A Mindful Approach to Social Media

Weather Day

As schools increasingly rely on social media to share information with students, parents, and community members, the need for strong communication skills is more important than ever. Fiore (2013) notes that the “involvement of stakeholders in school-related decisions is now an expectation. The public owns the public schools, and perhaps for the first time they realize they do” (p.3).

 

This is evident on social media anytime there is a threat of inclement weather in Auburn, Alabama, and Auburn City Schools (ACS) might be affected.

The Storm

 

On September 24, 2024, AL.com predicted that after making landfall in Florida as a major hurricane, Helene could bring strong winds and up to eight inches of rain to Central Alabama (Morgan, 2024). 

WVTM provided a weather update on September 25, 2024.

The Update

As word began to spread, students, parents, and community members began looking to social media to see how schools would be impacted. ACS is typically very deliberate in posting in response to potential weather threats. Stakeholders often express impatience, citing other nearby school districts that have already made the call. However, rushing to a decision simply to satisfy the public is never wise when the safety of the community is at stake. 

Clearly, ACS employs the MINDFUL strategy as digital writers. According to Turner & Hicks (2018), “The MINDFUL acronym suggests that we slow down and that we analyze what we read and write online as arguments that continue a conversation” (para. 5) (see Figure 1). This is an important process for all of us to consider before posting or commenting online.

Figure 1

On September 25, ACS posted the first informative update, stating that they were monitoring the situation and in close communication with meteorologists and state safety officials (see Figure 2). They identified their claim, which was that while the potential for threatening weather was real, they would continue to wait before making a decision to cancel school. When noting the evidence, they decided to lead with the fact that they were working closely with experts in the field (@auburncityedu, 2024). This evidence, along with the familiar school logo, establishes ethos. ACS was mindful in remembering that “[w]hen all else fails, we fall back on our trust of a person to evaluate their message” (Lawrence, 2022, p. 17).

 

Figure 2

While one could argue that one social media post is simply not that serious, Fiore (2013) would disagree. Fiore (2013) explains that this step of the communication process, idea encoding, is “the process by which the idea is put into language (words and symbols) that is appropriate for conveying the intended message” (p. 77). He stresses the importance of paying close attention to word choice when communicating via writing, because the “opportunities for a communication breakdown are great at this stage of communication” (Fiore, 2013, p. 77). There is no body language or tone of voice to help convey the message accurately, nor is there an immediate opportunity to answer questions or alleviate concerns. Therefore, the words must be selected with the utmost care.

In an attempt to reach a wider audience, ACS posted the same update on multiple platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. According to Lawrence (2022) “Instagram’s user base is much younger overall” (p. 54). The platform is “heavily used by teens from affluent families” (p. 54) Facebook, on the other hand, tends to appeal to an older base, with “214 million adults using Facebook in the United States” (Lawrence, 2022, p. 53). However, research shows that there are still millions of young Americans using Facebook consistently, so it should not be overlooked when trying to reach a broad audience (Lawrence, 2022, p. 53). 

The Reaction

Comments posted on the ACS update indicate that users are much less likely to employ the MINDFUL strategy when responding than ACS was in crafting their post. This final step in the communication process, referred to as receiver decoding, is the point at which “the responsibility for communication has temporarily shifted from the individual who originated the thought to the person who is receiving the information” (Fiore, 2013, p. 78).  This is where problems often occur, and the reception can be difficult to control. A negative reception could be a result of a variety of reasons, including “a temporarily poor attitude on the part of the receiver” (Fiore, 2013, p. 79). 

 

A negative mindset is obvious in most of the comments, as user after user expressed dismay at ACS’s unwillingness to cancel school for the following day. The tone of the comments is “confrontational,” rather than “civil,” and many comments referenced evidence that could not “be verified as fact by multiple sources” (Turner & Hicks, 2017, p. 110). For example, users referenced hurricanes and tornadoes coming through with no evidence to support their claims (@auburncityedu, 2024) (see Figure 3).

 

Figure 3 also provides evidence that ACS occasionally uses the Instagram “Hide Offensive Comments” feature. Daniel Chesser, Public Relations Director for ACS, says that this feature is used sparingly. He notes that hiding comments can inhibit transparency and limit public discourse, adding that showing comments allows school leaders to stay more aware of public opinion (D. Chesser, personal communication, July 7, 2025). In this case, the comments that were hidden were spreading misinformation about previous weather events.

Figure 3

It is worth noting that ACS employs the MINDFUL strategy not only as a “writer of arguments made with social media,” but also as “readers of arguments made with social media” (Turner & Hicks, 2017, p. 110). This is important, according to Fiore (2013), who argues, “Educators cannot control the attitudes and behaviors of the people they encounter on a regular basis. . . They have complete control, however, of how they choose to respond to these stimuli” (Fiore, 2013, p. 147). As the mostly negative comments posted on both Instagram and Facebook continued to grow, ACS did not respond (see Figure 4).

Figure 4

The Result

Just like social media, the weather constantly changes, and this occasion proved to be no different. On September 26 ACS posted another update, proclaiming that school would be cancelled the following day due to unsafe weather conditions. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive (see Figure 5). 

Figure 5

Fiore (2013) likely didn’t have this exact scenario in mind when explaining that creating “[c]onsistent, positive communication and providing ready accessibility to information are ways to reduce the inaccuracy of receiver decoding” (pp. 79-80). However, ACS appears confident in accepting that while the public response on social media can be fickle, playing the long game—building up collateral, so to speak—is the name of the communications game.

References

 

Auburn City Schools [@auburncityedu]. (2024, September 25) Auburn City Schools is working closely with meteorologists, the Lee County Emergency Management Agency, and state officials to monitor incoming weather. [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/DAWimmNBaTD/ 

 

Auburn City Schools (2024, September 25). Home [Facebook page]. Facebook. Retrieved July 20, 2025 from https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=auburn%20city%20schools

 

Auburn City Schools [@auburncityedu]. (2024, September 26) Auburn City Schools will be closed on Friday, September 27, 2024, and all school-related activities have been canceled. [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/DAYxsjHOexD/

 

Auburn City Schools (2024, September 26). Home [Facebook page]. Facebook. Retrieved July 20, 2025 from https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=auburn%20city%20schools

 

 

Evans, M. (2024, October 22). Social Media in Education: 13 ideas for the classroom. University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education. https://pce.sandiego.edu/social-media-in-education/ 

 

Fiore, D. J. (2013). School-community relations, third edition. Routledge.

Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Broadview Press. 

Morgan, L. (2024, September 25). Tropical storm helene could bring lots of rain to Alabama. al. https://www.al.com/weather/2024/09/gulf-storm-could-bring-lots-of-rain-to-alabama.html 

 

Prothero, A. (2024, March 27). How teaching kids “digital agency” can make social media a positive place for them. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/how-teaching-kids-digital-agency-can-make-social-media-a-positive-place-for-them/2024/03

 

Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the real world: Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts. Heinemann. 

 

Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2018, January 31). Seriously? seriously. Medium. https://medium.com/@heinemann/seriously-seriously-fef109d46e30 

 

WVTM News. (2024, September 24). NHC forecasts Helene to be a Category 4 hitting Florida Thursday, Tropical Storm Warning in Alabama [Video}. YouTube. https://youtu.be/WWy4SPfWWDs?si=oiZYOLJOG30uTvXi