“Like” what you like

It was last week that I read an article about Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, and his wife donated $75 million to San Francisco General Hospital Foundation. Did I mention that I drive by Facebook Headquarters every morning and afternoon on my way to work and home?

For many years, I have been always curious about ways to connect their idea of being connected and my students. Students who display significant deficits in social skills/interactions with others and the world around them.

Not too surprisingly, I find the words on the FB page saying: The Facebook Page celebrates how our friends inspire us, support us, and help us discover the world when we connect.

If people seek to connect to others and the world this much, there seems too much gap to bridge here. This is a big part of our life, celebrating our relationships with one another and FB is setting a playground for them to do that now online. Well, do my students have a better chance to get involved in this party that happens online and exhibits little peer pressure, less stimulation, or sensory overload. Most importantly, lots of response time….you can take as much time as you need, buddy. Let’s not forget the fact this celebration happens mainly with pictures and/or written language on the screen versus oral language. Sounds like we got a better chance here. 🙂

I taught a couple of high school girls in the past using a task analysis:

1)to get on FB

2) to express their feelings with emoticons

3) to make a comment, or ‘like’ on someone’s comment

Once she clicked on the ‘like’ icon, now she just started her conversation with the world. She could stop there but normally she wanted to go back to the pages hours later if anybody left messages for her. She didn’t have to feel shy, pressured, or unsuccessful because it is happening on a small screen called a computer or smartphone. She definitely couldn’t feel more like herself than in any other “real life” situation.

I want to go on a field trip someday to FB with all my students. Take a picture in front of the big LIKE sign by the main entrance-