Where is your line with students on social media?

My line:

On the first day of classes I tell the students that I don't want to be contacted by social media or by any means other than the school e-mail. The school also gives students a nice way to provide anonymized feedback, which no one has ever used so far.

If students send me friend requests on Facebook et al (which I don't really use), I delete the requests (it's happened a few times).

If students send me friend requests on LinkedIn anyway, I accept the requests after the end of the semester. (I can imagine a scenario where I might want to delete the request, but it hasn't happened yet.)

On at least 4 occasions I remember, former students messaged me via LinkedIn about recommendation letters for graduate school, advice regarding internships, etc. I don't know, maybe they don't have access to school e-mail anymore. I'm a little ambivalent, but so far nothing bad has happened.

I have no doubt that some students create class-related social media discussion groups. I also trust that if something happens that needs my attention (e.g. many people not understanding the material), they will contact me by school e-mail or make an appointment for office hours.

Years ago I used to accept student friend requests on the Facebook platform, but I came to regret doing that. At some point I stopped accepting student friend requests on social media.

Steven Krantz in How to Teach Mathematics makes the point that you need some amount of social distance from your students to hold their respect, and to not do that is a common mistake for younger/newer faculty. I've certainly walked that path myself. (U.S. system here, maybe that varies by institution and/or country.)

As far as social media goes, especially Twitter in your case, you should be very careful about who can see your activity. Particularly if you find yourself gravitating towards any type of "controversial" conservative political content, the stuff that you do on social media can be incredibly consequential as is evident by the University of British Columbia Board of Governor's Chair 'voluntary' resignation for liking a tweet from Donald Trump. Keep in mind, you might not gravitate to that material now, but Twitter has a way of dragging people into the fray.

You should always be aware of the fact that what you think is reasonable can be completely taken out of context and weaponized against you. Unless your contacts are people that you trust on a personal level, you should really practice keeping your social media network tight. I understand your want to 'act silly' on the internet, but you need to be aware that the enjoyment that you get out of 'acting silly' could be weaponized against you by your own students that view the world and your actions from a very different lens.

Besides, what do you get out of having students on your Twitter feed? If you want to maintain some type of social connectivity with students, particularly after classes, then LinkedIn might be the best bet given the professional themes around it. Ultimately, you need to weigh the benefits you get from your own social media activity with the real possibility that you could lose your career over something as juvenile as liking a tweet.

https://tnc.news/2020/06/21/a-ubc-exec-liked-conservative-tweets-now-he-has-apologized-and-resigned/