In the past few years social media has drastically changed our daily
lives. In its most basic use it is a way to communicate and keep up with
friends. In recent months we have seen it successfully used as a way to
begin movements,
revolutions, and larger social change. Social media is
changing our lives. While the implications of this change are both bad
and good, beautiful and ugly, as educators we must question the role it
will play in our classroom.
I was teaching a lesson on STI’s a few weeks ago at an area high school.
In the lesson is a brainstorming section – a chance for students to
shout out some of the STI’s they have heard of, which we then categorize
and talk about in greater detail. While facilitating the brainstorm I
had one student yell out “blue waffles!” to which all the other students
said “ew, yeaa,” Now as a sexologist I thought I had pretty good
knowledge of the majority of STI’s that exist. Here I am the teacher and
students are teaching me about an STI. Slightly embarrassed I looked
over at my co-facilitator who smiled and said “there’s something we have
to talk about with blue waffles.” We asked the class how many had heard
of it and nearly every hand went up.
As it turns out, a picture went viral on the internet claiming that a
new STI had been uncovered called blue waffles. It apparently causes
severe bruising as well as lesions on the vulva and penis and it is said
to be transmitted through improper cleansing of the genital area. It is
not real. When the students found that out, there was an audible sigh
of relief in the room. It was something they were genuinely worried
about.
After I went home that day, I decided to Google blue waffles to see
what would come up. The first hit was a site for The Daily Gore which
hosted the picture. While the photo may have been indicative of bruising
due to sexual assault it is also clear that photoshop has also been to
work on this picture. Upon more searching I could only find minimal
information related to this apparent “disease.” There was certainly
nothing of any merit.
What particularly frightened me about this was that despite information
by any reputable sources, students believed blue waffles was a real
thing, and were worried about it, simply because it was
out there. This
brings me back to my earlier point about the role that social media
plays in education. As educators we need to be aware of the things
students are seeing, the things that are going viral.
While in another post the importance of staying up to date on news is
important, so too is remaining up to date on what the students see as
news, whether or not it is true. Although it is impossible to be a
gatekeeper of anything that is floating on the internet, I think
educators should be aware that there is a special need now to have a
discussion with students about what is current to them. A weekly
discussion of what’s viral on the internet, particularly as it relates
to issues of sexuality could have uncovered blue waffles as well. I
happened to do it by chance.
In this instance, incorporating social media into the classroom could
be used as both a way to
engage students into talking about issues
current to them, as well as debunking the many
untruths that exist when
information is not substantiated before it is posted. As educators we
want to reach our students with the correct information.
