Chapter 14: Social Networking Aplications, Social Justice, and Multicultural Understanding

College students are some of the most fervent users of the Internet, a space for college students to connect with each other internationally, across universities, and within their own institutions. This case study seeks to explore how a small liberal arts college utilized a semi-public Internet forum to resolve problems of diversity following an incident involving inappropriate use of facebook.com, a social networking website. We will highlight some of the ways in which tensions and challenges to community building are enacted and exacerbated in online spaces. In discussing technology in a global environment, online communication is an essential piece of our conversation since research has affirmed that “we do not yet fully understand how diverse views play out in electronic discussions; we do not know much about how the Internet facilitates or obstructs rational agreement on social issues” (Rehm, 2000, p. 154).