Institutions should be cautious of an “unquestioning” adoption of social media: Opinion

In a recent article for Times Higher Education, Zachary Michael Jack describes why he made the choice to not incorporate social media in his teaching, even though its use has been encouraged in academia. Jack describes how professors were first encouraged to be active on Facebook, and have since branched out to other social media mediums. The author argues that though those who oppose social media are considered “dinosaurs,” the full impacts of social media on the current generation of students are not fully understood. Jack questions if social media could one day be proven to have been damaging and a factor in the high rates of mental health issues experienced by students, and argues that, in this hypothetical situation, institutions pushing social media would be viewed as complicit in this issue. Times Higher Ed Note: Archived stories may contain dead links or be missing source links.