can provide information and social support—may be one way to address college-access disparities.

MAKING PERSONALIZED
INFORMATION SCALABLE

Many of the resources that help us
both get by, on a day-to-day basis,
and get ahead are provided to us via
our social ties. Social media such as
social network sites (SNSs) enable
us to digitally articulate our social
connections and lower the barriers for
requesting and providing information
and social support. For the past three
years, a group of researchers funded
by the Gates Foundation has collected
quantitative and qualitative data
exploring the role of social media
for first-generation, low-income and
minority teens with regard to college-
going. For one study, we surveyed 504
mostly white high school students in
a suburban/rural part of Michigan
[ 6]. Students who used social media to
actively get information about college
were more likely to have higher levels
of confidence about the application
process. Having someone in their
Facebook network they could ask
about college was related to stronger
expectations of being successful at
college. Interestingly, however, this
relationship between Facebook use and
college aspirations was present only
among students whose parents did not
graduate from college—students who
had at least one parent who was a college
graduate did not benefit from Facebook
as much in comparison. In other
words, for first-generation students,
who presumably did not have college-
information resources available in their
household, social media seemed to serve
as a useful source of informational and
social support around the college-going
process.
Most recently we conducted a
series of interviews with black high
school seniors and some juniors in
Detroit. Our motivation was to better
understand how this group used social
media, specifically around college-
going activities. We observed a number
of ways in which students harnessed
the power of social media to access and
share information about college.

First, students formed direct ties
with university institutional accounts
on a number of social media platforms
such as Facebook, Instagram, and
Twitter. These accounts served as
information brokers, helping students
identify the appropriate resource
when they had questions about the
application process or financial aid.
Because much of what happens on
social media is visible, archived, and
persistent, these exchanges were made
available to other users in students’
networks, and these friends were able
to provide additional information or
benefit indirectly from the exchanges.
For instance, one student, Kayla,
made a practice of tweeting to the
Twitter accounts of colleges and
universities where she had been
accepted. One of the institutions
tweeted back with the URL of a
special website for admitted students
about financial aid. Kayla’s followers,
some of whom were current college
students, gave her feedback on the
kinds of questions she should ask about
financial aid. Her high school friends
later told her that they had learned
useful information about the college
application process from observing
her exchanges online. Social media
shaped this exchange in two powerful
and specific ways: It expanded Kayla’s
social capital by allowing different
users in her network to observe her
interactions with the school in a public
forum and provide real-time feedback
on her information seeking. And it
allowed Kayla, who will be the first in
her family to go to college, to engage in
direct dialogue with representatives of
an educational institution.

Students also used social media to explore potential future pathways.

We met many students who included
aspirational colleges or universities in
Having someone in
their Facebook network
they could ask about
college was related
to stronger expectations
of being successful
at college. P H O T
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INTERACTIONS.ACM.ORG 64 INTERACTIONS JULY–AUGUST2014 FORUM SOCIAL MEDIA