NASPA session with Lisa Endersby from University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Inside Higher Ed's Eric Stoller . Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, twitter, tumblr., and google+' oh my!
Social media allows us to follow student development, digitally. So the good, the bad, and the ugly is all out there. But also unique ways to use social media, like Wake Forest's "Compliments" page.
Privacy in a social space is a fallacy.
Validation is easy to come by through social media ("likes", etc. ), so students will experiment or try these things out in those environments.
What are we doing on our campus to help students develop their digital identities? Orientation, Res Life, Career Services, Counseling? Good question. Others report that students complain they've already "had these conversations" in high school and don't want to hear a lecture. Some campuses allow students to run some organization/office social media accounts. Others have departments dedicated to offering training for departments and students on social media.
To complicate things, there are also multiple identities for multiple communities. For example, a RA has a professional identity on social media as well as a personal identity as a student. Show students examples of appropriate/inappropriate use of social media. For example, even corporations have screwed up and posted inappropriate messages -- Red Cross, GM.
Need to talk to freshmen in First Year courses about LinkedIn, rather than in senior year when a lot of questionable material may already be out there on the Internet where employers can find it.
Sometimes "safe" means "sanitized." Endersby advocates for "brave spaces," in which students acknowledge mess ups, and address those issues.
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