PART 1

In my reading of Social Work Boundary Issues in the Digital Age by Frederic Reamer, one part that particularly made me not just squirm but seethe was the sexual abuse and exploitation of clients by the social workers who were in charge of their care. I will heartily disagree with anyone taking the stance that it wasn’t as egregious or deliberately malicious as this. Truly, what a despicable and predatory thing to do to a client whose wellness is the professional’s ethical obligation. While some of the other boundary issues were a bit frustrating to read, nothing stood out to me as more troubling than this one. In some respects, I think it goes past a professional failing and into a moral one – regardless of the position, when you have power and influence over someone’s life, engaging them in an intimate relationship in addition to that power imbalance is insidious. In my own professional life, there were many instances of romantic advancement towards me by men in positions of authority over me. In many jobs, it was expected that sexual harassment or unwanted physical contact would be allowed and not spoken out against. Time and time again I lost jobs and career advancement opportunities because I refused these advances. So I wonder – how might a client feel, who is in need of support and service referral, when a social work practitioner makes such advancements? How might their fear of abandonment or concern over losing vital resources cloud their own judgement or self-determinism? It’s all too easy to envision myself in the client’s position, and doing so makes me deeply anguished and enraged on their behalf. 

One area I both agree and disagree with Reamer is in the difficulty of practitioners to separate their personal and professional online presences. I have gone to great lengths to mostly remove myself from social media or make myself difficult to find – even those who have met me professionally in person as peers have been unable to do so. While I can understand that for some it’s difficult to separate their personal and professional lives, I think it’s ultimately in the best interest of both the client and practitioner to make their best effort to do so. It took me about 5 hours over a few months to do so with my own information. But, I also understand that when social media was first emerging it wasn’t an ethical consideration many had taken the time to work towards. 

If I had to explain the matter to a client, I would insist that my professional and personal lives are completely separate matters. I’ve taken this stance for most of my life – I don’t befriend coworkers and I don’t engage in office romance. I do not discuss work off the clock. When I’m off the clock, I cannot be reached. This is deliberate on my part for my own mental health and well-being, and in no way reflects my care or concern for the client or their well-being. In fact, there are many resources available to the client besides myself should they find they are experiencing a crisis, and I will be happy to debrief with them when we’re next able to discuss their situation during my office hours. I think the kindest thing that you can do – for anyone in your life – is to establish clear and concise boundaries.

PART 2

One of the areas I want to focus on as a macro social worker entails the voting population in general for coalition building – so, that’s just about every demographic besides those discussed by Haidt & Rausch. If we consider that the majority of people 45 and under were teens during the advent and rise of social media, I think it’s fair to reason that some significant portion of that demographic have been harmed by social media and continue to be. In general, the addictive nature of it combined with the prevalence of false news and heavily biased stories has directly contributed to the confusion and apathy of the American voter base – creating tangible consequences for the entire world. I have also seen similar addiction in older populations – the same demographics which scorned millennials for always being on their phone are often themselves addicted to it. If we’re lucky, it’s just Candy Crush. But I’ve watched my own mother fall into long bouts of depression when her real estate job pushed her to constantly be on social media – posting, interacting, and scrolling to garner engagement instead of attending community events like many in the networking fields used to. I have seen older generations across just about every friend’s family I know fall into silos of right-wing rhetoric which sows the seeds of division into algorithms meant to divide the working class and distract us from the real root of the issues we face in our country. Honestly, whether it’s TicTok, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube – any platform that encourages the endless scrolling of either doom or comparative life Olympics is responsible for the orchestrated disillusionment of the American voter base and the consequences which came about from that. While I think that would be a harder case to prove based on the evidence they presented in this article, I do think there is evidence that could be found through either existing or new research.

**I would add corporate interests and nation-states as contributors to this manipulation as well**