U.S. Social Work Students and Social Media: A Descriptive Analysis of Survey Items across Four Time-Points.

This article summarizes trends from four U.S. survey studies conducted between fall 2018 and spring 2023 on social work students' use, attitudes, and knowledge regarding social media. Key findings include consistently high social media use, decreasing awareness of social media's role in undermining democratic processes, greater concern over others' social media use than their own, reduced agreement on the importance of data privacy as a civil/human right, and general acceptance of law enforcement's use of social media in crime apprehension. The studies also highlight demographic shifts in social work students and recommend integrating critical digital literacy, privacy rights, and ethical considerations related to surveillance capitalism into social work education, aligned with the Standards for Technology in Social Work Practice, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics, and Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards.