Students split on how staff should interact with them online

I am surprised that there is even a debate about most of the issues raised. In the 1980s when I was an undergraduate, there were one or two staff members who would be seen worse for wear at student events but even then this was seen as rather sad and inappropriate. As for social media, it is usually students that contact me about LinkedIn and my response is that we should not connect when I am responsible for marking their work, since this strikes me as a conflict of interest. Sometimes, we need to remember that the university is our place of work and behaviour should be professional. If it is not, we cannot complain when we get subjected to yet more burdensome administration to prove that we are not bad people.

"Social media" is too vague. I have no problem adding students on LinkedIn or following eachother in Twitter. These are public, professional domains (Twitter less and less so). Instagram? No way