Does social media build community?

In 2011, I began my first job in higher education as an online community manager for alumni affairs. In my 5+ years in that role, I spent much time speaking at conferences about the new frontier of social media and all the potential it offered to engage alumni with increasingly creative content. Eleven years later, schools may need to ask themselves if they can morally maintain a presence on most social platforms.

I championed social media because of its ability to unite a large population of alumni with a daily variety of pictures, videos, and stories. A Facebook page or a LinkedIn group were great places to put a flag in the ground and build a digital community. But as we learn more about social algorithms and how personal data is used, it’s hard to make a serious argument that social media is the best way to engage and learn about your constituents. We know Facebook feeds off negative energy like the slime from Ghostbusters 2. We know the comments, likes, and shares generated by your page’s content is data Facebook can use to target ads towards your alumni. Then there’s the whole concept of playing in a sandbox that’s owned by a company that may be linked to the decay of mental health and has been weaponized to shift the political winds of a nation. These are heavy issues that should be discussed the same way campuses discuss divestment from fossil fuels.