Leadership Exchange

Social Networking: Cross the Digital Divide to
Understand Your Students

BY DIANNA K. RANGEL AND IAN BIRKY

As nearly any college or university administrator will affirm, the world of social networking in cyberspace affects

students in critical and relatively constant ways. Nearly 90 percent of college students log on to the Internet daily

and spend an average of 19 hours per week online. More than 85 percent of all college students have a profile on

either MySpace or Facebook, and the majority of them check their sites at least once each day.

With this level of contact, it should come as no surprise that these electronic social interactions can have a direct impact on students’ moods, social confidence, academic and personal productivity, and overall sense of self. If senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) intend to connect with students to best meet their needs, it is imperative to understand their world in this context and to recognize the resulting psychological effects.

Building Online Relationships

Two of the most significant developmental tasks faced by college students are establishing and maintaining relationships. The process of finding friends and romantic partners causes some of the greatest angst and the greatest joy during the young adult years. Cyberspace is an arena ripe with opportunity for relational ups and downs.

Students who build online friendships can make choices
about aspects of themselves to display or hide. If they display
the wrong aspects, the ridicule can be socially humiliating,
such as being “defriended” or publicly scorned on someone’s
“wall.” Acting irrespon-
sibly, they may unwisely
post images of them-
selves in compromising
positions for all to see,
including professors,
potential employers, or
parents. Even if they
display the “right” aspects
of themselves, students
must struggle with differ-
ences between the online
persona and the real-life
self, both their own and
those of others. Expectations of intelligence, attractiveness,
sociability, humor, and other characteristics can face harsh
reality checks in the transition from cyberspace to face-to-
face relationships.

Beyond what students do online, how they do it provides important glimpses into their psychological and social characteristics. Online communications are known to be “ hyperpersonal,” with looser boundaries and heightened immediacy of self-disclosure. As a result, college students often make themselves vulnerable more quickly in Internet communications, which creates an environment ripe for betrayal, gossip, rumors, and even cyberbullying. Students may also have difficulty negotiating real-life boundaries around their personal information—a challenge many administrators are lamenting as they hear detailed, and often inappropriate, stories about their students’ lives.

Many wonder whether students in today’s social networking-infused generation will lose their ability to communicate effectively in face-to-face interactions. Basic rules of social exchange, such as verbal and non-verbal cue attending, turn-taking, and emotion-matching are not as relevant in electronic communications. In addition, students may have greater difficulty responding maturely to interpersonal conflict, as online relationships require less socially-appro-priate regulation of emotions and reactions. Instead of resolving a roommate disagreement through meaningful cooperation, a student may end a conflicted online relationship with a simple click.

Yet we also know that students’ online social networks provide a plethora of positive supports during vital developmental junctures. Most students believe that Internet usage brings them closer to people. Especially for marginalized groups, such as first-generation college students, those with disabilities, and students questioning their sexual orientation, the Internet can provide a safe place to explore feelings and receive peer validation. Students with significant social anxiety, and those with autism-spectrum disorders, including the growing population of students on college campuses with Asperger’s spectrum disorders, may use social networking sites to practice interpersonal skills and build confidence in transferring those skills to real-life encounters.