One of the highlights of my life’s work is connecting with teachers and other educators – in lots of in person events but also in social media spaces. I have loved seeing the student work and photos that teachers share, and hearing about the ups and downs of one of the greatest professions – teaching. Being on social media has also allowed me to share resources and ideas that I hope are useful. Unfortunately with the good comes the bad – and sometimes the very bad. I am used to critical feedback from reviewers of papers, and I value alternative viewpoints, that is what makes life interesting. What I have not appreciated is the hate and abuse I have received on social media. Thinking about the damage that can be caused I have decided to give you my rating of the safety of different social media applications. I hope it is helpful!
As some background, I have been the target of abuse and defamation many times in my career. The reason I am targeted is people think I am responsible for changing mathematics, opening pathways for more students, and moving away from procedure repetition and the myth that only some students can be successful. In some ways it is quite flattering that so many people think I am personally responsible for such changes. In reality they come from a whole community of researchers and educators. People have told me that I am a “public figure” in the maths education world, and so I am often considered to be the face of the work. Tucker Carlson shared my photo and details on his show, as part of attacking the idea of “social justice” and started a lot of the more recent abuse. The small silver lining was that he did say the words “Viva La Math Revolution”, at the end of his rant. Now if someone would just make a remix with that audio clip… we’d have this summer’s hottest new song!
Last week attacks on the proposed California mathematics framework turned to attacks on me personally and I was on the receiving end of some horrific accusations. Although some of it came through to my email, the worst of it was on social media. This has led me to reflect on social media safety. It is my own personal opinion, of course, but I am hoping it might be helpful to those of you who are working to challenge the status quo.
I am going to give this the heading – How Safe Was I on …….
(1) Snapchat
This one is definitely the safest for me, probably because I have about 4 snapchat friends – my daughters and 2 doctoral students! I use it to share funny photos of my kids, dogs and my cat. Snapchat is all fun for me, no work cameos, and zero name calling or abuse, I love that.
Jo’s snapchat rating 10/10 for safety (if you only have 4 friends). For real snapchat users you will probably get a different rating.
(2) Instagram.
I would give Instagram a medium rating on safety. Usually, my Instagram feed is a fun mix of maths education ideas and resources, cute dog and cat photos, West Brom videos (my favourite football team) and pictures of my children playing soccer/football or having fun with their friends. I used to have 2 accounts, one personal, with family photos, and one professional, which shared resources. The professional one was open to anyone. Unfortunately that meant that I saw some horrible and abusive posts, sent to me. People can be so creative with their name calling… think of what a wonderful world it would be if only they applied this creativity to other, more positive areas of their lives! But I digress…This led me to switch my professional account to private so only those I approve can see my posts and send me messages. This means I am relatively safe from the abuse, but unable to share good resources with the wider world.
Jo’s Instagram Safety Rating: 5/10
(3) Facebook
I would also give facebook a medium rating. My facebook feed is a little less fun than my Instagram feed, maybe because there are less cat and dog videos? But with that trade off, I do see more teaching related posts which make me happy. Youcubed also runs several facebook groups which allows me to share resources and hear directly from teachers, which I love. On the main pages I feel safe as my posts are only viewed by those I have accepted as friends, and the groups we have set up, or that have been set up for me. The area in which faceBook gives vulnerability is in faceBook messenger. Unfortunately, it’s not all gifs and stickers!
My three choices are getting messages from 1) anyone 2) people who are my friends, or 3) an in between setting where people can request to send messages if they are not friends. I have chosen the medium setting for now which shows me the first line of their messages. When I see the abuse or the lovely names they call me, in their first line, I don’t open the message. So there’s a small line of defense. Ideally, I’d have a special filter on messages that would only allow messages about: (1) cute animals, (2) teachers sharing what they are doing in their classrooms, (3) old friends and students reaching out to reconnect. Until then, I will stick to deleting the hate from line one!
Jo’s Facebook Safety Rating: 5/10
(4) LinkedIn:
This is definitely the place I feel safest and the platform I would give the highest rating for safety. My LinkedIn feed is very professional. I see people sharing about research articles they have recently published, programs they are offering, new jobs and promotions. On LinkedIn I only see collegial and professional interactions (no cute animal videos though!). I know LinkedIn shares high standards of respect and collegiality and people seem to abide to that, which is a real relief after what I will share next!
Jo’s LinkedIn Safety Rating: 9/10
(5) Twitter
On Twitter I feel as safe as I would walking into a bear pit, completely naked and covered with honey, with a sign saying “eat me.” My feed makes if clear that anyone can write anything! I wish Twitter had fact checkers like we see during election season. Instead, people post outrageous lies, and there’s no stopping a salacious tweet from going viral, even if the claims are ridiculous. I have been subject to huge amounts of abuse and name calling, and the culture of bringing down anyone who is successful is rampant. It was Twitter where the attackers of the Framework published personal contracts with my home address. This actually violates Twitter’s rules and when I reported them, their account was locked – briefly. But others retweeted my address – and Twitter did nothing about it.
I may leave Twitter but I have really fond memories of my early days on Twitter when I first shared the post about the attacks on my work from some traditional (let’s just lecture at students with blank stares) mathematicians. I received such incredible warmth and support. My post went viral that weekend and I was extremely grateful to the Twitter community. But that was nearly 10 years ago and things have changed a lot since then.
What stops me leaving Twitter, at least for now, is the good connections I have with teachers, and being able to see teachers’ posts of students engaged in great work. I am still thinking about it. But while I go through a period of repair and recovery, I will be sharing on LinkedIn, my closed down Instagram account and with FB friends. Oh and my silly animal videos and snaps will appear on Snapchat.
Jo’s Twitter Safety Rating: 1/10 – but I know they are working on making the platform more safe.
Everything I have shared is my personal opinion on the platforms – I hope it is helpful for anyone who wants to change the status quo. And please remember –
If you aren’t getting pushback, you probably are not being disruptive enough!
