are saying, “Look at me, my phone has a better computer in it than the one your generation sent to the moon.  We are already too cool for whatever it is you are going to teach us, old person.”  Yet when I push back on this belief I discover gaps in their knowledge and understanding of how social media works.

To find a way to talk about this issue more effectively with my students I turned to two of my great inspirations: Clay Shirky and Spider Man.  The result was this video.

Many thanks to DoKashiteru for the awesome CC licensed music in the video – it’s one of my favorites.

What do you think?  Do you think young people more or less savvy to social media than I realize?  Or are there more fundamental differences in the willingness to publicly share between the generations?  Let us know in the comments!