Social networks have taken over the lives of many young people in almost every aspect of their daily routines. More than half of German children and teenagers between the ages of 12-19 use some sort of online communities at least daily or a few times per week (MPFS 2015).  At least 68% of them have a Facebook account, whilst at least 90% use WhatsApp (MPFS 2015). The common uses of online communities include sending messages, chatting, checking the profiles of other users, commenting on pictures/status updates and playing games (MPFS 2015). This does not only apply in Germany, but also many other European countries: 68% of European kids have a profile on a social networking site (Livingstone et al. 2014). Educational institutions have therefore developed an interest in social networks for using them for educational purposes, and further for the creation and monitoring of rules and regulations for the usage of social networks in an educational context.

Empirical studies have shown a usage of Facebook to learn foreign languages (Kabilan, Ahmad & Abidin 2010), and have even shown the use of different social networks to create a platform for exchanging school work (Crook 2012). This clearly highlights the potentials of this software for educational purposes outside of physical institutions. Other studies emphasise the fact that the skills that can be acquired by using these platforms are quite useful not only for scholarly work, but also for the employment prospects of these students (Greenhow & Robelia 2008). Another aspect which has become a topic of research is the presence of teaching personnel on these social networking sites. The effects of a teacher's self-disclosure on Facebook has further effects on motivation, effective learning and the classroom (Mazer, Murphy & Simonds 2007), whilst the effects of Facebook usage on perceived teacher credibility (Hutchens & Hayes 2012) or the topic of appropriate behaviour between students and teachers on Facebook (Malesky & Peters 2011) are central themes discussed in this field of study. 

Most of the studies in this field of research address university students or professional personnel in educational institutions as the subjects of their examinations. The perspective of young students is often not taken into account however. Their experiences with teachers on social networks like Facebook and WhatsApp, and their perceptions of this form of communication are most likely to be central to the question, whether or not student-teacher-contact on social networking sites should be allowed, and why. Taking this into account, my research aimed to (1) identify secondary school students’ experiences and attitudes towards using Facebook and WhatsApp to communicate with their teachers, (2) explore the topics and subjects discussed via Facebook/WhatsApp, (3) detect the different formats they communicate in, and finally (4) analyse how their idea of a teacher's roles and tasks affect their attitudes towards subjects and methods of communicating with their teachers.

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