How Students Use Social Media - Essay Example

Table of Contents Introduction 2 Current Trends in Social Media amongst the Population 3 Various Types of Socially Acceptable Media Available 5 Changes in the Past Five Year of How Students Receive Information and News 8 Economic or Technological Factors Influencing Student’s Decision 9 Conclusion 11 References 12 Introduction Social media has emerged as an inseparable facet of modern day civilization, playing the role of a communication channel and a source of updated information irrespective of cultural, geographical, political or economic divergences. Technically, social media is often regarded as an advanced form of communication system engaging multiple participants at both the ends of decoders and message encoders. Owing to its increasing influence on the regular activities of human lives through the elements such as virtual communities, business networks and societal contexts, children and adolescents are also becoming progressively addicted to the use of social media for various purposes. There are various features of social media that are identifiable in relation to its usage among students like, enhanced scope of informal communication in the global context through internet and accessibility to uncountable technological features. At the same time it enables simultaneous freedom to access mischievous contents which are traditionally restricted at a general platform. From a critical point of view, it can further be argued that these features act as a strong driving force to increase social media usage among the populaces (Lenhart et. al., 2010; Sponcil & Gitimu, 2011). Based on this context, the essay will intend to present a critical discussion dealing with the trend of using social media among students across the globe. Another aim of the essay will be to summarise the social influences that are currently persistent upon media availability along with the alterations which took place since the past few years. This will be analysed in relation to the trend of social media usage among students predominantly. The discussion will also emphasise on revealing the influencing factors related to both technology and economic contexts while throwing insightful light on the pattern of social media usage by students. Current Trends in Social Media amongst the Student Population Recent studies (e.g. Kwak et. al., 2010; Lenhart et. al., 2010; Valenzuela et. al., 2009; and Bull et. al., 2008) have depicted that the utilization of social media, especially amid the youth, who can also be categorised as students, has increased by a significant level over the past few years. This particular alteration in the social context can be observed due to various reasons. For instance, a majority of the schools and colleges nowadays are facilitating their students with online educational training programs, rendering due significance to the inclusion of social media. This inclusion is operating at times, as a communication channel, and at times this operates as a source for obtaining relevant information regarding an ongoing issue (Simonpietri & Rose, 2011; Mintel Group Ltd., 2012). According to the report published by Mintel Group Ltd (2012), it has been identified that currently there are 76% of internet users who have access to social media with the help of their host devices such as tablet computers, smartphones, laptops and desktops among others. The group comprises around 16% of students who are recorded as regular users of social networking sites through mobile devices. It was further revealed by Shafique et. al. (2010) that in the USA itself, 78.9% of female students tend to access social media sites more frequently in comparison with the male students. In the year 2009, approximately 79% of the total college students in the USA were recorded to use various social media sites such as Linkedln, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook quite frequently in their daily lives. Shafique et. al. (2010) also stated that the students use social media for myriad reasons. Among which making friends, performing online learning as well as research work, sharing links and searching online jobs were observed as most occurring and common phenomena. It is worth mentioning in this context that it was apparently in the year 2012, when the trend of social networking increased drastically in private universities where a majority of the students attempted to access social media sites frequently (Shafique et. al., 2010). Besides, in the year 2012, Social Networking Communities (SNCs) such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Friendster and Linkedln were able to obtain considerable attention from the academic communities to a greater extent. As per the estimation made in July 2005, SNCs reported that there were 17 million users of Friendster and 20 million of MySpace. This data implies that social media has been readily embraced by the social communities all around the world, where a major proportion of the users were noted to be the college students in particular. In the year 2008, 89% of the students belonging to the Asia-Pacific region were recorded as the frequent users of social media. Furthermore, in comparison with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, 23.6% students of Malaysia have been identified as frequent users for the features of social media. This fact invariably hints that a significant proportion of the young populaces are likely to get addicted to the technological invention (Ismail, 2012). Various Types of Socially Acceptable Media Available Social media is generally considered to be a component by which the people belonging to same or different community can exchange and share much information among themselves through virtual networks. At present, people tend to utilize social media through several kinds of SNC platforms such as Pinterest, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedln and Friendster among others. It is worth mentioning in this regard that these are all dissimilar kinds of social networking platforms through which an individual can interact with another member in any part of the world irrespective of the differences pertaining to the geographical locations, socio-economy or cultural differences. Consequently, the aspect of social media is very crucial in providing ample opportunities to the business organizations. It helps them to maintain an efficient relationship with their customers in the global platform through persuasive advertisement, competitive sales promotion strategies. The most important benefit for a business organisation to use social networking platform evolves, in the segment of its operations pertaining to marketing researches among others. Hence, in the educational sector, especially among the high school and college students, social media has become a major platform that yields job opportunities rendering them a virtual accessibility to world employers. Statistical review further depicts that in the year 2012, the utilization of social media has increased considerably where a majority of the users, particularly the students, were recorded to expend time in accessing different networking sites .Without much debate it can be concluded in this context that they used it with the intention to interact with potential employers and compete in the global platform (Mayfield, 2012). A critical view to this aspect also depicts that social media can be used for research purposes in the academic sector to gather relevant information regarding any particular issue. Owing to such benefits, the use of social media has often been encouraged in the modern day schools. Parents and guardians of the students have also been observed to consider social media as a source to obtain greater opportunities for career development in the global arena. Moving beyond the traditional way of education, educators have also regarded social media as a virtuous revolution in the learning process, which can develop the entire academic framework. This enables the students to be highly participative and encouraging. At the same time, it appears quite interesting for students as well. The inclusion of social media has also been observed to lessen the degree of mental stress among the students when compared to the traditional academic process. As a result, it can be observed that almost every type of social media has become acceptable to most of the societies in various parts of the world (Lenhart et. al., 2010). The social media options, commonly attributed as social networking sites that have been increasingly accepted by the society include online magazines, social blogs, videos, wikis, micro-blogging and social bookmarking among others. The basic purpose of social media is to share views and comments among two or more individuals, engaging one or more senders and a group of receivers of the coded message (Mayfield, 2012). The acceptance of social networking sites are primarily based upon fives attributes which have been described hereunder. Participation: Social media sites which tend to influence the users to contribute their feedbacks and share views are mostly entertained in the societal context .These sites further motivate students to frequently use these networking facilities. However, it has often been observed that such media can also create vague impressions amid the media and the audiences (Mayfield, 2012). Openness: Social media are generally considered as an open source of networking. It is a common platform for every people around the world. They can easily access valuable information by creating their individual accounts, and these sites are commonly valued amid students. Moreover, it encourages the users to share links through which people can exchange their information from one part to another part of the world creating one global network (Mayfield, 2012). Conversation: Social media provides an opportunity where users can communicate or interact with each other irrespective of their linguistic differences. Through social media platforms, users can make two-way conversation either in the form of written or video chatting which in turn is regarded to enhance the communication skills of the students by a large extent. These sites are therefore acceptable in the global society mainly for this reason (Mayfield, 2012). Community: Furthermore, social media which are observed to facilitate the users to instantly communicate in any part of the world are also valued among the students. Owing to its virtue fundamentally the vision of global exposure is enhanced time and again. It is believed in this context that with the help of social media, users can exchange and share their views, thoughts, common interests like video, photography, political issues and favourite TV shows among others (Mayfield, 2012). Connectedness: A majority of the social media sites depend on its connectedness through which users can access different kinds of sites, resources and people which in turn develops the technological innovation as a vital source of information (Mayfield, 2012). Changes in the Past Five Year of How Students Receive Information and News In the current day context, social media has emerged as an inevitable source of information it can be considered as a highly virtuous medium of communication and also as an interesting option to gain entertainment. Hence, it becomes quite unnerving that today, students as well as business professionals and other social communities have begun utilizing social media for every big and small purpose in their life. Students utilize it for making friends, sharing links, getting information and making comments. Apart from these, students also access it for obtaining relevant information and news from online magazines, academic journals and virtual newspapers among others. Social media are examined to offer the virtue of accessing updated information regarding any change occurring in the local, national as well as global contexts without the limitation of time, or restricted reachability as witnessed in the traditional sources. Taking the benefits of such features, nowadays, students utilize advanced technological gadgets like smartphones, tablet computers and iPods among others through which they are able to access social networking sites easily (Davis III et. al., 2012). Contextually, taking into concern the trend for the past five years, a massive change can be observed in relation to the frequency of social media usage among students. It has been noticed that prior to last five years, a majority of the students can be observed to remain unaware or insignificantly informed regarding the overall benefits that can be derived from different social networking sites. One of the fundamental reasons behind such trend was that most of social networking sites were being instigated during the period of 2004-2005 which further revolutionised a change in the overall trend of social media usage among the students or rather amid the young students especially. For instance, in the year 2004, social networking sites such as Orkut and Facebook were launched. It was apparent from the year 2005 that these social networking sites and various other newly instigated media channels gained immense popularity among the students and other community members as a source of information, entertainment as well as mere mode of communication. It is in this context that with gradual exposure of these social media, students started becoming increasingly aware of its features and various benefits through which they have today redefined their lives. In those places such networking channels have gained a position which is almost inevitable (Mitchell et. al., 2013; Davis III et. al., 2012). Economic or Technological Factors Influencing Student’s Decision Today, the notion of social media plays a decisive role through which most of the students tend to influence and understand the various technological features in an efficient way. It comprises a virtuous capability to raise global awareness and also to provide cross-cultural understanding to the users. Contextually, there are certain economic aspects that may influence the decision of a student regarding the utilization of social media. In terms of economic factors, it can be affirmed that the students belonging to middle or lower class family backgrounds possess limited purchasing power in comparison to the students belonging to upper class family backgrounds. This disparity creates a substantial impact on their decision regarding the usage of social media. In case of upper-middle class, children or students are generally provided with the advanced technologies through which they can choose and access social networking sites effectively and therefore, they tend to be comparatively more aware regarding the benefits and the usage of such innovations. Contextually, due to the rapidly growing utilization of social media in human civilization, it has been viewed that the rate of internet usage has been increasing day-by-day which has further influenced the decision of students to make extensive use of such media (Switzer et. al., 2005). Conclusion The core idea that emerges from overall discussion is that in present day context, social media is playing an imperative role through which the students can obtain necessary information as well and can stay connected with their friends and relatives residing all over the world. Moreover, social media not only tend to provide significant benefits to the students, but also provide ample opportunities to different business organizations. Notably, in the present day context, the utilization of social networking sites can be observed to be rapidly increasing, fundamentally due to the growing awareness amid the young generation at one hand and also because of the incessant introduction of pioneering technological advancements on the other. Nowadays, educational institutes also tend to provide online training courses to the students allowing them to take the virtues of social media with the belief that it will enhance their aptitude and information accessibility. At the same time, it will facilitate to enhance their communication skills. According to the present trend, a majority of the students spend their time accessing several social networking sites through which they are able to stay connected across the globe. However, it is also necessary for the students to be aware of the cons related with the usage of social media along with its virtues with the vision of handling the technology more responsibly. References Bull, G. et. al., 2008. Connecting Informal and Formal Learning: Experiences in the Age of Participatory Media. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, Vol. 8, No 2, pp. 100-107. Davis III, C. H. F. et. al., 2012. Social Media in Higher Education: A Literature Review and Research Directions. The Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona and Claremont Graduate University. [Online] Available at: http://www.academia.edu/1220569/Social_Media_in_Higher_Education_A_Literature_Review_and_Research_Directions [Accessed December 13, 2012]. Ismail, S., 2012. Social Networking Trend in Private University. International Conference on Research and Innovation in Information Systems. [Online] Available at: http://www.academia.edu/216000/Social_Networking_Trend_in_Private_University [Accessed December 13, 2012]. Kwak, H., 2010. What is Twitter, a Social Network or a News Media? Department of Computer Science. [Online] Available at: http://product.ubion.co.kr/upload20120220142222731/ccres00056/db/_2250_1/embedded/2010-www-twitter.pdf [Accessed December 13, 2012]. Lenhart, A. et. al., 2010. Social Media and Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults. Pew Research Centre. [Online] Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2010/PIP_Social_Media_and_Young_Adults_Report_Final_with_toplines.pdf [Accessed December 13, 2012]. Mintel Group Ltd., 2012. 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