- Title
- Disclosure in the postdigital age: university students’ attitudes to social media
- Creator
- Buchanan, Rachel; Scevak, Jill; Smith, Shamus; Southgate, Erica
- Relation
- 6th European Conference on Social Media (ECSM 2019). Proceedings of the 6th European Conference on Social Media (ECSM 2019) (Brighton, UK 13-14 June, 2019) p. 58-64
- Relation
- https://www.academic-conferences.org/conferences/ecsm/
- Publisher
- Academic Conferences and Publishing International
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2019
- Description
- This paper explores the degree to which university students understand and manage their online reputations. Digital technologies and social media are increasingly entwined in all spheres of human activity. The concept of ‘postdigital’ is slowly gaining traction as a way of analysing life after the digital revolution. The increasing integration of the internet into people’s lives is changing the context of seeking employment. In order to secure work in this context, people need digital career literacy skills. An individual’s online activity, social media presence and digital footprint can be an asset or a liability for their career, depending upon how well they organize and control their online presence. Employers are increasingly using online presence as a means of screening candidates, yet many universities are not educating students for the development of a positive online presence. This paper reports on the mixed method Equity and Digital Footprint project, an online survey of 633 university students from 28 Australian universities and focus groups with 30 students at one regional university in Australia. Using inductive thematic analysis, we explore students’ attitudes to disclosure and their strategies for managing their social media presence and online activity. We found that students had varied attitudes to what they disclose online, and a variety of strategies for managing their online presence. Students’ socio-economic background had an impact on their knowledge of digital footprints and the majority of the students surveyed claimed that their university provided them with no guidance on how to manage this. In the competitive context in which universities are accountable for levels of graduate employment, we conclude by describing how universities can support students to professionally manage their online presence for career access and development in a postdigital world.
- Subject
- digital footprint; social media; students; postdigital; higher education; SDG 4; Sustainable Development Goals
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1402732
- Identifier
- uon:35060
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781912764235
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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