Keynote: Social Work in the Digital Age by Nancy J. Smyth, PhD, LCSW NY State School Social Workers Association Annual Conference Buffalo, NY 11/4/11

1. 11/9/11
Social Work in the Digital Age
Technology: Bird’s Eye View
Nancy J. Smyth, PhD, LCSW
The Big Picture
NYS School Social Workers
Association Annual Conference
Buffalo, NY 11/4/11
Technologies of Connection
The Key to Understanding People have sought to shrink the distance between the self
& others (across space & time) since prehistoric times
Technology is….
• Oral Communication • Airplane
• Written Word • Radio
Knowing that • Printing Press • Film
Every Technology Both Solves a • Telegraph • TV
Problem & Creates New • Telephone • Internet
Challenges • Train • Personal Digital
• Automobile Devices
Keeping Things in Perspective
Hamlet’s Blackberry (Powers)
“Oral communication was a great success, but it “New modes of connecting always create new
gave rise to a new problem of physical distance, ways for individuals to create and prosper, and
rooted in the fact that conversation could happen for the collective advancement of humanity. At
only in close proximity to others.” the same time, there’s a sense of life, especially
“Written language solved the problem of physical the inner life, being thrown out of balance.”
distance by allowing words and ideas to travel
anywhere and arrive intact, exactly as originally - William Powers, (2010) Hamlet's
recorded. Writing also solved the temporal problem BlackBerry, (p. 78).
of storage, making it possible for information to be
stored over the long term more reliably than it could
ever be stored in the human mind.”
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Example: Socrates
• Writing will trap the human mind.
Confusion & anxieties about – “Dangerous…it won’t allow ideas to flow freely
new technologies are part of and change in real time, the way they do in
the mind during oral exchange.
the process of change – “Whereas conversation is all about back-and-
forth, written language is a one-way street:
Once a thought is written down, it’s frozen and
you can’t challenge it or change its
position.” (Powers, p. 94)
Socrates’ Error Socrates “judged the new tool
• “Like the Luddites of today who believe that digital exclusively through the lens of
technologies are irredeemably inferior to older devices the old one”
and even dangerous, he judged the new tool exclusively
through the lens of the old one. Because writing didn’t
work just like conversation, he felt, it couldn’t possibly be Question for Our Profession: Can
worth much and would only make people dumber.
• “To Socrates, writing was useful only as an aid to oral
we help people adapt to the
dialogue…What led Socrates to this narrow, pessimistic challenge in a new paradigm if
view of writing? He failed to understand that new
connective technologies come along to solve genuine
we’re operating exclusively out of
problems, and those problems usually have something the old paradigm?
to do with distance.” (Powers, p. 94)
The Digital Age Now: The Current Digital Age: What on Earth
Web 2.0-Social Media is Web 2.0? Social Media?
• Web 2.0: “The second generation of the World
Wide Web, especially the movement away from
static webpages to dynamic and shareable
content and social networking.”
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Web_2.0
• Social Media: Kaplan & Haenlein “define social
media as ‘a group of Internet-based applications
that build on the ideological and technological
foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the
creation and exchange of user-generated
content.’” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
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3. 11/9/11
Where Are We?
• How many of you are on Facebook?
– Personally? Where is the Mainstream
– Professionally? Society “at” now in the Digital
• LinkedIn? Age?
• Twitter?
• Google+?
Social Revolution? Where is Our Profession?
• Social Work Congress 2010
– “Integrate technologies that serve social work
practice and education in an ethical, practical,
and responsible manner”
http://www.socialworkers.org/2010congress/imperatives.asp
• Excellent imperative?
4 of the 10 Imperatives
4 of the 10 Imperatives
Compared
• Technology - Integrate technologies that serve social • Technology - Integrate technologies that serve social
work practice and education in an ethical, practical, and work practice and education in an ethical, practical, and
responsible manner. responsible manner.
• Business of Social Work - Infuse models of sustainable • Business of Social Work - Infuse models of sustainable
business and management practice in social work business and management practice in social work
education and practice. education and practice.
• Leadership Development - Integrate leadership training • Leadership Development - Integrate leadership training
in social work curricula at all levels. in social work curricula at all levels.
• Influence - Build a data-driven business case that • Influence - Build a data-driven business case that
demonstrates the distinctive expertise and the impact demonstrates the distinctive expertise and the impact
and value of social work to industry, policy makers, and and value of social work to industry, policy makers, and
the general public. the general public.
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4. 11/9/11
Negative Attitudes/Feelings That
So What?
Can Arise for Social Workers
• Digital is now embedded in the
mainstream culture
• If we are ignorant about how it’s used, we
aren’t competent in this part of the current
culture, so we aren’t able to help solve the
new challenges
• Cultural ignorance puts us in danger of
irrelevance
Life Skills for the Digital Age
http://njsmyth.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/life-skills-for-the-digital-age
• What social interactions are ideal for text
What are some of the messaging? Chat? Email? Which are not?
challenges raised for living • When does an interaction need to move from a
text-based platform, to one that involves voice?
with these new technologies? Images? Face to face?
• What is appropriate to share about your
How can we best live our lives in
workplace on your blog/Facebook/Twitter? About
an environment that offers the your life?
possibility of constant connection?
Life Skills (#2)
• What work tasks are best completed when
connected to the Internet? Disconnected?
• How can we set up our work areas/screens so
What are the opportunities
we can maximize our ability to focus? offered by these new
• What evening routines (relative to technology/
electronics) promote relaxation & restful sleep?
technologies?
• What’s the right balance between technology &
non-technology-based activities for free time?
What combination will result a true feeling of
fulfillment at the end of the day?
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5. 11/9/11
Top 10 Reasons for Social
Reason #10
Workers to Learn Web 2.0
You’re at a party and want to demonstrate
that the social work profession is part of
the 21st century–that we, like our clients,
can change and learn new things.
Reason #9 Reason #8
You’re interested in understanding the You want to use the fact that your
cultural context of the lives of your clients adolescent clients are gamers as an asset
who interact in the Web 2.0 world, in treatment (see
especially since social media has is Tanks, Trauma, and Epic Loot and
growing more popular every day (see Want to Change Behavior AND Feel Heroic?
Social Media Revolution 2 video). There’s an App for That…)
Reason #7 Reason #6
You want to really know what’s happening, You might like to share a resource with a
moment by moment, the next time there is client (or a friend) that will help
a major disaster somewhere. coordinate caregiving and create a
(Disaster Experts: Twitter is Serious Stuff) caregiving community for an aging parent
who lives miles away.
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6. 11/9/11
Reason #5 Reason #4
You want to connect to, share with, and You foresee what’s ahead: that more and more
learn from a vibrant, interactive community people will be expecting their health care
providers to interact with them via social media,
of social workers from all over the world
and that this will shift the power dynamics in
(for example, check out health care relationships (see
Social Work Blog Directory and my list of The Real Challenge of Health Care Social Media and
Social Workers on Twitter). upcoming Pew Internet report,
”The Rise of the e-Patient: Understanding Social
Networks and Online Health Information Seeking”).
Reason #3 Reason #2
You like the idea of people in your You are looking for a way to help your
community seeing the assets that are near agency (or favorite organization) to
them, searching for those that are develop fast, inexpensive ways to
free, and being able to add the important communicate with stakeholders and build
ones that they see have been missed (see support, including financial support (see
Arounja as one community is using it). NTen)
You want to let the world know what
you had for dinner!
And the #1 reason for social
workers to learn Web 2.0 is…
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7. 11/9/11
Seriously, Though..Some Final
Thoughts
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8. Social
Work
in
the
Digital
Age
Web
2.0
Resources
for
Social
Workers
Books:
Web
2.0
Overview
Kanter,
B.,
&
Fine,
A.
(2010).
The
networked
nonprofit:
Connecting
with
social
media
to
drive
change.
San
Francisco:
Jossey-­‐Bass.
Li,
C.,
&
Bernoff,
J.
(2008).
Groundswell:
Winning
in
a
world
transformed
by
social
technologies.
Boston:
Harvard
Business
School
Publishing.
Shirky,
C.
(2008).
Here
comes
everybody:
The
power
of
organizing
without
organizations.
London:
Penguin.
Zandt,
D.
(2010).
Share
this!
How
you
will
change
the
world
with
social
networking.
San
Francisco:
Berrett-­‐Koehler.
Books:
Living
in
the
Digital
Age
Powers,
W.
(2010).
Hamlet's
BlackBerry:
A
Practical
Philosophy
for
Building
a
Good
Life
in
the
Digital
Age.
Harper
Collins.
Blogs
Dr.
Susan
Giurleo:
At
the
Intersection
of
Health
Care,
Business,
and
Social
Media
http://drsusangiurleo.com/
Online
Therapy
Institute
Blog:
Bringing
Together
Technology
and
Mental
Health
http://www.onlinetherapyinstituteblog.com/
Social
Media
Examiner:
Your
Guide
to
the
Social
Media
Jungle
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/
Social
Work
Blogs:
The
Authoritative
Social
Work
Blog
Directory:
http://www.socialworkblogs.info/
Nancy
Smyth’s
blog:
Virtual
Connections:
Exploring
Social
Work
&
Education
in
a
New
Media
World
http://njsmyth.wordpress.com/
Gamer
Therapist:
Psychotherapy
Meets
Web
2.0
http://gamertherapist.com/blog/
Nancy
J.
Smyth,
PhD,
LCSW:
Social
Work
in
the
Digital
Age
-­‐-­‐-­‐
NYS
School
Social
Workers
Association
Annual
Conference
Buffalo,
NY
11/4/11

9.
Social
Work
Tech
Blog:
Applying
Tech
Tools
to
Social
Work
Practice
http://socialworktechblog.com/
Podcasts
(you
can
listen
online
or
download
it
to
an
iPod/mp3
player)
Living
Proof:
The
Podcast
Series
of
the
University
at
Buffalo
School
of
Social
Work
http://www.socialwork.buffalo.edu/podcast/
(includes
one
on
cyberbullying)
The
Social
Work
Podcast
http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/
Other
Resources
Nonprofit
Technology
Network:
Where
the
Nonprofit
Technology
Community
Meets
http://www.nten.org/
Pew
Internet
&
American
Life
Project
http://www.pewinternet.org/
Social
Media
Evolution
(#3,
Refresh)
Video
http://www.youtube.com/user/Socialnomics09#p/u/5/x0EnhXn5boMeo
My
Public
Notebook
of
Clipped
Articles
on
Using
Social
Media
http://www.evernote.com/pub/njsmyth/publicnotebook
My
Twitter
List
of
Social
Workers
(currently
at
244)
(need
Twitter
account
to
see
this)
https://twitter.com/#!/list/njsmyth/social-­‐workers
Copies
of
This
Presentations’
Slides
(will
be
there
within
a
week)
http://www.slideshare.net/njsmyth
Nancy
J.
Smyth,
PhD,
LCSW
sw-­‐dean@buffalo.edu
www.socialwork.buffalo.edu
716-­‐645-­‐1266
(my
assistant,
Ms.
Anna
Cerrato)
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/njsmyth
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/njsmyth
LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/njsmyth
Blog:
http://njsmyth.wordpress.com/
Google+:
http://plus.google.com/104244998034655996865/
(or
just
search
on
my
name)
Nancy
J.
Smyth,
PhD,
LCSW:
Social
Work
in
the
Digital
Age
-­‐-­‐-­‐
NYS
School
Social
Workers
Association
Annual
Conference
Buffalo,
NY
11/4/11

10.
Nancy
J.
Smyth,
PhD,
LCSW:
Social
Work
in
the
Digital
Age
-­‐-­‐-­‐
NYS
School
Social
Workers
Association
Annual
Conference
Buffalo,
NY
11/4/11