A New Front

Traditionally, social work has involved working in the "real world": helping children in foster care, helping students in schools, or assisting older adults in retirement facilities, for example. They assist people who have been involved in physical situations. After all, social work can only work within the given period; they didn't exactly have the World Wide Web one hundred years ago. Back when social work was created, "social networking" meant interacting with Joe Smith at a party, instead of ILoveCats48 in chatroom. The creation of the World Wide Web and virtual reality means that social work will now adapt to function in the Facebook world.

The Guardian, a newspaper stationed in UK, reported that the Department for Business, Skills, and Innovation asked Fast Future, a research company, to determine what jobs would look like in 20 years with the increase we are seeing in technology. Social work was on the list, and Fast Future thought the profession would be dealing with the effects of social networking within society. That seems only logical. For many people, social networking is a part of their daily life. College is a bastion for Facebook. Almost every classroom features students on Facebook when they should be paying attention to the lecture. I know of students who have given up Facebook for Lent...that's how big it was in their lives. But with this use comes abuse. A quick check on Facebook shows, in addition to random thoughts nobody cares about, attacks on other people. Read the comments section where people are anonymous. People can be vicious. But what does this mean for social work?

One of the biggest negative externalities of social networking is cyber-bullying. It can include hurtful comments, unwanted pictures other people have posted, and just generally anything someone does on the Web to hurt others. Like I said in the last paragraph, this is becoming a daily occurrence. Some may say cyber-bullying isn't as rough as "real world" bullying, but that's not true. Tyler Clementi was a student at Rutgers who committed suicide after a video of him having sex with his boyfriend was posted online. There are very real consequences to what happens on the Web. Imagine all the drama that happens in middle schools and high schools, then add another place where people can hurt others. Social workers will have to deal with these issues. In the future we could see degrees formed that deal specifically with online behavior. Perhaps social workers who work with children will be required to also take courses about cyberbullying and how the Web could affect kids. Anything is possible...only time will tell.