Originally presented in July 2015 to the staff at Indiana University Southeast. An overview of how social and digital technology may be impacting student development.
http://www.paulhordonbrown.com
3. Research
Impact of social and digital
technology on college student’s
concepts of self.
Presentations
- Be. Act. Do. Digital Leadership.
- Digital Social Justice
- What Every Digital #SApro
Should Do
- Engaging With Students Online
and With Social Media
@paulgordonbrown
9. 0
25
50
75
100
Facebook Instragram Twitter Pintrest LinkedIn
Social Media Platform Adoption (2014)
Age comparison
18-29 yo
65+ yo
Source: Pew Research Center Social Media Update 2104 @paulgordonbrown
10. 89%
of adults 18-29 years old use social media
67%
access it on mobile
98%
of adults ages 18-29 are on the internet
(Brenner, 2013; Brenner & Smith, 2013; Pew Internet Project, n.d.)
younger generations
are using the internet,
social media, and mobile
technologies at a high rate
11. 0
25
50
75
100
Facebook Instragram Twitter Pintrest LinkedIn
Social Media Platform Adoption (2014)
Household income comparison
Less than 30k/yr
More than 75k/yr
30k-
30k-
75k+
75k+
75k+
Source: Pew Research Center Social Media Update 2104 @paulgordonbrown
12. 0
25
50
75
100
Facebook Instragram Twitter Pintrest LinkedIn
Social Media Platform Adoption (2014)
Race comparison
White Hispanic
Black
Black
Black
Black
White
White
Source: Pew Research Center Social Media Update 2104 @paulgordonbrown
13. 0
25
50
75
100
Facebook Instragram Twitter Pintrest LinkedIn
Social Media Platform Adoption (2014)
Sex comparison
Men Women
Women
Women
Men
Women
Men
Source: Pew Research Center Social Media Update 2104 @paulgordonbrown
24. Pick your platforms
Twitter: I’m eating a #donut.
Facebook: I like donuts.
Foursquare: This is where I eat donuts.
Instagram: Here’s a vintage photo of my donut.
YouTube: Here I am eating a donut.
LinkedIn: My skills include donut eating.
Pintrest: Here’s a donut recipe.
Spotify: Now listening to “Donuts.”
Google+: I’m a Google employee who eats donuts.
27. of jobs are landed through
networking and personal
relationships
80%
John Bennett, Assistant professor of behavioral science at the McColl School of Business at Queens University of Charlotte
28. of recruiters use or plan to begin
using social networks/social
media for recruiting
94%
Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey 2013
36. “Many student affairs
professionals use the term
digital identity
development to refer to
online professional self-
presentation; however, it
is important to tease apart
the differences between
using social media as part
of the exploration and
development of identity
and using social media to
present oneself in a
certain way.”
(Junco, 2014, p. 257) @paulgordonbrown
37. “Labeling the latter digital
identity development
confounds a developmental
process with a professional
communication strategy.
Furthermore, labeling online
professional self-presentation
digital identity development
may keep the field of student
affairs from more critically
and deeply examining how
the emerging adult identity
development process is
affected by online
interactions.”
(Junco, 2014, p. 257)
51. “human development
‘remain[s] much the same
from age to age and must
so remain as long as
human nature and
physical environment
existing theories
modify/apply
(Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, & Renn, 2010, p. 93;
Haskins, 1957)
continue what they
have been. In his
relations to life and
learning the medieval
student resembled his
modern successor far
more than is often
supposed’ (p. 93).”
52. (Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, & Renn, 2010, p. 5;
Woodard, Love, & Komives, 2000)
“Rapidly changing
conditions within
society have created
dramatically different
circumstances for
students across time
and location…
student
development
must be
considered in light
of these changing
scenarios.”
develop new
theories
53. Applying current
theories to online/
social media contexts.
• Chickering
• Baxter Magolda/Kegan
• Bronfenbrenner
57. • Time management
• Facility in using online tools to complete
tasks
• Communication and interaction skills
• Relationship skills
• Not exhibiting humblebrag behavior
Developing Competence
DIGITAL
59. • Anger management - Thinking before
posting
• Dealing with depression - Self confidence
recognizing that social media posts often
only show the positive
• Expanding and expressing range of positive
emotions
• Not posting for sympathy or to elicit
response form others
Managing Emotions
DIGITAL
61. • Ownership over one’s online life
• Able to use social media as a tool for
action
• Finding information and resources
• Resisting peer pressure
• Consciously choosing peers and
relationships
• Basing relationships on equality and
reciprocity
Autonomy & Interdependence
DIGITAL
62. “And I like honesty in a relationship…
I’m not into playing games.”
Mature Interpersonal Relationships
63. • Able to engage in civil discourse through
comments and chats
• Understanding what online versus offline
relationship maintenance should look like
- acts appropriately
• Thinks about one’s posts and its impact
on others
Mature Interpersonal Relationships
DIGITAL
65. What is Self-Authorship?
A particular and relatively enduring way of
understanding and orienting oneself to
provocative situations in a way that:
1) Recognizes the contextual nature of
knowledge; and
2) Balances and guides this understanding
with the development of internally defined
goals and sense of self
75. Microsystem
Mesosystem
Exosystem Macrosystem
“Although Bronfenbrenner did not include computer-mediated
contexts in which college students now
experience ‘activities, roles, and interpersonal
relations’ (p. 16), in the twenty-first century it
seems reasonable to include these contexts,
which are not face-to-face settings, in the
definition of microsystems since they are sites
where social, physical, and symbolic features
may provoke or retard engagement with the
environment, as described by Bronfenbrenner
(1993).” p.163
76. The student is at an intersection
point of a number of networks.
77. Microsystem
Mesosystem
Exosystem Macrosystem
is in network with others…
is immersed in social media
site culture…
and is subject to rules and
decisions made by social
media designers…
…and broader beliefs
about how the site
functions and is used.
78. Applying current
theories to online/
social media contexts.
• Chickering
• Baxter Magolda/Kegan
• Bronfenbrenner
80. “The major
achievement of
normal development
was a firm and fixed
‘sense of identity’”
- Gergen
Traditional theories held that…
(Gergen, 2000, p. 41)@paulgordonbrown
81. We no longer exist
as playwrights or
actors but as
terminals of
multiple networks.
-Baudrillard
(Baudrillard, 1987/2012, p. 23)@paulgordonbrown
82. BLURRYHYBRIDIZED
SATURATED
The online profile
“is and is not the user.”
(Martínez Alemán & Lynk Wartman, 2009, p. 23)
a “rupture” or “a series of
decisive far-reaching
breaks from the past”
(Bloland, 2005, p. 125)
an “implosion”
or a collapse of
boundaries
(Baudrillard, 1981/1995)
“singularity… a future period during
which the pace of technological
change will be so rapid, its impact so
deep, that human life will be
irreversibly transformed” (Kurzweil, 2005)
@paulgordonbrown
83. Maria discussing her Instagram profile:
“I think it's who I am
but also who I want
to be and who I want
to become.”
84. Adie discussing her friend who is constantly
on social media:
“I guess she experiences a lot of fo-mo in
general…. it's like you're consuming other
peoples' lives through social media. I guess
that might appeal to some people, in a sense,
not that they're necessarily upset that they
missed the event that someone else was at
because that person posted at it, but you get
to experience what you were doing and what
your friend was doing based on their post. So
in a way it's like you're passing on that
experience.”
88. Is there an online you?
Is there an offline you?
Is there a Facebook you?
Is there a Twitter you?
IS there a student you?
Is there a family you?
Are there multiple “yous” within them?
@paulgordonbrown
89. Are you a different person
in these contexts?
Are you the same person?
@paulgordonbrown
100. (Turkle, 2004, para 6)
“I want to study
not only what the
computer is doing
for us, but what it
is doing to us.”
- Turkle
101. Engage with students on social media because
we need to understand them in all of their
contexts. Be open to a different (not
necessarily better or worse) way.
Learn from and with students how to navigate
the online environment. Help them avoid
mistakes. Help them understand their self-
presentation and reputation online;
Understand how social media may impact the
developmental process-both in light of current
theory and in ways we do not yet understand.
Be able to help students understand, navigate
and leverage it.
102. Maria’s advice for college administrators
educating college students about social media:
“I think I'd say not to phrase it as a cautionary
tale, because it’s something that we’re never
gonna listen to… we know we know more than
administrators with social media.
So I think it should be more about trying to
really understand how we use it, and not just
look at it negatively, because I think it's so
stigmatized, but really understand how to work
with it, because it's not going away.”