Social media in the future of professional psychology.

In the past several years, the practice and profession of psychology have been greatly influenced by culture and social media. The prevalence of psychologists using websites and technology to engage, socialize, market, and interact has created new opportunities and challenges for the practitioner, particularly in regard to potential therapeutic and extratherapeutic interactions with clients on the web. Given the speed with which these media are permeating our world, we can expect to see a proliferation of new issues, challenges, and opportunities for clinical practice and the delivery of services. This article provides an overview of the relevant issues, ongoing trends, and what the future holds for psychology, psychologists, and the populations we serve. How current technological and policy shifts may influence clinical practice, clinical training, and our responsibilities as providers of clinical care will be addressed. Social networking sites are becoming a standard means of living and interacting. Two thirds (66%) of American adults use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace (Smith, 2011). Many of these sites are being accessed by mental health professionals who are using them to connect socially with peers, network with other professionals, and provide education to consumers of psychological services. This article provides an overview of the pertinent issues, continuing trends, and the future outlook for psychology, psychologists, and the people we serve. It will address how shifts in current and future technology and policy may affect clinical care, clinical training, and our responsibilities as clinicians. Applicable ethical issues as well as potential dilem- mas for practitioners will be defined. The primary activities that occur on social networking sites include the exchange of messages, news items, events, photos, videos, and the quick sharing of additional information through liking, sharing, retweeting, and 1, actions. However, the development of new technologies is increasing at a pace that makes it difficult for clinicians to fully understand the ethical implications of their activities on these sites. As a consequence, this creates challenges for clinical training programs to provide adequate supervision and training on how to manage the develop- ment of trainees' professional identities with their online presence. This can prove even more onerous when one's online presence began primarily as a social one, early in life, as is the case for many digital natives, (Prensky, 2001) who were born during or after the introduction of technology and are entering psy- chology programs today. At the same time, natives are being taught and supervised by digital immigrants, (individuals born before the existence of technology who have adopted it later in life) who do not always fully perceive the nuances of culture. This wave of plugged in consumers and clinicians who are fluent in online culture and social networks will influence our cultural understandings of interactions and the delivery of services in ways that we are only beginning to comprehend and in some other ways that are difficult to predict. At the same time, technological advances are creating exciting