4 Using social networks to become part of a community

Social networks have common attributes – in that they tend to feature profiles and there are options to share activity updates or news updates. Updates are typically shared in the form of text, videos, photos or links, these are then pulled into a news feed.

You are likely already using social media on an individual basis to connect with friends and family. These can be called personal networks because they centre around the individual (Poore, 2016). A second type of social network, based around a group or topic also exists. These connect individuals who are members of a particular educational community.

There are some specific group social network sites (if you are interested check out the social networks called Slack, Discord, Elgg and Ning). The benefit of these private sites is that they offer more bespoke options and functions that work better in specific settings.

For example, the author is a member of the social media site ‘Schoolspider’ through which she receives updates from her daughter’s school. To use the platform she had to create a unique profile that is only used for this purpose. The advantages of this type of bespoke social network are that these companies tend to have strict data sharing and privacy policies. However, many of these bespoke apps have costs associated with them. By contrast, social media sites like Facebook do not charge but tend to make their money by selling your data to third parties who can target you with advertisements.

Typically, the most common social networks used by students tend to make use of existing personal social media profiles. These groups can be official or unofficial, in the sense that they can be set up and controlled by students or staff of the institution concerned. For example, many students join group-based networks using their existing personal Facebook social media profiles. You will learn more about the specific nature of these groups in Session 3 when you explore individual social media apps.