Navigating social integration into university on Facebook: Insights from a longitudinal study

Abstract

This article reports on the experiences of 26 first year students as they record on Facebook snapshots of their experiences navigating social integration into university. There is still a substantial gap in student transition success research conceptually framed by the understanding that first year transition is about becoming. Transition as becoming expands current conceptions of transition by situating it within the real world rather than just within university. Facebook status updates were used as data because social media are integral to the life experiences of the young people and is a means to hypothesise where and how students were becoming university students. This article reports findings that acknowledge the tumultuous, cyclical, and chaotic experiences of first year students consistent with the idea that university is a part of a person’s becoming.