r/Mentor: An Analysis of Social Media Mentorship for the Premedical Students of Generation Z

With the influx of Generation Z into the realm of undergraduate education, the tides of professional mentorship are beginning to change. Formerly reliant on in-person guidance from mentors, premedical students in the current generation are flocking to social media platforms to fulfill this same purpose. However, the current field of research has neglected to investigate this new phenomenon. Therefore, this study addresses students’ usage of and satisfaction with social media mentorship compared to traditional in-person mentoring relationships. Utilizing a survey distributed to undergraduates at Baylor University, data was collected and analyzed using statistical methods. Overall, it was found that over half of students reported regular usage of social media for advice regarding their premedical career. However, despite the high frequency of social media use, students still rate in-person mentorship as more satisfying on every measure addressed. Thus, despite the rising popularity of social media mentorship amongst Gen Z students, in-person mentorship still appears to offer students an experience that social media is not yet able to replicate.