Social Media and Graduate Students
Which Role Do I Portray on Social Media?
Graduate students often find themselves in an in-between place in learning and developing their professional identity. They are more than generalist undergraduates, but not yet accomplished faculty. By choosing to pursue graduate education they have begun the process of integrating into their professional community but are not yet expected to have infinite experience in the classroom, developed a strong research philosophy, or significantly contributed to the professional literature. They are building their professional identity, while navigating personal and professional roles, which can be difficult even for the most confident of people. However, they do share one thing in common with both undergraduates and faculty — an apprehension in using and engaging professionally on social media, particularly career-oriented sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and ResearchGate, to its full potential.
The use of social media has invaded almost every aspect of people’s lives. According to Status Brew, 233 million people used social media in 2021. 72% of Americans use at least one social media platform daily. Facebook is losing ground with users 12–34 years old, down from a high of 79% of all social media traffic in 2017 to a mere 57% in 2021. Twitter has regained prominence, but TikTok is the social media star of 2021. Social media is here to stay. Its ability to respond to changes in popular culture have made it an essential part of daily life.
Even though social media has many private, individual social connections, it is finding its way into people’s educational lives as well. Educators are discovering and embracing its potential to engage students. Students now have the ability to take learning further. No longer do conversations stop at the classroom door. In their article on integrating social media into graduate school education, George and Dellasega (2011) explore the ways that social media can create innovative ways for students to interact with material in ways that were not previously available. For example, by using Twitter, students can continue classroom conversations among friends and gain multiple perspectives potentially spawning even more conversations. YouTube can help students engage directly with experts in the field possibly not otherwise available.
While excited about the possibilities, George and Dellasega note that instructors really need to understand the way students engage in social media in all spheres of their lives, and better understand the roles and identities students take on and how they are expressed. Josefsson et al (2015) also noted this tension. Drawing on prior research about student’s division of learning spaces, Josefsson confirmed that students clearly placed a strong dividing line between their personal / private use of social media and their educational / public use. The researchers hypothesize that the tension comes from the roles students assume. In students’ private lives, social media content is user-generated, moderated, and appraised. Their role is private and understandable. In the education sphere, content is teacher-generated, leaving students to assume a role that is public and possibly uncomfortable. Only when faculty find the right balance of content and expectations will students’ welcome social media into their educational spheres.
One group that often fails to fully embrace social media use in the education sphere is graduate students. Social media is not necessarily only used to master the material, but instead to develop a professional or academic identity. Because students’ focus is often divided between offline and online worlds, use varies heavily by discipline, even geography. However, a more important factor in usage is acceptance. Carpenter (2020) and his research team studied the use of Instagram by teachers. They found mixed reactions on the value of using the site for professional purposes. As with many other Instagram user groups, usage started off as personal, then dissolved the boundary a bit, moving into some professional territory. On a professional level, it was of benefit in creating affinity spaces for teachers of all levels, sharing classroom ideas, instructional methods, and even classroom fashion tips. Another large item of value was the social network building. One negative was that some teachers either seemed to exploit the networking aspect or actively tried to promote their own commercial services on the site.
The prior Instagram research is a good example of the benefits and problems with use of social media by professional educators. However big the hurdle may be to keep social media use positive, the larger issue remains of school districts and higher education institutions to fully embrace its value for professional development and professional identity building. Jordan (2020) notes that while some institutions still are weary of the value of social media, but most now see social media as a positive way to amplify research impact and engagement with a larger audience. As generally non-sophisticated users, there tends to be an expected overlap in selection and usage amongst graduate students and existing faculty. Instagram is used the least and LinkedIn, Academia.edu, and ResearchGate are used the most. Jordan postulates that this is because graduate students and academics constantly consider their audience and how audience reaction will affect their professional identities. Their professional identity is shaped by the role they choose to assume and how the audience embraces it. Heidari (2020) would categorize this as being concerned about the amassing of social capital. He defines social capital as resources (e.g. articles, reputation, connections) embedded in the social structure that can be used to obtain specific benefits (e.g. a job, a recommendation). One positive conclusion however is that the development of an online professional identity directly correlates with social network use and the amassing of online social capital. Jordan and Heidari both comment on the lack of significant research in studying graduate studens’ use of social media and concrete evidence of professional identity formation in relation to social media usage. As a researcher and graduate student, I agree. It’s time to put your money where your mouth is.
As I sit here writing this blog, this piece hits home. I know that I need to engage with social media such as LinkedIn to develop my online social network, as well as my offline connections, but I’m hesitant. Which role can I successfully portray and what if I cannot capitalize on it? Researchers, time to help me out.
References
Carpenter, S.P., Morrison, S. A., Craft, M., & Lee, M. (2020). How and why are educators using Instagram? Teaching and Teacher Education, 96, 103149–103149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103149
Josefsson, P., Hrastinski, S., Pargman, D., & Pargman, T. C. (2015). The student, the private and the professional role: Students’ social media use. Education and Information Technologies, 21(6), 1583–1594. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-015-9403-7
George, D. & Dellasega, C. (2011). Use of social media in graduate-level medical humanities education: Two pilot studies from Penn State College of Medicine. Medical Teacher, 33(8), e429–e434. https://doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2011.586749
Heidari, E., Salimi, G., & Mehrvarz, M. (2020). The influence of online social networks and online social capital on constructing a new graduate students’ professional identity. Interactive Learning Environments, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1769682
Jordan, K. (2020). Imagined audiences, acceptable identity fragments and merging the personal and professional: how academic online identity is expressed through different social media platforms. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(2), 165–178. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2020.1707222
Convince & Convert, Social Media Statistics:
https://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-research/social-media-usage-statistics/
Pew Research Center, Social Media Fact Sheet:
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/
Status Brew, Social Media Statistics:
