When the School Becomes a Digital Monitor of Its Staff and Students

Social media is one thing and a tool that remains both helpful and problematic. In the case of what we have in this prompt, it could be more of a problem. People like and want their privacy, and when a school decides to monitor the activities of its staff and students, it becomes a concern and maybe a problem. Social media has helped to make something good of people, it has also helped to destroy others and all that boils down to our use.

From the prompt, should a school be allowed to monitor the posts of their staff and students? The possible good side we're looking at here is that it can give them insight into the staff they have and also the things their students do or what's going through their minds. It's kind of a compelling reason. But we have the issue of privacy. Won't this be some sort of privacy breach? And if we know humans, nobody likes their privacy treated as such.

Well, I don't know if that's really a privacy concern since what they have access to isn't their accounts where they monitor their chats and personal stuff. If it's about their posts made online and public, is there a privacy breach? That's a thought on this for me. Nevertheless, the school doing so would be like stalking them, and that action doesn't feel good or okay to many people. Obviously, no one would like to be stalked or monitored.

On a better note, why not consider this action earlier while assessing staff for employment? Social media is becoming part of a CV today. People don't really realise it yet, but some have lost opportunities on that ground. I've heard of such and I've had my social media handles required while applying for opportunities. So it's clear to me that such is true. Perhaps, this would be a better, earlier approach as you know who the staff are even before hiring them.

I understand the need to assess and know who they're dealing with as a school, be it staff or students. To at least know the things going through the minds of both students and staff, their character and all, which can be a true revealer of many things. But I also know that people can be cocky and will tend to find their way out in many situations. This is where something known as a burner account comes in; a blunt account not traced to one's identity.

Both staff and students can use that to get away with what they want to post online that they think might be problematic. But of course, this could feel different and maybe unsatisfying as they would have to do it anonymously. While the action of monitoring the posts of staff and students on social media could raise some concerns, like privacy and all that, is there a possible good side to this? What if it's a time-to-time check rather?

The school could be about some standards which they wish to see portrayed in both staff and students, and so leveraging social media. As mentioned, social media is a revealer of things. You see unthinkable or unexpected things there. Tendencies could be revealed, which, by doing so could be realised and tackled rightly, making a defence for the monitoring. But then, not many would appreciate such, not even when social media is outside the school's jurisdiction.

Image is AI generated.

Thank you for reading!