Navigating the World of Social Media

Gr 7 Up—This program offers common sense advice on online manners, grammar, and honesty. It features two genial hosts, Carla and Anthony, as well as a social media expert, a businessman, a high school student, and a college student, all of whom go over the broad topic of how to be a good digital citizen. After an introduction on the pervasiveness of social media, the program looks at what "social" means, questioning how genuine users are behind the screens. It discusses building and protecting an online presence and how individuals as well as companies have recognizable brands. Additionally, it touches on how social media is used in the workplace; employers may look at potential employees' social media presences to make hiring decisions. The program briefly touches on cyberbullying, but the college student shrugs it off, saying she unfriended the bullies and never looked back. Overall, this DVD offers generically sensible advice about thinking before posting, keeping your online persona clean, and separating your work-related social media from your personal online accounts. There is nothing groundbreaking here and nothing that might make teens listen to this presentation more than to their teachers or parents. Also, all the segments with the college student have bad audio; the sound is not properly synced to the images.