1.
Social Work in the Digital Age
Nancy J. Smyth, PhD, LCSW
NYS School Social Workers
Association Annual Conference
Buffalo, NY 11/4/11

2.
Technology: Bird’s Eye View
The Big Picture

3.
The Key to Understanding
Technology is….
Knowing that
Every Technology Both Solves a
Problem & Creates New
Challenges

4.
Technologies of Connection
People have sought to shrink the distance between the self
& others (across space & time) since prehistoric times
• Oral Communication • Airplane
• Written Word • Radio
• Printing Press • Film
• Telegraph • TV
• Telephone • Internet
• Train • Personal Digital
• Automobile Devices

5.
Keeping Things in Perspective
Hamlet’s Blackberry (Powers)
“Oral communication was a great success, but it
gave rise to a new problem of physical distance,
rooted in the fact that conversation could happen
only in close proximity to others.”
“Written language solved the problem of physical
distance by allowing words and ideas to travel
anywhere and arrive intact, exactly as originally
recorded. Writing also solved the temporal problem
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.”

6.
“New modes of connecting always create new
ways for individuals to create and prosper, and
for the collective advancement of humanity. At
the same time, there’s a sense of life, especially
the inner life, being thrown out of balance.”
- William Powers, (2010) Hamlet's
BlackBerry, (p. 78).

7.
Confusion & anxieties about
new technologies are part of
the process of change

8.
Example: Socrates
• Writing will trap the human mind.
– “Dangerous…it won’t allow ideas to flow freely
and change in real time, the way they do in
the mind during oral exchange.
– “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)

9.
Socrates’ Error
• “Like the Luddites of today who believe that digital
technologies are irredeemably inferior to older devices
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
worth much and would only make people dumber.
• “To Socrates, writing was useful only as an aid to oral
dialogue…What led Socrates to this narrow, pessimistic
view of writing? He failed to understand that new
connective technologies come along to solve genuine
problems, and those problems usually have something
to do with distance.” (Powers, p. 94)

10.
Socrates “judged the new tool
exclusively through the lens of
the old one”
Question for Our Profession: Can
we help people adapt to the
challenge in a new paradigm if
we’re operating exclusively out of
the old paradigm?

11.
The Digital Age Now:
Web 2.0-Social Media

12.
The Current Digital Age: What on Earth
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

13.
Where Are We?
• How many of you are on Facebook?
– Personally?
– Professionally?
• LinkedIn?
• Twitter?
• Google+?

14.
Where is the Mainstream
Society “at” now in the Digital
Age?

15.
Social Revolution?

16.
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?

17.
4 of the 10 Imperatives
• Technology - Integrate technologies that serve social
work practice and education in an ethical, practical, and
responsible manner.
• Business of Social Work - Infuse models of sustainable
business and management practice in social work
education and practice.
• Leadership Development - Integrate leadership training
in social work curricula at all levels.
• Influence - Build a data-driven business case that
demonstrates the distinctive expertise and the impact
and value of social work to industry, policy makers, and
the general public.

18.
4 of the 10 Imperatives
Compared
• Technology - Integrate technologies that serve social
work practice and education in an ethical, practical, and
responsible manner.
• Business of Social Work - Infuse models of sustainable
business and management practice in social work
education and practice.
• Leadership Development - Integrate leadership training
in social work curricula at all levels.
• Influence - Build a data-driven business case that
demonstrates the distinctive expertise and the impact
and value of social work to industry, policy makers, and
the general public.

19.
Negative Attitudes/Feelings That
Can Arise for Social Workers

20.
So What?
• 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

21.
What are some of the
challenges raised for living
with these new technologies?
How can we best live our lives in
an environment that offers the
possibility of constant connection?

22.
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
messaging? Chat? Email? Which are not?
• When does an interaction need to move from a
text-based platform, to one that involves voice?
Images? Face to face?
• What is appropriate to share about your
workplace on your blog/Facebook/Twitter?
About your life?

23.
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
we can maximize our ability to focus?
• What evening routines (relative to
technology/electronics) promote relaxation &
restful sleep?
• 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?

24.
What are the opportunities
offered by these new
technologies?

25.
Top 10 Reasons for Social
Workers to Learn Web 2.0

26.
Reason #10
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.

27.
Reason #9
You’re interested in understanding the
cultural context of the lives of your clients
who interact in the Web 2.0 world,
especially since social media has is
growing more popular every day (see
Social Media Revolution 2 video).

28.
Reason #8
You want to use the fact that your
adolescent clients are gamers as an asset
in treatment (see Tanks, Trauma, and Epic
Loot and Want to Change Behavior AND Feel
Heroic? There’s an App for That…)

29.
Reason #7
You want to really know what’s happening,
moment by moment, the next time there is
a major disaster somewhere. (Disaster
Experts: Twitter is Serious Stuff)

30.
Reason #6
You might like to share a resource with a
client (or a friend) that will help coordinate
caregiving and create a caregiving
community for an aging parent who lives
miles away.

31.
Reason #5
You want to connect to, share with, and
learn from a vibrant, interactive community
of social workers from all over the world
(for example, check out Social Work Blog
Directory and my list of Social Workers on
Twitter).

32.
Reason #4
You foresee what’s ahead: that more and more
people will be expecting their health care
providers to interact with them via social media,
and that this will shift the power dynamics in
health care relationships (see The Real Challenge
of Health Care Social Media and upcoming Pew
Internet report,”The Rise of the e-Patient:
Understanding Social Networks and Online Health
Information Seeking”).

33.
Reason #3
You like the idea of people in your
community seeing the assets that are near
them, searching for those that are
free, and being able to add the important
ones that they see have been missed (see
Arounja as one community is using it).

34.
Reason #2
You are looking for a way to help your
agency (or favorite organization) to
develop fast, inexpensive ways to
communicate with stakeholders and build
support, including financial support (see
NTen)

35.
And the #1 reason for social
workers to learn Web 2.0 is…

36.
You want to let the world know what
you had for dinner!

37.
Seriously, Though..Some Final
Thoughts

38.
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/
Nancy J. Smyth, PhD, LCSW: Social Work in the Digital Age ---
NYS School Social Workers Association Annual Conference Buffalo, NY 11/4/11

39.
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/
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
Nancy J. Smyth, PhD, LCSW: Social Work in the Digital Age ---
NYS School Social Workers Association Annual Conference Buffalo, NY 11/4/11

40.
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
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