Casting the Social Net

Chatter about social networking seems to be everywhere these days. Perhaps that is because the number of users on Facebook has balooned up over 175 million. MySpace, meanwhile, registered their 100 millionth user account all the way back in 2006. According to Wikipedia, over 6 billion videos were watched on YouTube in January of 2009 alone, and more than 12 hours of video are uploaded every minute. Facebook is the leading social (non-professional) networking site for individuals, while MySpace is still the premier option for bands, musicians, and ensembles because of its easy-to-use music player and highly customizable appearance. And by now almost everyone is certainly aware of the immensity of YouTube, which seems to carry videos of every conceivable kind.

All of this begs the questions: How can these new technological tools benefit music education? With that in mind, we turned to our readers in this latest SBO survey, hoping to get an idea of just how these types of Web sites are being used by music educators, and why they are, or are not, being integrated into school programs.

Curiously, the vast majority of readers indicated that their programs or ensembles did not have a Myspace site, a Facebook profile or group, or a YouTube channel, with many respondents stating that administrators have limited or prohibited their access to social networking Web pages on school grounds. Yet, going to any one of these sites and searching for school bands and orchestras will yield a seemingly infinite number of results.

Perhaps Web-savvy band and orchestra students are already leading the charge.

Does your school band or orchestra program have:

a MySpace page?

Perhaps Web-savvy band and orchestra students are already leading the charge.

Does your school band or orchestra program have:

a MySpace page?