Running head: HOW SOCIAL MEDIA ENHANCES RESIDENCE LIFE 1

“What’s Your @?”: How Social Media Enhances the Mission of Residence Life

Mike Jefferson

Western Carolina University

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Introduction

Student affairs professionals are tasked with facilitating student development by

providing a safe and supportive environment that fosters meaningful learning. This is especially

true for practitioners in the field of Residence Life. When considering how to evolve methods of

connecting with and supporting students, Residence Life professionals should not ignore the

opportunities social media can create. More so now than ever before, social media has played a

significant role in the lives of college students. Students can now utilize social media platforms

to connect with peers, faculty, staff, and other parts of their campus community. This paper will

explore the literature surrounding student engagement in social settings, while drawing a

connection to methods in which social media can promote the kinds of positive engagement that

student affairs looks to create. This information will then be used to make recommendations as

to how Residence Life specifically can utilize social media to facilitate positive student

development.

Social Engagement Matters

While academic learning is certainly the focus of attending college, social learning plays

a significant role in the collegiate experience as well. Social learning describes the process in

which students learn to socialize with others, develop critical thinking skills, expand on cultural

awareness, and negotiate interpersonal challenges (Astin, 1993). Researchers describe the 18-25

age range as “emerging adulthood” (Arnett, 2000; Arnett, 2019), a period where individuals

explore their identity and define their personal values free from the influence of parental

oversight as they transition to adulthood (Gray, Vitak, Easton, & Ellison, 2013). This makes

college a critical time in the development of a traditional age student, in particular the quantity

and depth of the social interactions one experiences.

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College students are expected to make a series of social adjustments to cope with the

transition to college life, and how these adjustments are made can be a predictor to college

success and beyond (Mayhew, Rockenbach, Bowman, Seifert, Wolniak, & Pascarella, 2016;

McEwan, 2011). Social adjustment describes the process by which students integrate into the

campus community in ways that are informed by their various identities, aspirations, and levels

of academic preparedness (Bowman, Jarrat, & Jang, 2019). While there are many variables that

can factor into a student’s ability to adjust to the social climate of their campus, student affairs

officials recognize the importance of providing opportunities to students to connect with their

institution. In a Residence Life context, these opportunities manifest themselves in many ways,

such as living learning communities, residential curriculums, themed housing, etc. Knowing that

research shows students are more likely to socially adjust to college when their residence halls

are perceived as being cohesive (Brown, Volk, & Sprotto, 2019), the goal should be to provide

an environment that promotes positive social interaction.

Social Media Engagement

Social media outlets present considerable advantages when it comes to building

meaningful relationships amongst students, their peers, and the campus community. Researchers

have found that use of outlets like Facebook allow for a greater sense of social connectedness

(Hurt, Moss, Bradley, Larson, Lovelace, Prevost, Riley, Domizi, & Camus, 2012) while also

serving as an effective tool to facilitate learning (Manca & Ranieri, 2016). Knowing this, we can

assert that healthy social media use can play a key role in the effective transition of a student to

their college campus. In addition, an investigation by Sheeran and Cummings (2018) found that

university students reported a greater sense of belonging to their institution when engaged with

Facebook groups attached to their courses. Thus, we can also assert that housing professionals
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have the opportunity to take advantage of this same phenomena by creating social media pages

attached to their residence halls. Further research in the field (DeAndrea, Ellison, LaRose,

Steinfield, & Fiore, 2012) shows that residence hall focused online forums, where students can

share information regarding extracurricular activities before moving to campus, allow students to

feel increasingly connected to faculty while reducing uncertainty heading into college. Based on

these findings, if Residence Life professionals utilize social media to connect with residents, they

can maximize the already increased levels of engagement that students experience from living on

campus. Furthermore, they can provide their students with the emotional and instrumental

support they need to transition to college and connect them with peers needed to build social

capital.

Application of Social Media into Residence Life

Given how social media has been used for housing initiatives in the past, bridging the

social capital of students and helping them adjust to college life, this begs the question of how

else social media can be used to enhance the residential experience. Much of the research

available has focused on the incoming and first year experience. This stage is very important,

because students are most likely to drop out within their first year of school (Bowman, Miller,

Woosley, Maxwell, & Kolze, 2018). However, housing professionals need to make a point of

continuing to use social media to connect with the upperclassmen population as well. For

example, a Residence Life department could create a private Facebook page specifically targeted

towards the sophomore, junior, and senior residential population. Membership in this group

would have to be approved by administrators, ensuring that the group is not diluted by first year

students and the target group is being reached. While open discussion in this group amongst

students should be encouraged, university staff could utilize this group to facilitate discussion
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around issues that might be more relevant amongst upperclassmen, such as job searching pre-

and post-graduation.

Another factor housing professionals should consider is how personal background and

identity of the individual factors into social adjustment in a college setting. For example,

African American students struggle with social adjustment to college more so than their white

peers, even when controlling for factors like academic preparedness (Guiffrida & Douthit, 2010).

Housing departments might also want to consider the struggles of first-generation students, who

typically hold multiple marginalized identities and are thus more likely to experience higher

levels of transition related stress (Tan, Hurd, & Albright, 2019). Residence Life could use social

media as a means of disseminating housing related information targeted towards their

marginalized groups, such as how to report incidents of bias or discrimination.

A fair amount of research surrounding popular social media outlets, such as Facebook,

has been presented. Unfortunately, Facebook seems to be waning in usage among the younger

generation in favor of platforms like YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram (Anderson & Jiang,

2018). While Facebook pages could certainly still serve as beneficial, housing professionals

should consider a more diverse approach to social media that the current generation will be more

inclined to engage with. This approach could take several forms, although one that might be

particularly helpful would be a YouTube channel/podcast hosted by housing staff. Housing staff

could set up a podcast and film themselves as they speak, uploading all of the audio content to a

streaming platform such as SoundCloud, and all of the audio/visual content to YouTube. Use of

these outlets might allow staff members to talk about educational subjects and disseminate

important information. Staff hosting the channel could bring in student leaders, campus partners,

or faculty as guest speakers, and even answer questions that might address current concerns
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amongst the student body. This type of platform could have proven useful with one particular

situation that arose in my own professional experience at Western Carolina University (WCU).

WCU recently experienced an issue with students finding housing on campus for the 2020-2021

academic year, with the launch of a new online housing system and the removal of two large

residence halls (Hodge, 2020). This dilemma sparked a plethora of serious questions and

concerns amongst the student body regarding their housing options. While WCU staff utilized a

variety of Facebook and Instagram posts to help spread information, a YouTube channel might

have been a better way to address these concerns. Staff could have utilized the live stream

feature to answer student concerns in real time, mitigating the confusion and outrage that we

experienced during that period.

A housing staff YouTube/podcast channel might present a couple concerns that would

need to be investigated over time, primarily the relationship between the channel and existing

campus media. While current literature suggests podcasts can exist as its own special medium

alongside radio (Berry, 2016), it would be worth considering how this relationship might develop

on a college campus specifically.

Conclusion

Residence Life should promote, among several other things, an environment for students

to thrive socially. This paper has presented research which shows the importance of positive

social engagement as it pertains to the transition to college student life, and how social media can

contribute to that process. Findings were then applied to explore methods in which housing

professionals may implement social media to achieve learning outcomes. By utilizing social

media correctly, Residence Life can meet their students where they are at, in a way that is

mutually beneficial to the students and the university.

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