I recently went to a short break-out session at a State Level Public School Administrators Conference. The break-out session was titled, “Social Networking and Cyberbullying”. And to say that I was frustrated and somewhat dismayed by the speakers’ tone and guidance to the room full of Public School Administrators is an understatement.

From the first slide in the presentation, all speaker did was tout the “cons” and evils of Social Media. And now, best as I can tell, there are dozens of FiftySomething Public School Administrators that are going to dictate to the youth (teachers and students) of their district how to behave, what is appropriate and what isn’t, without ever understanding the implications of their decisions.

As is normally the case in many “discussions” about Social Media in the workplace, all that was presented was the negative – that the Internet and Social Networks, like Facebook and MySpace are the problem.

From providing dangerous access to potential sex offenders to threats of violence against students and teachers, these systems MUST be stopped.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Facebook and MySpace are communication mediums . . . not the message. They are the paths many people are using today to communicate who and what they are. But they are not making them who and what they are.

The Outrage is Rooted in Fear

Fear of Social Media and Social Networking is fear of change. And the fear of change is, in reality, the fear of losing control.

Well, let me tell you, the control you have, or think you have, is just an illusion. You only have control over others (in any social environment) as long as they are willing to be controlled – willing to follow. And the truth is the quickest way to lose following, lose leadership over any group is to stop listening and / or “try” to prevent them from organizing or prevent them from communicating.

In life, we don’t get to choose whether or not change happens, just whether or not we participate in it.

And whether you like it or not, Social Media as a “new” form of communication is here to stay. Conversations are happening at a greater rate than ever before in history. So you can pretend all day long to ignore the conversations, burying your head in the sand, like the proverbial Ostrich. And, you can try to outlaw system after system, preventing conversations from happening in the open, but at this point, you can’t stop the talking, the chatting, the blogging, the tweeting, the skyping, the posting, IMing, FLICKRing, YouTube-ing, or any other form of self expression.

People have learned what it means to have VOICE, and they will now find it . . . one way or another.

Join the Conversations - Don’t Avoid Them

Your best and only hope is to join the change – get on board – and do your best to influence the conversations, to support the ends that you desire – the Vision of the world you are trying to create.

Be a thought leader in the mediums of today’s conversations – don’t try to ban them. Join the conversations, learn what the process is really about and influence from the inside through participation and trust, not from the outside through dictate and discipline. The former is no guarantee of success, but the latter is the first step towards irrelevance.

Think back, the same thing happened from the late 1950s through the early 1970s.  Rock’n'Roll came on the scene and was blamed for in-sighting our youth to think new thoughts and revolting against the current system. But it wasn’t Rock’n'Roll, that was just the communication medium. What was happening was the voice of change.

Trying to control the way our youth communicates didn’t work 50 years ago, and it won’t work today. The change is coming . . . it always does. Jump in and play. You will find you have more influence on behavior from the inside than anywhere else.