Social Networking - High School Debate topicBusiness Tools Blog

Social Networking - High School Debate topic

My daughter is the President of her High School debate team. I just heard, that in December, she will be debating the following topic:

Resolved: That, on balance, social networking Web sites have a positive impact on the United States.

And here’s the best news, she will probably win big in these Public Forum debates — she reads this blog, Seth’s blog and BearonBusiness.com. She understands that social networking isn’t simply a MySpace page, twitter, and chatrooms. She watches the number of new social networking tools that seem to pop up every day and contemplates how they could be useful. She very well may be in the minority as evidenced by very negative reactions from other High School debaters:

We should be debating things that require a more penetrating amount of thought. And I agree, this is sort of juvenile.

Wow, of all the meaningful, useful, and mature topics there are to debate, the committee selected the impact of social networking sites? This goes into the trash heap with the NBA dress code.

You know it is kind of a boring topic honestly we should be debating about something more important like fixing our economy or use something else besides fossil fuels.

This topic is very childish. I’m glad I don’t have to debate it. Hey PF committee..how about something a little more intriguing next time?

After you stop laughing at how many times teens say “juvenile” and “childish” … you may share my surprise at their reaction to a topic that defines their generation. I thought that the GenY group fully understood the gravity of how social networking is changing the way we live, work and interact with each other. Apparently, even these super smart kids are clueless as to how quickly these new tools are changing the world.

Then again, in their defense, GenY can’t remember a world before the Internet and texting. They probably can’t remember that we eat frosted flakes because Tony the Tiger said they were Greeeeeeeeeeat! They take it for granted that they can Google any topic, download songs for 99 cents and watch TV from an iPod. Maybe GenX will continue to lead this movement, because we recognize the value of change that GenY takes for granted.

I’ll keep you posted on how the debate goes. Hopefully these highbrow teens will learn a little something next month.

If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds

Post meta

This entry was written by Sandi Mays and posted on November 14, 2008 at 12:24 am and filed under Social Networking. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

Share with others

Post Social Networking - High School Debate topic to digg.

Post Social Networking - High School Debate topic to Reddit

11 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

Hi MalkObtailt,

Try defragging your computer:

http://businesstoolsblog.com/2009/03/defrag-cure-for-a-slow-computer/

Sandi

1. Sandi Mays on November 9th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Hi.
My computer worked slowly, too much errors. Help me, please to fix errors on my computer.
My operation system is Windows XP.
With best regards,
MalkObtailt

2. MalkObtailt on November 9th, 2009 at 5:59 am
I’m new here on the forum, found it by searching google. I look forward to chatting about various topics with all of you.

3. janiceenberg on June 14th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Doesn’t this blog count as a social networking site? We are writing comments, reading other people’s comments, and sharing information and ideas, so technically isn’t this a social website? Think about that before you say you don’t agree with the topic. Social networking websites do change people and places, and gives us new information, such as that there is a female debate team captain out there that is debating the topic, Resolved: that, on balance, social networking Web sites have a positive affect on the United States.

4. Joey Mane on December 4th, 2008 at 11:45 am
i like how she states her argument in a way that we can understand, i personally agree that the debate topic is a good choice because most of the people debating it can probably relate to it. In my debate class, we are debating this same topic, and honestly, we all like it and chose to debate it instead of other topics. But if you all think that the topic is childish, then maybe you should look at your myspace or facebook or whatever account, and think about how many friends you have, how many profiles you look at, and how much you log onto it, and still try to tell me that it doesn’t affect people.

5. Jim Bob on December 4th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I am here at a forum newcomer. Until I read and deal with the forum.
Let’s learn!

6. RizegageanY on December 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Your daughter is president of debate team–now that is a shocker

Give her my congrats and let me know how she does on the debate.

7. Dan Caruso on November 23rd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Joy,

That is exactly right! Thanks for commenting. Check out the post with the Technology video. http://businesstoolsblog.com/2008/11/amazing-video-the-exaflood-is-coming/

The transformation that we’ve seen since the mid 90’s is amazing!

Sandi

8. Sandi Mays on November 22nd, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Sandi, my daughter received the same topic, she’s public forum captain of her school’s debate team. After having the challenging topic last month of Universal Health Care and placing so well at all their meets, her team is not as thrilled with the Social Networking topic. I think it’s exciting and it’s the future, and am interested in hearing what all their research turns up. She said the primary element in these social networking groups is “commonality” and it brings people together for a common cause, people who may not otherwise hook up. And if my writing back to one of these posts for the first time is any evidence… the commonality thing works. I wrote back to you because we both have daughters in hs debate in leadership roles, embarking on the same topic at the same time. We may not have anything else in common, but here we are.

9. Joy on November 22nd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Josh,

I really appreciate the perspective. I am guilty of stereotyping an entire generation. I marvel at how lucky GenY is to have so many tools at their disposal, where we had very few. ex. My 11 year old son interacts with kids in Japan (trading Pokemon), when I was in school we wrote to pen pals once or twice.

10. Sandi Mays on November 14th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Sandi-

Long-time listener, first-time caller.

I can see why you may be so surprised by this. What I can offer as someone only recently removed from your daughter’s age (I’m 24) is that there is a discernible set of Gen Y who sees social networking as “something other kids do,” and not something they wish to be a part of. They see it as a collection of ingenuine relationships, and believe that if you really wanted to keep up with someone, you would take the time to call. They also may include people who originally liked social networking, especially Facebook, but have been increasingly aggravated by its encroaching “business model.” It seems to me that these kids don’t buy into the idea that social networking sites are the “future” of anything - business included - and so they have, to some extent, withdrawn from the digital community.

What Social Media industry analysts seem to constantly overlook is that there will always, *always*, be a contingent of people who will choose physical interaction over virtual, every time, and in fact, that this contingent might grow over time as opposed to fade away.

Hope this helps lend some perspective…

11. Josh on November 14th, 2008 at 2:00 pm

Business Tools Blog