These are strange, changing times and New Zealand social workers it appears, through their use of social media, are turning to face them; in doing so they are perhaps beginning to get a new sense of themselves in the social media space. This presentation will offer a selection of findings from recent local research projects and anecdotal (collective) experience to compose a beginning picture of the unique relationship between social workers in Aotearoa, and their social media.
At this point in our history, with the profound impact of neoliberal policy on social services, it is timely for social workers to consider the role of social media in their work. Social media provides opportunity to engage with the profession on a global scale, to access relevant news and analysis of current events, to access to research and learning resources, and to participate actively in social change (Ballantyne, 2013). New Zealand social workers have been invited by its profession to engage with the world wide web at least since 2001, to make full use its resources, to be critical of its globalisation agenda and to promote its unique bicultural practice model (O’Donoghue, 2001). The use of social media in practice is by necessity becoming a growing feature of social work education (Megele, 2015; Westwood, 2014).
This presentation will share data collected in a 2014 survey of social workers and their use of social media, subsequent key informant interviews on the same topic, and data collected in a more recent (2015) survey of social workers using a local social work Facebook page. Using brief analysis of this data together with the literature related to social work and social media, this presentation will offer participants some useful discussion points about the behavior of social workers in the social media landscape, the role social workers could play in this realm and the challenges facing them. By better understanding the phenomenon of Web 2.0, social workers may perhaps feel more equipped to “turn and face the strange changes” (Bowie, 1972).