Face off: Teacher-student communication on Facebook is a bad idea

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February 15, 2010 • Taylor Kidder, Staff Writer  
Filed under Opinion

Even teachers have picked up on the social networking fad: Facebook. Naturally, being the crazed friend-finders students are, they pounce on this opportunity to fill up their friends list. Students friend this new demographic of users, who then return the favor.

Although it may seem that these two groups becoming friends is natural, it is anything but. It may be beneficial for students and teachers to get to know each other in a classroom setting, but it is inappropriate and unprofessional for them to have a relationship over the Internet.

Teachers and students should not be Facebook friends.

Teachers must maintain a reputable relationship with students, so they can be respected. By adding students as Facebook friends, teachers are lowering themselves to become the peers of students as opposed to the leaders. This makes getting proper respect as teachers more difficult. Furthermore, this opens up an awkward window into each other’s personal lives, allowing teachers to comment on images and status updates of their students. Such comments can feel awkward and unnatural. Likewise, teachers may post things intended for fellow adult friends that could be intercepted by students. This can cause students to learn compromising things about their teachers.

Some may argue that Facebook can provide a useful form of communication for teachers to contact their students. This may be true, but there are already plenty of ways for teachers and students to communicate including phone, e-mail or talking to students personally. Also, since some of their students may not even be on Facebook, teachers will need to use these other methods anyway. In fact, these methods are superior in that students are more likely to notice these things from a teacher while a friend’s Facebook status update may go unnoticed. These other methods also seem more professional, and students will take them more directly.

Teachers should not solicit the friendship of students, and students should not solicit the friendship of teachers. This is not to say they should not be friendly to each other, but rather they should do so inside the school. They should not have these relationships online. On both accounts it leads to awkward relationships and both sides see things that are better left unseen. Teachers and students both need to take the responsibility into their own hands and just say no.

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