Your Guide to Understanding Important Differentiators Between Social Media Monitoring & Social Media Scanning for Schools
The digital world is a complex place, and that complexity can be polarizing. On one hand, the accessibility of information through digital and social channels raises legitimate concerns around issues like privacy, free speech, monitoring, surveillance and bias – all of which need to be addressed and taken very seriously. On the other hand, because this method of communication is still relatively new in comparison to historical, non-digital techniques, there is an increased potential for misinformation from those without the experience required to be called an expert – which at times can be hard to detect based on lack of awareness and understanding.
Now, as if that wasn’t enough, layer in the life-or-death stakes of physical, social and emotional safety. This intersection – or collision – between all these factors makes social media scanning an especially confusing environment to navigate. We understand because we help people traverse these complexities every single day.
It is our hope that this resource serves as a valuable tool to help you and many others recognize the differentiators between social media monitoring and social media scanning.
Here you will learn:
- How to Properly Define Social Media Monitoring and Social Media Scanning
- How Social Media Scanning Actually Works – What it DOES and DOES NOT Do
- How to Answer Questions on Hot Button Issues like Privacy, Monitoring, Surveillance, and Bias
- Why it’s Vital to Identify Harmful Acts at Digital Speed
- How We Can Help
Know the Difference: Social Media Monitoring vs. Social Media Scanning
These terms are often used synonymously, which can, unfortunately, cause confusion and contribute to misinformation regarding the process and benefits of social media scanning. Increase your understanding of important differentiators between social media monitoring and social media scanning with this free guide.
Why This is So Important
The youth mental health crisis is well-documented. In 2022, Mental Health America and
the CDC both released data that sheds light on just how desperately students are in need
of support.
- 44% of students report feeling sad or hopeless
- 60% of youth with major depression do not receive any mental health treatment
- 2.5 million youth in the U.S. were diagnosed with severe major depression in 2022
It is vital for educators, parents and communities to understand the risks that come with this level of social media usage and find ways to mitigate against the following:
- Exposure to harmful or inappropriate content (e.g., sex, drugs, violence, etc.)
- Exposure to dangerous people
- Cyber bullying, a risk factor for depression and suicide
- Oversharing personal information
- Exposure to excessive advertisements
- Privacy concerns including the collection of data about teen users
- Identity theft or being hacked
- Interference with sleep, exercise, homework, or family activities
How Does Social Media Scanning Work?
Now that we have outlined what social media scanning is and what it does, let’s get into how it works.
Social media scanning uses language analysis technology to process large volumes of social media posts to first determine if they are related to a school district, and then determine if they contain threats. By applying linguistic concepts such as sentence structure, word meaning, tense and tone (or sentiment), we can help analytical models better understand whether a particular communication is threatening or concerning.
These logic-based processes “understand” various pieces of language in a systematic manner and pay attention to the following:
Sentiment – Sentiment measures the emotional quality of language through analysis to help understand positive and negative emotions – words that express happiness, fear, harm, or anger. Clues about sentiment can also be derived from emojis.
Same word, different meaning – Sentences may have the same grammatical structure, but the meanings can be entirely different. Consider the word ‘shoot,’ which can be synonymous with ‘darn’, be in reference to a camera / photo or mean the action of a gun.
Tense – Focusing on tense, social media scanning accounts for when the harm occurs. An author may be writing about an event that will occur in the future (e.g., a planned school shooting), a threatening circumstance that is occurring in real-time (e.g., having a gun in a backpack), or a traumatic experience that happened in the past (e.g., sexual assault or abuse at home). Depending on the topic, tense is vital for understanding urgency.
For more information on how social media scanning considers the complexity of language, click here.
Social Media Monitoring vs. Social Media Scanning for Schools
Let’s get started with a few important definitions.
What is Social Media Monitoring?
Social media monitoring is the process of identifying and determining what is being said about a brand, individual, location, or product through different social and online channels.
When this technology is discussed in relation to locations like schools, it is also commonly linked to topics such as profiling, tracking, and surveillance. This narrative is caused by limited process oversight and/or a failure to take measures necessary to protect constitutional rights by the social media monitoring organization.
The following example, along with other similar story lines, have all played out very publicly in the news leading to a “big brother” reputation and a devaluing of the actual safety benefits that tools like social media scanning can have for school communities.
In October 2016, the ACLU investigated social media monitoring companies used by law enforcement agencies for surveillance purposes. Following the investigation, the largest social media companies denied data access to many monitoring solutions; forcing some out of business.
The primary issues raised by the ACLU were two-fold. First, social media monitoring companies allowed their end-users to profile and/or surveil social media users. Second, they allowed end-users to enter whatever search parameters they wanted with no oversight or accountability.
What is Social Media Scanning?
Fundamentally based in protecting constitutional rights, social media scanning respectfully provides awareness about imminent safety and wellness concerns via the analysis of language within various, public social communication channels.
Social Media Scanning DOES NOT:
Social Scanning DOES: