Social media offers a chance to bring social issues into the forefront. Scholars have interesting takes on social media and their uses in academia. Sarah Spangler et al. asks how social media can translate into conversations with “activism and social justice” (Spangler et al.), but I do not see any difference in what is done today in terms of discussing activism and social justice form what was done in the past. The only difference between both periods is that digital spaces now give us another medium to engage with the conversation and reach wider audiences.

One problem scholars encounter with social media is the need to decide “between job security and adding their voice to activist movements” (Spangler et al.). It worries me that this is a decision scholars need to make because their job is to question the “status quo”. I think it is important for scholars to feel welcome to add their voices to these movements. Authoritative voices much like scholars have used platforms in the past (usually books) to advocate for social justice much like the female Victorian writers and feminism. However, social media now allows a new opportunity to engage with a much wider audience to propagate for social justice, which should not prevent scholars, who study these exact situations, from participating.

There is also an issue with the interactions, the comment section, of these post by our academia being disregarded or subject to abused not because of their articles per say but because of their ethnicity and gender. Black women face many threats for discussing issues like race and sexism, something they experience firsthand. Social media, while good for offering a space to discuss these issues, also helps to propagate them by giving voice to those on the opposite end of the issue. This is where it is important to monitor fact versus fiction of what we find on the internet and the associated authoritative voice.

It is important for scholars or academia to have a voice on social media since they are the experts. A problem conversed by Kris Shaffer is that social media feeds stories “that [turn] out to be biased, misleading, poorly fact-checked, or just plain lies” (Shaffer) . Filtering through fact and fiction is an issue and by involving academics in these online discussions would help eliminate propaganda on the web. Of course journalist are there to do the “fact-checking” as Shaffer explains, but in this time and age, we have an issue with some journalist putting their integrity at risk in an attempt to get the latest story. This in itself causes issues that could spread to academia and the integrity of scholars who may be thought to do the same. In fact, as a scholar you have certain values to uphold that are in line with your associated institution. Some scholars may feel the need to represent their online presence in a certain fashion that aligns with their institution. This in itself can be problematic because the articles published could be seen as bias and incomplete. This is when scholars need to think about their job or their promise as a subject expert.

Another huge topic in social media is that of privacy. How do we to deal with privacy on social media? Well educators teach students how to access information, so why not, as Estee Beck suggests also take time to teach students about privacy and their right to it. It is as Danah Boyd and Alice Marwick says “today’s teens have [not] rejected privacy as a value” they simply see it and define it differently. When using social media you are aware to a certain extent that you are making your data available. However, there should still be rules about making that data available to secondary establishments. I say this because users are entitled to their privacy. When using social media you are aware that your information is widely accessible, but you choose what information you make accessible and how much of it you want to be available. We lose our privacy with the use of algorithms for advertising which target, audiences based on pages they visit often. This makes you think how much data is being used from your computer by other programs. By not being made aware that the data is being sold to other enterprises, you lose your sense of privacy. There should be standard etiquettes (which we see with most scholars who study and use social media data) that everyone should follow. It makes you wonder how much data has actually been shared in other contexts that we do not know about.