Even though digital networks and online communication are ubiquitous in society, there are still marked disparities in population representation across social media platforms (Dargin et al., 2021). These differences stem from a range of factors, such as gender, race, ethnicity and socioeconomic background (Dargin et al., 2021). It is important to bear in mind that beyond the digital world, there is still a physical society with multiple complexities, diverse citizenry and inherent inequalities. In every society, there are people who are well off and people who are struggling to survive. For example, in Australia, there are indigenous people who have been victims of abuse, neglect and discrimination for over two hundred years, and who still have to defend their identity from unfounded accusations of illegitimacy and criminality (Carlson & Kennedy, 2021). In South Africa, most students from lower-socio economic backgrounds are deprived of the numerous benefits of using social media in higher education, such as enhanced collaboration between teachers and students, and public participation in educational projects (Mphahlele et al., 2021). These are just two examples of the paradoxical make-up of social media. On the one hand, its presence in our lives is irrefutable, but on the other hand, not all social groups have equal access to its uses and benefits (Dargin et al., 2021).
The information organisation I work for is a multi-cultural all-girls high school located on the banks of the Parramatta river in Western Sydney. Over ninety per cent of the students come from language backgrounds other than English, comprising mostly Arabic, Tamil and Hindi speakers. The school’s family occupation and employment index falls below the Australian average of socio-economic advantage, which indicates that these families are faced with daily challenges perhaps unknown to the middle classes (Dekker & Mullan, 2021). The school mission is to empower students to achieve their personal best and beyond, by teaching them the necessary skills to succeed in an ever-changing world dominated by technology. In this socially rich school context, social media has the potential to foster integration and tolerance among a multitude of ethnicities with different lifestyles and religious beliefs. Importantly, social media can encourage immigrant families to connect with their local neighbours in a constructive and meaningful way, thereby promoting inclusivity and a sense of belonging among these diverse social groups (Dekker & Mullan, 2021).
The girls who attend my school constitute a very specific sociological group. Many of them have just arrived in Australia from war-torn countries. They consequently aspire to high levels of education, both through their parents’ encouragement and through their own personal motivation. With literacy, with ambition, they aim to become highly-regarded professionals in the future, namely lawyers, doctors and architects. With their teachers’ expert guidance, they will work tirelessly towards that, and they will use the Internet and social media to obtain relevant information, to improve their literacy levels, to be more knowledgeable and language-proficient, and to contact people around the world quickly and efficiently. In some instances, newly arrived immigrants can be judged as belonging to ghetto type communities, not speaking English very well, not relating with the Anglo society, and falling victim to racism. However, these newly-arrived immigrants can actually still use social media platforms, and the Internet, purposefully and with the long-term goal of overcoming their adverse circumstances always at the forefront of their minds. The children of immigrant families know that education is the gateway to a better life, and social media can facilitate that vital transition.
Immigrant children still use the Internet for recreational purposes, but they seem to display an undercurrent of purpose and determination when they engage online, that children from Western families do not seem to have. This is probably due to the fact that they do not wish to replicate their parents’ harsh, and at times alienated, reality in their own futures. They know that by educating themselves and by building productive networks, they can get out of entry-level, low-paying jobs, such as the ones their parents are destined to have due to their limited language proficiency. These children can get a university career, and they can get a decent job if they apply themselves. They can change their lives through education, and the electronic, digital connectivity can enable all of that and more. There are traps to social media which young immigrant girls will be susceptible to, such as falling for its excessive emphasis on image and glamour. However, if they are smart, and they are determined, they can work things out for themselves, they will use electronic media to grow a network around them, to find good career options, to study properly, to obtain useful knowledge, and this will pave the way for their smooth integration into Australian society.
The school library can act as an information hub where classes and specialist teachers hold group discussions about the advantages of using social media to create culturally inclusive communities (Dekker & Mullan, 2021). Importantly, students can be taught how the affordances provided by social media platforms and applications can be harnessed to help their parents and extended families feel at home in Australia. For example, the students can take part in inquiry-based learning projects where they produce informative flyers and recreate real-life scenarios about social media groups of diverse membership base, and how these can ease the integration into Australian society (Dekker & Mullan, 2021). In information literacy classes, the students can be taught how to create a social media account of their choice to promote social harmony and well-being. This can be implemented through a professional partnership between the teacher librarian and ICT specialists. Learning programs can be adapted to include units about how to use social media responsibly to connect with local civic activities, and how to share information about social issues, such as the pandemic and its devastating effects on society. This would be highly beneficial among disadvantaged communities, as it has been found that health negative outcomes correlate directly with digital communication inequalities (Dargin et al., 2021).
Social media has only been around for less than 20 years. Nevertheless, in that short period, it has absorbed so much of society and has so accurately reflected people’s attitudes, values and norms. However, despite its global reach and widespread popularity, there are still marginalised social groups that fail to access its many benefits and possibilities. Social media acts as a mirror to these already existing social inequalities.
References
Carlson, B., & Kennedy, T. (2021). Us mob online: The perils of identifying as indigenous on social media. Genealogy, 5(2), 52.
Dargin, J. S., Fan, C., & Mostafavi, A. (2021) Vulnerable populations and social media use in disasters: Uncovering the digital divide in three major U.S. hurricanes. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 54, 102043
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102043
Dekker, K., & Mullan, K. (2021). Cohesive diverse suburbs in Australian: A case study of policy processes and social media in Footscray. Urban Policy and Research, 1-17.
https://doi.org/10.1080/08111146.2021.1974829
Mphahlele, M. I., Mokwena, S. N., & Ilorah, A. (2021). The impact of digital divide for first-year students in adoption of social media for learning in South Africa. South African Journal of Information Management, 23(1).
https://doi.org/https;//dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v23i1.1344