The Game of Facebook and the End(s) of Writing Pedagogy

Abstract

The temptations posed by social networking—primarily Facebook and text messaging—to distract students from the “real” work of the writing class have quickly become part of the lore of writing teachers in both high schools and colleges. The irony of this situation seems all too obvious: it’s hard to get students focused on their writing practices when they are so busily engaged in their writing practices. This conflict enacts yet another version of the work/play binary, but in this case centered on discursive practices: the serious “work” of the official writing curriculum versus the “play” of the trivial digital writing spaces.¹ Rather than reflexively viewing the “addictive” nature of Facebook and social networking as an obvious problem, I instead argue that there is much to learn pedagogically from this “addiction,” that in fact the absorption, devotion, and even self-reflection engendered by a social networking site such as Facebook can be seen as useful and desirable when directed toward more officially sanctioned forms of discursive activity.