Social Media and Schooling: Enhancing Education or Pursuing Profits? | W12 Q1 | Forum

While all three articles (Greenhow et al., 2019; Krutka et al., 2019; Ahn et al., 2011) offered important insights about the need for policy in mediating the problems and potentials (both positive and negative) that arise from the incorporation of social media into education, the ideas that I found most compelling came from Krutka et al. (2019). Critically questioning the role that social media plays in advancing an already established agenda of technology “enhancing” the education system and interrogating the neoliberal agenda of privatization, technological innovation, and creating a competitive capitalistic global market where consumer choice ensures an endless stream of profits, Krutka et al, (2019) presents an array of policies centered at curbing the control of social media platforms whose primary interest is to make money, seeing a future expansion into education not as an endeavor to enhance the lives of students and teachers but as a means of increasing profit margins, expanding their consumer base, more potential buyers to micro-target with advertisements and entice with paid platforms and online fees. Not only should we be having these conversations concerning social media and education, but this should be a dominant discussion amongst policymakers, educators, school administrators, researchers, and parents concerning many of the proposed “innovations” that work to advance a larger neoliberal agenda. For example, the move to privatize schools is messaged and marketed as “school choice,” claiming to be designed to give all students the opportunity to attend whatever school they choose; however, the major motive of these movements is profit, seeing students as dollar signs, profit potential, and tex breaks. These questions and concerns raised by Krutka et al., (2019) are extremely important and relevant to the overarching K-12 system.