Some of the most popular social media platforms college students join are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It is a way they connect with fellow classmates and professors at the end of a semester.
Friending and following others brings students closer together, and can also be where potential employers make initial connections with students looking for jobs and internships.
One of the reasons senior marketing major, Alina Syed, uses social media is to stay updated with the organizations she belongs to.
“It’s an easy way to stay connected and get the local news or updates,” Syed said.
With more professional platforms like LinkedIn, professors can endorse their students for specific skills. An employer found and hired Syed for a summer internship after finding her on LinkedIn.
On some occasions, professors use a social media platform to connect with students for a particular class where students can upload written content to be shared with classmates and professors.
English professor Robert Rubin has been using Facebook to teach his writing classes for over 10 years. Since his classes are mainly taught in computer labs, Rubin decided to incorporate the popular social media platform as part of his teaching style when he noticed his students were constantly checking Facebook anyway.
“It gives students a real audience to write for. That’s a lot different than a student turning in a paper to a professor,” Rubin said. When that happens, the students “lose the idea of audience."
Rubin likes how easy it is for students to give each other feedback on Facebook, since they are well versed with the platform.
Rubin believes students need to know digital literacy, which he says using social media in the classroom can teach that.
Students have reported on the end-of-semester evaluations the use of social media in the classroom keeps the class "interesting and organized."
Not all professors share Rubin’s teaching style, including communications professor Dave Baxter.
With a teaching style that is primarily lecture and testing, Baxter prohibits the use of phones during class since they provide too much of a distraction to students.
Both Baxter and Rubin agree, however, that social media has its disadvantages: the potential to become a distraction during class and certain users who abuse it by instigating arguments or posting something in the heat of the moment.
