Social+Networking,+Achievement,+and+Self-Esteem

**Social Networking, Achievement, and Self-Esteem**

Teaching social networking skills to students of low SES status will help bridge the learning divide. As discussed in previous article, users must become fully accustomed to technology until it becomes integrated into their thinking before they can innovate new uses for those technologies. Students who have limited access to technology lose time for hands-on practice of 21st century skills practiced by their peers on social networking sites. There is a digital divide between students with regular access to technology and students without regular access that creates across ethnic and socioeconomic lines and may affect student performance in school as well as their opportunities after completing public education (Dickard and Schneider, 2002).

Students will be at a disadvantage in their social and professional lives if they are not able to communicate as well verbally and visually as their peers. Teachers can condense some of the learning time required to master skills such as downloading, editing, uploading, and managing graphics through strategic instruction and guidance. Social networking communications skills include both social and technology skills, graphics, writing, and appropriately responding to the postings of others.

Page (2002) reports that students had better self-esteem when they used technology, especially in students with lower socioeconomic status. In order to support their self-esteem and prevent low self-esteem from the digital divide, teachers need to maximize computer instruction with economically disadvantaged students.Social networking skills have always been necessary in a successful professional life. Online social networking sites are become a primary medium for businesses networking, and the graphic and written skills required should be considered a basic part of communication curriculum.  Works Cited Dickard, N. & Schneider, D. (2002). The digital divide: Where we are today. //Edutopia. // Retrieved November 26, 2009 from Edutopia at http://www.edutopia.org/digital-divide-where-we-are-today

Page, M. S. (2002). Technology-enriched classrooms: Effects on students of low socioeconomic status. //Journal of Research on Technology in Education //  34(4), 389-409. Retrieved October 5, 2009 from the International Society of Education at http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Number_4_Summer_20021&Template=/MembersOnly.cfm&ContentFileID=830