From Connection to Crisis

You’ve studied the relationship between social media and college students since 2007. Why did this relationship interest you, and how has it evolved over the years?

I was always interested in the friendship aspect of social media, and the impact it had on experiences on campus. The research signaled to us that college student life was a landscape of both in-person and virtual experiences. Over time, it’s become very, very difficult to separate those two spaces. We find that students navigate them seamlessly now, as if there’s no other way. In fact, the generation now on campus knows nothing else. 

What have you observed about the pressure social media puts on college students?

Back in 2007, I primarily studied how social media impacted identity development in college. Facebook was a space where students engaged in self-creation and managed their impression, from the photos they posted to the relationship status they shared. That type of curation still goes on. Today, you’ll see it on TikTok and Instagram. It’s performative, a little too clean and perfect. The arc of development in all of us is greatly affected by images, and the big concern around identity development, in particular, has to do with gender, body image, and consciousness of self. How does a fifteen-year-old girl see herself in this world? 

Why does social media have such a negative impact on young people, compared with earlier media, like television?

Earlier on you could put parental controls on media. It was never perfect. Teenagers snuck into R-rated movies and things like that. But that was very different. Social media is ubiquitous: It can be done anywhere, any place, any time. 

You’ve done much recent research on the impact of online racism on students of color, in collaboration with Lynch School Professor Heather Rowan-Kenyon and Adam McCready PhD’18. What have you learned?

We found lots of negative impact on the mental health of students of color, their perception of the racial climate on campus, and their sense of belonging. We saw a direct relationship between students perceiving themselves as far more stressed on campus and, quite frankly, how they choose to segregate themselves and not engage fully, because it’s too problematic. There’s also a phenomenon of White students posting something and then saying, “It’s a joke.” Somebody might send around a post that, if they looked at it again, they would realize is a racist stereotype. We found that for students of color, one thing that could dull the edge of all this was having connections with supportive staff and administrators. Having friends on campus that shared their racial or ethnic identity also positively influenced their sense of belonging and mental health. 

Are there any upsides to young people using social media?

Lots of young people in different stages of their identity connect with people online who, like them, aren’t part of the majority. For example, we see this with identity development in LGBTQ+ students, young people who are looking for a place to see people like them. It’s the same thing with race. I always warn folks, especially young researchers who want to tackle the social media space, that you can’t go into it thinking it’s harmful to all people all the time—because it’s not. 

What’s next for your studies on students and social media?

Before the 2024 presidential election, we interviewed students of color by survey to study the links between social media use and political engagement. What sources do they get their information from? How do they curate their sources? We are now interviewing them again, post-election. I don’t yet know how students are going to engage on social media—if they’ll use it productively, or if they’re going to say, “I need a mental health break.” We don’t have that data yet. ◽