Maybe you found your roommate on a Facebook group for admitted students. Maybe you followed all the schools you applied to on Twitter and let tweets influence your college decision. Maybe this morning you woke up to a picture of your face attached to a stranger’s face on @GamecockMakeout. Chances are, you’re in the 99 percent, which — according to some studies — is the current figure for how many college students use social media.
With just under 25,000 undergraduates, almost 67,000 followers on Twitter, and more than 108,000 “likes” on Facebook, USC is an undeniably huge and possibly intimidating school. Being just one person in a sea of thousands, it’s easy to feel pressured to dive in as soon as possible, to stake a claim before it’s too late. Sure, there’s the official campus visits and promotional brochures in the mail, but many an incoming freshman’s first introductions to the school happen online. It could start by Instagram-ing a selfie with his or her acceptance packet and the hashtag “#UofSCYES.” One “like” here from another incoming freshman perusing the hashtag, another “like” from the official @UofSCAdmissions account and, pretty soon, the future student is connected to a whole USC social network — months before meeting anyone in person.
Many schools now have private Facebook groups that admitted students can join. These groups are meant for students to have a chance to introduce themselves, try to find roommates and even buy and sell dorm equipment and textbooks. Before walking into Russell House at lunchtime or onto the Horseshoe on a sunny day, these Facebook groups are many students’ first impressions of what the general student body is like. They are also many students’ first chance to identify themselves. This can cause a lot of pressure to cultivate an online persona, one that may or may not be true to the student’s real-life persona.
Even though every student has to decide for themselves how social and involved they want to be on campus, the push to get involved is clear the moment you step on campus. On the Russell House patio, some nice people are asking for petition signatures. The walls of each residence hall are covered in posters about this club and that organization. There’s a paper attached to the napkin dispenser advertising Carolina Dining’s Twitter account. All of this is great — a university cannot thrive without student participation. But the combined pressure to be active on campus and active on its social media network can be overwhelming and create anxiety over the possibility of not being involved enough. Not only are students constantly watching what their peers do on campus, but also what their peers do after class through Instagram photos, status updates and Snapchat stories. The push to be involved turns into a push to post.
Social media is so ingrained in our daily routines, so integrated into our relationships with others and understanding of ourselves that making sense of our on- and off-screen lives can become difficult. Like all the coming-of-age books and movies, nostalgic parents and cliché high school advisors tell us, college is the time to find yourself. As if that doesn’t sound hard enough, most college students today have more “selves” to find. In addition to your real, everyday self, you’ve got your various social media selves to keep up with, possibly to update on a minute-to-minute basis.
Along with maintaining a friendly, approachable disposition in their real life, today’s college student has to cover all of their bases online, so as not to appear uninvolved. Their Twitter has to be funny, but still smart; to show that they’re political, but not annoying. Their Instagram must show they go out, but also do homework at local coffee shops; show they make time go to every football game and possibly Greek life events, but also stop to admire a rainbow over the Thomas Cooper Library fountain. Their Facebook must have photos that prove they're social, but ones that are still suitable for great-aunts and future employers to see. With balancing that many social agendas online, who has time for real-life social interaction? Or even for studying?
None of this is to say that social media is an evil force out to destroy every college student’s psyche. But it is worth thinking about how social media is shaping your idea of yourself during this quintessential time of self-discovery and how it affects your relationships to your campus and fellow students.