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So, ever since my weekend at UMD, I’ve been feeling kind of irritated. Had a wonderful time and got to see some people that I miss a lot. Coming back to work is always a drain. Busy week, observation on Thursday, and accreditation next week. Some high points, had some great conversations with Komi, my UMD kids, and EJ.
To keep keep conversations up, I’ve started following 4 of my former students on Twitter. I’ve had a twitter for a while, so adding a few people is not really an issue. So, they talk tweet a lot, I mean A LOT! A couple of them find themselves in twitter jail (more than 100 tweets in an hour…. that’s more than 1 a minute, every minute). So, part of their posting also included retweets from others. Some of these others are current students. Some of these students that are being retweeted are minors. So, besides the normal discomfort and disapproval at anything posted that I would consider vile, there is an added weirdness because they are students I see on a semi-regular basis.
I WANT TO EMPHASIZE, I DID NOT SEEK OUT THE STUDENTS TO WHOM I REFERRING BELOW…THEY WERE RETWEETS FROM ADULTS THAT I FOLLOW.
So, if I had to categorize, I think there are five main kinds of tweets that I see from them:
1. #thuglife It is reality that I teach in a predominately african american school. It is reality that there is a large enough population of the student body who feel the need to emulate, in almost every way, what they see and hear in the media. I see many students who feel the need to conform themselves to this stereotype of people living the “street” life, being “hard,” being “thug,” being “real G’s.” This may or may not be who they really are, “in the dark” so to speak. It gets tiring to read post after post of students acting hard, trying to save face with the friends they try so much to impress.
2. #sex I know, teenagers. I just keep thinking back to when I was in high school (I know, I’m officially old) and I just think we weren’t as open about it. I mean, sure, we talked about sex, we were teenagers. But, I just don’t think were were quite so obsessed. Maybe all we lacked was exposure… With the internet and cable tv, teenagers are inundated with sex. All the clothes that the girls wear, are to make them feel sexy, to advertise their sex appeal, to get sexual attention from the boys. I hear the boys talking, so much about who they are or would like to be having sex with. I just think too many teenagers are hypersexual, whether they are having sex or not. So, this becomes very evident in their tweets. The post things like “tired of bitches that play with me,” “Follow me or swallow me,” and “it’s raining, I need to fuck.” I just… I don’t understand why anyone would just put that out there, into cyberspace, where anyone can see it.
3. #ThatsGay I know that for a while now, “gay” has been the term people use to mean stupid. I know that there are many teenagers who in my school who are homophobic, at least for show. I hear the boys making jokes about it, calling someone gay for something they did, feeling the need to say “no homo” after every phrase, afraid that someone will get even the smallest idea in their head that they are. If a teacher tells a male student to pull up their pants (because 98% of their ass is hanging over the top of their jeans) the response is “why don’t you stop lookin at my ass, you a fag or something?” I hear students continually making disparaging remarks about homosexuality, some going so far as to say that some middle eastern countries have the right idea, that gays should be killed. Even the kids that seem to be ok with the gay students at school are quick to call something gay or say “no homo” as if that were a normal and acceptable way to speak. As a teacher, it gets on my nerves. As a gay man, it terrifies me, it makes me sad, it makes me angry, it makes me cry sometimes. As far as I’ve come, as much as I’ve experienced, as much as I’ve learned, sharp words said in ignorance still cut me like blades.
4. #PersonalStuff A friend and I were talking not too long ago about the loss of shame. There was a time where you would watch what you said to people simply because you didn’t think that everyone should know your business and vice-versa. In this day and age, the shame doesn’t seem to be there, and therefore the holding back doesn’t happen. People tweet about things I wouldn’t even tell my best friend. People are telling all of their business in an open arena. You may as well be sitting at home plate on game day, reading your journal through a megaphone. A little bit of modesty never hurt anyone.
5. #InaneShit this is everything else. Song lyrics, responses to one person (why don’t you save this conversation for texting or over the phone or next time you see each other) and advertisements for shoes, and funny pictures. Whatever. This is normal. That’s fine.
So, since I feel that as a teacher, it is my job to teach some good sense, I had a conversation with a couple of kids. I just let them know that since they have no security on their twitter, anyone can see their tweets. My security is set up so anyone that doesn’t follow me or that I don’t mention can’t see what I write. So, if one of my followers retweets, no one can see it except others that follow me. Two of the kids I mentioned it to could see my point. I mean, if I can see it, anyone could see it. Their grandmother, pastor, potential employers, and college admissions counselors. One kid kinda went off saying he could say whatever he wanted on his personal site and blah blah blah fuckity blah blah.
So I’m bugged and irritated. At what point does your freedom of speech stop. I mean, I’m all for expressing a point, but continually spewing filth. Would never do it, but think it would be funny to copy and paste in an email to his mom, just to see what she thought.
