Residency Program Use of Social Media in the COVID-19 Era: An Applicant's Perspective

General surgery residency programs’ use of social media has exploded since early spring 2020, as it became clear that the COVID-19 pandemic would prevent away rotations and in-person interviews. Faced with the prospect of ranking programs they cannot visit, applicants are becoming reliant on programs’ use of social media to showcase program culture, now a key recruitment tool. However, proper etiquette for applicant engagement with programs’ social media accounts is unclear. Who administers these accounts – residents, program directors, program coordinators, or marketing staff? The subjectivity of criteria for “potentially unprofessional” content may pose disproportionate risks to female applicants and applicants of color. From this applicant's perspective, programs’ recent use of social media has been informative and humanizing. It is our hope that departments, programs, and residents continue to post on social media throughout the application cycle. However, we applicants would benefit from clear guidance and expectations as to how to engage with residency programs via social media.