"We act as if social media is firmly established in the world, but social media is really in its infancy. Like the first combustion engine cars that looked and acted more like horseless carriages than the cars we use today, we are fumbling toward revolutionary global ways to communicate with tools like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube that don’t yet meet our needs. We are poorly served by systems rife with misinformation, misuse of our personal data, algorithms that are designed to build wealth rather than a stable world, polarization, bullying, and content that erodes public trust in civic institutions. 

For children and teenagers, social media is the town square where they are socialized. They don’t have a context of “before social media,” nor can they yet see the systems their generations will build that, hopefully, will better meet our human needs for connection and communication. Like fish who swim in water, the young are growing up unaware they are swimming in digital spaces — spaces that have not been designed with their welfare in mind. Shakespeare wrote: “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.” Today the digital stage insists on performance from all of us, with ramifications and reach that can far exceed face-to-face encounters. We must provide opportunities for kids to become aware and reflect on the performative nature of that stage."--Starla Stensaas, MFA

With all this in mind, my goal for this class is to create a safe, accepting, creative space for students to study different personality types, use those prototypes to create characters and play with them--using games and activities. We will discuss how different personalities perform within social media platforms.

Class #1: Studying the nine personality types
Class #2: Studying the nine personality types, part 2
Class #3: Explore and discuss how each personality would react in different situations and would present themselves on social media. We will write and/or draw with prompts (depending on students' preference). 
Class #4: Creating characters based on each personality type.
Class #5: Role Playing and improv work with the characters. Wrap up.