Students-Teachers Friendship on Facebook Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Students-Teachers Friendship on Facebook - Essay Example It is worth noting that nowadays teens are making friends with everyone whom they find in face book or whoever requests them to be friends without being cautious of the possible harmful implications of such friendship. Teachers are adults charged with the responsibility of guiding young minds towards success in life. They act as role models to their students and whenever they decide to send them a friend request they are most likely to accept. On the other hand, students are most likely to find a teacher’s profile in the process of surfing and send a friend request. However, as adult’s teachers should give some ethical consideration due to some special reasons. A shocking discovery from schools that allow access to face book in schools indicates that about 60-70% of teenagers below the age of fifteen years have access to adult social networks including their teachers’. These children are too young to access these sites bearing in mind the nature of content that i s normally posted. This paper will focus on the main reasons as to why teachers should avoid being friends with students in face book. Body Privacy When teachers and students become friends, their privacy is compromised. This is because students will access teachers’ private information and content that is not fit for their consumption. Therefore, teaching and learning becomes a difficult venture as respect is compromised. Harassment If the relationship between the teacher and the student is not good, face book can act as a good ground for harassment and this applies for both students and teachers. Socialization through face book platform can create good environment for teachers and especially male teachers to harass female students sexually for example requesting sexual relationships and this often deteriorates class performance Intimidation Some students might see a teacher’s face book friendship intimidating .As a result they may become hesitant to accept their requ est for friendship mainly because they would not like their teachers to be privy to their conversations with their peers. At the same time they may fear saying no to a teacher’s friend request for fear that they will offend the teacher and negatively affect the teachers’ treatment of them Age appropriation Since teachers are adults, there may be postings from friends on their face book page regarding their adulthood status that does not concern students, the content in this case would be inappropriate for their students to read or review because it is deemed to compromise teacher’s privacy. Expectations Face book friendship between teachers and students changes the expectations of both parties .A learner who is a friend to teacher on face book will expect to be treated in a special way from the rest by the friend teacher. The teacher may also expect a student to post what regards to class work in their face book walls which would have otherwise be reserved to cl ass work this changes the expectations of everyone thus leading to a misunderstanding Prejudice As much as teachers try not to allow outside knowledge affect their treatment of students, technology will still have subliminal effect. A friendship between students and teachers on face book may compel a teacher to view a student in a whole different way in class than it was before. This creates an environment where students will fully be understood hence meaningful academic performance. Today’s situation where teachers are friends with students on face book is undisputable fact that requires urgent solution. If a teacher hasn’t given this situation some consideration then it is the right time to do so. The simplest resolution is to make a personal guiding