Social media in work

I work in the Child Welfare Deputy Care Unit. On a daily basis, I use a program called Nappula, where we save all the doings from that day by of the young person in question. We save in Nappula also issues related to health, school, social work and cooperation between authorities. Every month, we will fill in Nappula a young monthly report, which is sent to the social worker, the parent/parents, and any other contacts such as a trustee. There is also an email in daily use of various communication issues and Wilma in school matters.

Avosylin Group’s own intranet is also used in daily use to help employees. There is information, news, occupational health contact information and much more to support work.

There is little social media tools that can be used at work. The so-called workplace advertising cannot be as public and transparent as any other company. My jobplace is a company, but it is a company that is home to young people who are located outside their homes. Young people’s faces, names and things cannot be “posted”. From the list I chose tools that we use weekly or occasionally or that could possibly be used at work. On Facebook and Instagram, we update either weekly or less unit-specific news from our daily lives. In fact, WhatsApp we use daily to communicate with young people and parents. You can find ideas for work on Pinterest, such as working with youngs. YouTube is a functional tool for listening to music videos. Young people like music and it is often a unifying factor in everyday life. In addition to YouTube, you could add Spotify to listen to music.

Social media – good or bad?

There are good things about using social media, but it also brings the disadvantages. Unfortunately, young people are strongly reflected in the disadvantages of social media. There are different challenges among young people where you have to do something stupid. There is bullying in social media. Through social media, bullying can spread from “friend” to another. Through social media, you can find “bad contacts”. Social media can easily find contacts that convey different intoxicants to young people. All of this is strongly reflected in their own acting among young people. However, there are many good things about social media. It makes it easy to keep in touch. You can also find lost acquaintances. In WhatsApp we can send pictures to parents and example traintickets to parent or grandparents so they know what train and time their young is coming to visit home.

For social media, I do not feel very aware, there is a lot of social media applications on the list that I have never even heard. I think social media is good, but also bad. I use social media, mainly WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. Occasionally I browse Tiktok. WhatsApp is a smooth communication, for example, an older boy was an exchange student in the Netherlands and it was easy to communicate. A smaller boy, only 10, has often asked for permission to download Tiktok, but this is strictly forbidden. Even a bigger child may be on the wrong pages of “social media in a wonderful world” and as a mother I consider twice (and probably denying) what social media applications can use.

For work and study, social media can make things a lot easier. At work, I may have meetings through Teams, which is faster and easier than moving to a live meeting nearly 200 kilometers, for example.

In terms of studying, without a computer and social media and other applications, studying would not have been successful. I have now studied from Lappeenranta for a little over 2 years without ever visiting in Kuopio. My studies have been completely remote studies. On the other hand, it has been easier to study when you have been able to study from home. On the other hand, studying has been quite lonely because I haven’t met other students all the time, with the exception of the initial lectures in Zoom, where other students were “present”.

I think, that using different social media platforms could help me with my personal life and with studies too. It takes learning and maybe open minded from me. It is easy to use those social media platforms or apps that you are used to. Changes can be scaring and so it is easyer to keep there what you know. But it is a fact that the world changes and it brings a lot new things with it. If you want to keep with it, you need to open your mind for changes. So the benefit and disadvantage of social media is a pretty complicated thing.