TY - JOUR
T1 - Discreet Openness
T2 - Scholars’ Selective and Intentional Self-Disclosures Online
AU - Veletsianos, George
AU - Stewart, Bonnie
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016.
PY - 2016/8/1
Y1 - 2016/8/1
N2 - Research into emergent forms of scholarship focuses on academics’ use of technology for learning, teaching, and research. Very little attention has been paid in the literature to scholars’ uses of social media to disclose challenging personal and professional issues. This article addresses the identified gap in the literature and presents a qualitative investigation into the types of disclosures that 16 scholars made online and their reasons for doing so. Results identify wide-ranging personal and professional disclosures. Participants disclosed not only about academia-related issues but also about challenges pertaining to family, mental health, physical health, identity, and relationships. Some scholars disclosed as a way to grapple with challenges they faced; others disclosed tactically, sharing information for political rather than personal reasons. Yet others disclosed as a way to welcome care in their lives. In all instances, though, disclosures were selective, intentional, and approached with foresight.
AB - Research into emergent forms of scholarship focuses on academics’ use of technology for learning, teaching, and research. Very little attention has been paid in the literature to scholars’ uses of social media to disclose challenging personal and professional issues. This article addresses the identified gap in the literature and presents a qualitative investigation into the types of disclosures that 16 scholars made online and their reasons for doing so. Results identify wide-ranging personal and professional disclosures. Participants disclosed not only about academia-related issues but also about challenges pertaining to family, mental health, physical health, identity, and relationships. Some scholars disclosed as a way to grapple with challenges they faced; others disclosed tactically, sharing information for political rather than personal reasons. Yet others disclosed as a way to welcome care in their lives. In all instances, though, disclosures were selective, intentional, and approached with foresight.
KW - academic mental health
KW - higher education
KW - networked scholarship
KW - networks
KW - scholars’ use of technology
KW - social media
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85026777556&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85026777556&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/2056305116664222
DO - 10.1177/2056305116664222
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85026777556
SN - 2056-3051
VL - 2
JO - Social Media and Society
JF - Social Media and Society
IS - 3
ER -