November 13, 2012
Argumentative Writing
Business: “Facebook’s False Faces”

By Mrs. Mulhern Gross and Mr. Olsen at High Tech High School

Have you ever tried to hide your identity on the web or been the victim of fraud?  Facebook users are probably familiar with both scenarios considering that roughly 83 million Facebook accounts are considered by the company to be false accounts designed to spread spam or generate fake “likes.”  Facebook promotes their network as a place “where people use their real identities.”  As Times reporter Somini Sengupta reports, apparently not everyone is following the rules.

Reading task: Read "Facebook's False Faces," which is linked above.

Writing task:  Do you think it is ethical for high school and college students to create a Facebook profile using a pseudonym?  Explain your opinion in a one-paragraph blog post.

Before you do the task, you might....

• Keep in mind that Facebook requires every account to have a real name as it would be listed on a credit card or student ID.
• Be sure that your paragraph is robust, with at least eight sentences.
• Cite evidence from the text to back up your thinking. You should use the author’s name and article title in your paragraph.  

If you finish before the rest of the class, you can move ahead and look at some of the links in the extension activities below. 

Extension Activity:

• According to a study performed by Common Sense Media, 90% of teens have used social media.  But while teens are using social media, they may not always be using it wisely.  When the popular Hunger Games movie was released, a scandal erupted when social media users pointed out racist tweets in reaction to casting decisions.  Many of the racist tweets came from teenagers.  Read The Hunger Games' 'stomach-turning' racist tweet scandal to learn about the issue and some of the tweets.  
• Write a brief editorial addressing rascism and The Hunger Games as Forbes.com contributer Erik Kain did earlier this year when he read about rascist tweets and The Hunger Games.