News

Josh Prowse made a novel vow for lent this year, Erin Anderssen writes in Saturday's Globe.

The 35-year-old computer science teacher from Calgary has decided to do with out what many people would consider a digital vice: Facebook.

And as society becomes more plugged in, some continue to wonder about the impact of technology on society and the mind.

Late last month, Susan Greenfield, a pre-eminent neuroscientist at Oxford, warned the British Parliament that if our tech obsession continues "the mid-21st-century mind might be almost infantilized" by the psychological effects of onscreen friendships. Young brains, she suggested, are being trained to process fast-action, instant images, potentially harming their ability to manage social behaviours off-screen. Drawing a comparison to the way people today rarely witness an animal being butchered but eat meat from a package, she suggested that "perhaps future generations will recoil with similar horror" to the messiness and unpredictability of real-time human interactions.

Psychologist Aric Sigman sounded a more immediate alarm a few weeks earlier by suggesting in Biologist magazine that spending too much time online — along with watching television and listening to iPods during family dinner — was leading to loneliness, and that loneliness has been convincingly linked to diseases such as diabetes and cancer, even dementia. Though his paper never specifically names Facebook, it inspired the doomsday headline: Facebook Causes Cancer.

"Those are just old people who do not use the technology and do not have a social life," scoffs Mr. Prowse, who says his students use the Internet largely to organize their real-life friendships, not replace them. "Facebook is a tool. Is a hammer good or bad? It depends on how you use it."

As a tech nut and a teacher, Mr. Prowse is able to offer an insider's perspective on life among social-networking addicts. Earlier today, he took questions on his life sans-Facebook and his experiences in the classroom.

Please note: Mr. Prowse answered your questions on his own behalf, experiences and opinions, and not those of the Calgary Board of Education or Lester B. Pearson High School.

Allison Dunfield, globeandmail.com, writes: Hi, Josh, thanks for being with us today. To start us off, I'm assuming that your students are all fans of Facebook. What do they think of your decision?

Mr. Prowse replies: About 85 per cent of my students use Facebook, and in discussion with them today, it was clear that it is something they do in their "spare" moments, sort of like digital doodling. In fact, several of them only go on a few times a month, or only for one specific use (for example, a community or interest group). Their response? Giving up Facebook is not a big deal.

Allison Dunfield writes: And now, we'll turn the discussion over to some of our readers. Our first question is from Regina.

Wade Z. from Regina, Sask. writes: Don't you think the importance of Facebook and other social network sites is overblown? That they are just one more avenue to communicate... nothing more?

Mr. Prowse replies: Hi Wade! I agree that social networking is another way to communicate. So was the radio, telephone, and television. Every media has an impact on our lives, and I think the hype over social networking is a combination of interest in its potential impact (there are new and very creative uses all the time), and the drive for publicity from the web companies. Remember that there are potentially billions of dollars at stake.

TheKid Moi writes: Life without FaceBook.com certainly caught my attention. So much so I invite you to a reality check. I posted this clip in response to an MP, who lost his domain several days ago. I ask you 'What will you lose should Facebook disappear ?' I asked the MP, ' What did he really lose when someone grabbed his domain name ?' Here is
a link to my response. Many Thanks, TheKid-Moi.

Mr. Prowse responds: You make an excellent point! I was hardly miserable before Facebook (and to be honest, I'm not miserable now either... just curious what I might be missing), so losing it would not be the end of the world. However, just like nuclear energy, we can't "un-know" this technology, so rather than pretend it doesn't exist, or work to be rid of it, we should try to figure out how it can be useful.

Victor Wong from Ottawa writes: I'm not a Catholic, so I don't need to give up Facebook (I find I don't use it very much anyway), but since you're a teacher you might have an opinion on this subject: Back in February, the Privacy Commissioner made a speech in Victoria, where she emphasized the need to train employees to recognize which information should be considered private, when going online. Obviously this has direct application to primary and secondary school students, since they use network sites like Facebook to pass information about classes, dates, etc., without necessarily caring about who else might be seeing this information. We can hope that parents will teach their children about safeguarding information. But apart from imposing a ban on Facebook use, can schools play a more positive role in teaching children and adolescents how to keep certain information private, and other ways to use the Net safely?

Mr. Prowse responds: Hi Victor! You make an excellent suggestion, and unfortunately I can't speak for all schools in terms of what they are doing for privacy awareness. In my personal opinion, school is a perfect place to teach this kind of literacy. Curriculum varies from location to location, but I can imagine a time when computer literacy, including privacy concerns, would be standard issue in the primary grades.

Illusha Nokhrin from Toronto writes: As someone who uses Facebook and believes that it can be used for good, why do you think it garners so much bad press as being socially destructive and even dangerous?

Mr. Prowse answers: Hi Illusha! Everything has a good and bad side, but what you hear about is the bad. I think we can agree that bad news sells papers and ad space (unfortunately). Remember though, there is a legitimate concern about harm, so a little over-reporting may not be such a bad thing. If it is ultimately a boon, the interminions will make sure it survives any bad press.

Zarny YYC from Calgary, Canada writes: I'm lucky if I log into my Facebook account once every two months. It boggles my mind why some people feel the need to communicate the minute details of their lives. Do you think this obsession will continue?

Mr. Prowse answers: Hi Zarny! Do you see the irony in the fact that you felt the need to communicate the minute detail of how often you log into your Facebook account in a discussion forum, while implicitly judging other who do the same thing, only on Facebook? I think people (myself included) often form poor impressions of other people, and their behaviour, when it is different from ours. Facebook, like alcohol, or drugs, or gambling, or TV (how many hours do we watch per day again?), isn't an obsession for most people. But yes, I think this not-an-obsession will continue.

Matt from Ontario asks: Facebook or Twitter: Which one is better? Why?

Mr. Prowse responds: I'm hardly an expert-- I just started with Twitter a couple weeks ago. It's a great question, but here is my take:

Facebook is good for rich sharing of information: photos, music, longer posts, polls, time wasters (Werewolves and Zombies anyone?) etc. I jump on, scan through the status updates, group events, and photos for anything interesting, accept/ignore the friend requests, and respond to any mail. It takes time. It's a more complicated, but more diverse kind of interaction. Because of this it's a great advertising platform, where you can pinpoint a demographic and get to their eyeballs.

Twitter is great for letting your followers know about stuff you think is important, or interesting. You could do this with Facebook, but it would get lost in the shuffle. On Twitter, you get to the point, so if you want value for your time, following good Twitterers is the ticket. That means that if you are a good Twitterer, you can build up a following that will put their trust in your recommendations, services, etc. Businesses and professionals are now experimenting with this as a way to build clientelle.

Bella Donna from Canada writes: At 47 I admit I am (happily) addicted to Facebook. Every one of my nieces and nephews, as well as my own children, are actively engaged with each other, through this fairly user-friendly platform. With many relatives across this way-too-big country, FB makes it simple for us to stay connected. I love the photos the kids and friends post, the little rants and the twitter-like status updates. Another advantage I've noticed is that I've been able to keep in the loop with all sorts of local events that can be posted for free. In other words, I think there are too many advantages to this social network to abandon it for the sake of a seeming 'Crackbook' obsession. Addictive personalities will find something else to fill the void and FB is probably the lesser of many addictive evils. Rather than abstain, I think it would be better for Mr. Prowse to allot himself a half hour a day with a timer?

Mr. Prowse answers: Hi Bella Donna! I couldn't agree more. While it is true that I have spent "hours" in front of Facebook, on an average day I probably log in two or three times for 5 to 10 minutes. My real motivation had less to do with addiction, or religion (I'm agnostic) than with productivity; I was wondering how much more I could get done if I refused to let myself get sucked into these little digital breaks each day. The happy answer is, "lots."

(Also, I was at a gathering of web geeks when I made the promise, and I thought it might impress the cute woman who was hosting. FAIL!)

D.Y. from North York, Ont., writes: What's your response to scholars who argue that the Internet, and social networking especially, is killing our attention spans? Is this something you see happening in the classroom/with your students?

Mr. Prowse answers: I would argue that any notion of "attention span" was dead and buried long before Facebook showed up, and we have all the preceding technologies to thank for it. A hundred years ago, people would travel for hours to sit and listen to a politician, passing by during an election campaign. The politician would speak very eloquently, for hours sometimes, and the people sat in deep, respectful thought. The discussion that ensued would be considerate and rational. Compare that to the sound bite and talking points that now pass for political discourse.

If anything, the Internet gives students the ability to seek out knowledge of the things they are passionate about. A student engaged in something that interests them does not have an attention span problem -- they are tenacious. My students have reinforced this belief for me -- when I can raise their interest in the topic, they are engaged for an entire 80 minute class.

S.E. from Toronto asks: Have you encountered Facebook naysayers who say they would never, ever sign up? Do you try to convince them otherwise? And in the future, do you think that almost everyone will be on Facebook--similar to the way that e-mail entered all of our lives?

Mr. Prowse answers: Yes! In fact, just today one of my colleagues mentioned that he is not on Facebook. I don't try to convince anybody; it's there if they want it. If people ask me about Facebook, I explain it, but I don't sell it (it certainly doesn't need selling!). I think that Facebook has the potential to become everybody's "home page" -- you start your Internet day in your "community" of friends, before you do anything else. This is an idea for a larger discussion, but the possibilities are staggering. Microsoft didn't buy one per cent of the company for $200-million (not sure of the exact numbers) for nothing!

Allison Dunfield, globeandmail.com writes: Josh, this has been an interesting discussion that could continue indefinitely! One last question for today: Without Facebook, what are you filling your time with? Has the exercise given you a different perspective on these issues at all?

Mr. Prowse answers: Firstly, it would be insincere to suggest that it was sucking up enormous chunks of my day- it was more like a frequent distraction that occasionally expanded to longer than I had intended! Twitter has risen to fill the void (I joke it is my methadone), though I spend much less time using it, a few minutes per day, maybe. I've been more productive overall; I think I've been more productive with my website work, and school planning and marking, without being allowed to wonder what might be new on Facebook. The new perspective I have is similar to one I had when I stopped listening to the radio for a couple months last year: 99 per cent of the news is completely irrelevant to my life.

Allison Dunfield, globeandmail.com, writes:And that ends our Facebook discussion today. Thanks to all of the readers who posed questions. Please check globeandmail.com daily for other online discussions.

***

Josh Prowse has been hooked on the revolutionary potential of technology since he got his first computer in 1989: an 8MHz IBM clone with two floppy drives. By day, he digitally renders high school students into Computer Scientists, and in his spare time, he designs technology solutions for the SOHO business sector as the principal of IOPENER Consulting, in Calgary AB.

Editor's Note: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question/comment. Comments/questions may be edited for length or clarity. HTML is not allowed. We will not publish questions/comments that include personal attacks on participants in these discussions, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions/comments that include vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.