Social media not only can engage students in new ways that can help increase intercultural communication as well as student engagement, but social media is also now being used in a number of professional and academic settings for a variety of purposes. Since this is the case, it is only logical that this is represented too in the FYC classroom in order to help students gain more exposure to the various ways that digital media can be presented in academic, professional, and social contexts. There is of course a pedagogical basis for doing this too. As the WPA Outcomes Statement suggests, students should be able to “adapt composing processes for a variety of technologies and modalities” (Bowden 2). Carrie S. Leverenz recommends that this kind of composition come through design thinking, and that what students write should come from an “external exigency” instead of just “creating forms for its own sake” (3-7). According to Leverenz then, it is not what instructors necessarily want students to have practice in but instead what modality and technology best fits the “exigency” of the assignment (3). Giving students the opportunity to use social media when this modality best fits their design problem can effectively help students understand when it can be rhetorically effective or fortuitous in their professional and academic careers.
At the same time, Sara West points out how “cultural narratives” of social media’s use have become more fear-based, and in consequence “lead students to consider a very limited scope of social media’s professional uses” (West 409). She explains how students were more concerned with “reputation management” which made them “reticent to fully explore what it means to use social media professionally” (410). However, Aral et al. note that social media has not only changed how business can anticipate demand and reach consumers, but also how “businesses relate to workers” (3). Thus, students can likely expect to interact professionally in some capacity, whether it be to create relationships with colleagues or for marketing purposes. This then represents a gap between academic expectations in the FYC classroom versus what students can expect to see in professional settings. One way this can be addressed is by helping students define, utilize, and understand how social media can be used professionally and academically.