The class could also teach students why online exchanges, including on social media and email, end in rancour and hostility more often than do face-to-face exchanges. A lot of arguments simply should not be conducted over email, because they will escalate and lead to hard feelings. Direct signals of human trust and bonding are absent online, and without face-to-face cues, it is very easy to misinterpret tone or to read hostility when it is not intended. If students could be taught these realities at an early age, they might engage in fewer frustrating or destructive interactions.
Students, and indeed adults, could also be taught how to use social media more productively. Twitter, for example, tends to be irritating and polarizing when used to express political views. But it is wonderful for following music and the arts, events in other countries (especially if they have little or no political resonance for one's own country), and tracking the progress of science. It wouldn't be hard for teachers to help students learn how to build better Twitter feeds. As it stands now, I frequently meet adults who think that Twitter is nothing but partisan idiots screaming at each other.
Twitter search is one of the most underrated parts of the internet. If I am looking to learn more about a current event, I typically go to Twitter before Google and type in the relevant search term. The results seem more up-to-date, and I will probably be exposed to a wider range of opinions.
This high school class also could teach about phishing, hacking and how to resist and maybe even report bullying. And what about those opaque "privacy agreements" that so many social media companies ask you to read and click "I agree" before using the service? A class could help explain in plain English what you are agreeing to. It could also impress upon students the permanency of many postings on social media, and the value of caution.
It is striking and sad that there is so much over-the-top criticism of social media yet so little faith in education as a possible remedy. As it stands, plenty of teachers give informal advice about how to use the internet, but there isn't much in the way of formal institutions or curriculums. I am not saying this needs to be a full, semester-long class. But surely internet usage and understanding is worthy of a formal dedication of at least a few weeks of attention, maybe more.
Finally: For all the negative attention the internet receives, I think it would be better for this class to focus on the positive. If an instructor teaches students only which sites to avoid and why, it may just stimulate their appetite to visit those sites. Not every 14-year-old comes to high school already knowing about the incendiary rhetoric on 4Chan, so the class would need a somewhat paternalistic focus.
The internet is, on the whole, one of humankind's greatest achievements. Time spent online can be hugely informative, even rewarding. For all the hours we and our children spend online, however, we can and should be doing more to improve the experience for everyone.
- Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg columnist