The rapid expansion of technology and the accompanying rise in social media users has led to a heightened awareness about the risks and potential harms associated with social media usage. Creating a safe forum for students to discuss and share their ideas is crucial to promote learning in a classroom. These concerns become amplified when digital projects require public-facing engagement by students such as posting, sharing, or reacting to content on social media. In the section below I summarize some of these ethical quandries related to privacy, impact of social media use on mental health, and questions of equity.
Privacy
As more of our everyday lives move online, companies, governments and even the class bully are able to keep a closer watch on the way we think, feel, or behave. The data trails we leave online through our activities raises serious concerns related to privacy. The ways in which data mined by powerful social media platforms makes us vulnerable to manipulation was evident in the The Facebook Cambridge Analytica controversy. As educators, thinking through privacy concerns, especially accounting for how they may impact vulnerable and marginalized students in our class is important.
Dr. Cottom suggests having a separate alias class account, different from student’s “real” or personal account, is a very deliberate strategy while using a social media project in class. Content posted on social media accounts tends to be permanent and gets curated as an artifact of our larger digital persona. Not all students would want their coursework to be in the public eye and part of their online presence. It is common practice for people to “look up” a person on social media- whether it is someone you want to date or a potential employer. Students may not wish to be associated with content they post as an undergraduate student project. The (relatively) permanent nature of the content adds further complication over time. Students personal and professional identities may shift and they may not associate with content they have created.
An additional and potentially more grave concern is around online trolling and doxxing. Words like “racism” or “white supremacy” or discussions on trending issues might expose them to harmful trolling and doxxing. Having a separate social media account for class acts as a form of buffer against online trolling.
Reviewing and controlling the privacy settings is another potential safeguard against trolling. For instance, Twitter allows you to set your account to “protected” so only those who follow you or are tagged in your post can access your tweets.
Removing any personally identifiable information (including images) before posting online is another helpful strategy. This also applies to users whose content we are using in our class projects as well (for eg tweets in the TAGS project). As an additional reference, you can read more about the ethical guidelines developed by the Safelab for working with social media data.
Cyberbullying
A related concern to doxxing is that of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is the intent to consistently harass another individual to cause harm via any electronic method, including social media, and includes defamation, public disclosure of private facts, and intentional emotional distress. Researchers have enlisted 7 forms of cyberbullying including flaming, online harassment, cyberstalking, denigration, masquerading, trickery and outing, and exclusion (Watts et al., 2017)
Researchers estimate that between 5 to 40% of undergraduate students have been victims of some form of cyberbullying. This is a serious concern as it could potentially exacerbate mental health concerns within this population (Martinez-Monteagudoet al., 2020)
The data cited above clearly indicates that this is a much more pervasive problem and not necessarily associated with introducing social media projects in class. As educators it is important to be aware of these realities and also be cognizant about how having a social media project could create additional opportunities for bullying. For example, a student may try to stalk a fellow classmate via their class social media handle.
Collectively framing guidelines for respectful digital behavior on social media and discussing case studies of cyber bullying can be a starting point to address these issues.
Surveillance and challenges for vulnerable populations
Considerations around privacy and safety become paramount while working with students belonging to vulnerable and/or marginalized communities. Social media provides a ” broad and deep tool for surveillance ” to law enforcement agencies. During the George Floyd Protests across the US in 2020 or the pro-democracy protests in Hongkong earlier, governments used social media posts to identify and arrest protestors. Information available on social media is used as evidence to incarcerate young people, without adequate consideration of youth digital cultures and norms of exaggeration related to online self presentation. Black and Latino youth in particular face police surveillance and violence that extends from their neighborhoods to social media (Lane and Ramirez, 2021) . Immigrant and undocumented folks are similarly at-risk for surveillance by the Department of Homeland Surveillance. The department has been notoriously infamous for conducting raids using social media activity or even denying Visa applications if social media posts have been critical of the US government.
Listening to concerns of students and identifying those who may be especially vulnerable maybe a first step to address these concerns. There are also some great resources on online safety created by CryptoHarlem, a nonprofit that works to promote AntiSurveillance, Cybersecurity Education & Advocacy.
Social Media Use: Impact on mental health
Many studies are now suggesting that social media usage is correlated with a series of mental health concerns including depression, anxiety, suicidality, body image concerns among others (Kross et. al, 2021). While there it is difficult to establish a direct connection between the two, there are mediating factors such as exposure to cyberbullying, increased social comparison, and reduction in physical activity that occur as a result of high social media usage and exacerbate mental health concerns (Viner et al., 2019). We know for example that increased screen time while going to bed impacts quality and duration of sleep, which in turn impacts mental health.
When initiating a social media based project in the classroom, it might be helpful to have a conversation with students about self care and boundaries around social media. This will also provide students an opportunity to reflect upon their own social media usage and its impact on their wellbeing. Another possibility to take into consideration is that some students may be on a digital detox (El- Khoury et al., 2020) for mental health concerns, and do not wish to be present on a social media platform. In such a scenario, you may want to clarify the requirements on the course at the beginning of the semester and guide students to select alternate courses that might work better for their current situation. You may also consider creating alternate assignments that do not require the use of social media such as a review of literature etc.
Addressing Inequities in Access
In 2021, one in four adults with lower incomes do not have access to home broadband services (43%) and or a desktop or laptop computer (41%).
Pew Research Center, 2021
The CoVID-19 pandemic has directed our attention to ethical concerns around inequities in digital access. As everyday activities moved online, lower income families found it increasingly difficult to navigate these digital demands. Family members were forced to share whatever limited digital resources they had including a broadband connection and devices such as laptops, tablets, and desktops. Researchers have used the term “homework gap” to describe the barriers students face when working on assignments without a reliable Internet source at home. In 2021, one in four adults with lower incomes do not have access to home broadband services (43%) and or a desktop or laptop computer (41%) (Pew Research Center, 2021). Recognizing this gap, schools and universities used government funds to loan devices and provide low cost internet during the pandemic.
For instructors serving low income communities, the lack of access to a personal digital device and good internet connection can pose serious limitations to implementing digital projects. In many educational institutions there is a dearth of devices, and computer labs need to be booked months in advance. Digital divides persisted before the pandemic, and would likely continue into the near future. To what extent institutional supports to counter digital divides will be accessible to students moving forward remains unclear. some studies estimate that 75% of solutions implemented during the pandemic to bridge the homework gap are expected to expire in the next one to three years (Rideout & Robb, 2021) . An important pedagogical consideration, therefore, is to design digital projects keeping in mind these challenges.
Lack of access to a personal digital device (other than a smartphone) was an important factor incorporated in the design of the resources outlined on this website. Both TAGS and Google sheets are applications that are stored on the google drive cloud. You do not need to install them on a specific computer. The archive of tweets you gather via TAGS is saved on your google drive and you can access it anywhere- a friends device or a public computer.
Digital divides also have important implications for designing lesson plans. Student’s technical skills are closely linked with their previous exposure to digital contexts. For example, projects described on this website require the use of google sheets or Microsoft Excel. The first time I implemented this project, I wrongly assumed students would be familiar with these platforms. After noticing some students puzzled by the project instructions, I realized they had not used these software before. Acknowledging this error, I held a separate workshop to teach basic spreadsheet skills for the class. Surprisingly, a significant majority of the class participated. Moving forward, I send out a brief survey at the beginning of the semester asking students about their knowledge of various software, but also to understand their current access to internet and digital devices. A survey can help us identify current capabilities of students and plan for supports they need. This also holds true for students who may have advanced technical skills and need more complex assignments to sustain their interest in class. Mapping the capabilities of students and adapting your lesson plans accordingly is a critical aspect of designing learning projects in the classroom.
The financial costs associated with a digital project are another crucial aspect to consider while thinking about access and equity. Many lab based courses offered to undergraduates require the use of paid proprietary software such as STATA, SPSS, SAS, Atlas. These software require paid subscription upwards of 100$ annually, and may discourage students with strained finances to enrolling for the course. As discussed in the Introduction, this website uses Open Educational Resources (OER) applications. OER are freely accessible teaching or research resources that have an open-copyright license (such as one from Creative Commons), or they are part of the public domain and have no copyright. OER materials not only help to reduce costs but also allow students to collaborate and contribute to a growing universe of shared knowledge resources (Wikipedia is a great example).
References
Martínez-Monteagudo, M. C., Delgado, B., García-Fernández, J. M., & Ruíz-Esteban, C. (2020). Cyberbullying in the university setting. Relationship with emotional problems and adaptation to the university. Frontiers in psychology, 3074.
Viner, R. M., Gireesh, A., Stiglic, N., Hudson, L. D., Goddings, A. L., Ward, J. L., & Nicholls, D. E. (2019). Roles of cyberbullying, sleep, and physical activity in mediating the effects of social media use on mental health and wellbeing among young people in England: a secondary analysis of longitudinal data. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 3(10), 685-696.
Watts, L. K., Wagner, J., Velasquez, B., & Behrens, P. I. (2017). Cyberbullying in higher education: A literature review. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 268-274.
