How Social Media Has Changed Us - Literature review Example

Research Project Introduction The term “social” dictates that the humans exhibit an intrinsic behaviour of communicating with others of its kind. This instinct allows a person to seek out other individuals of similar nature and connect with them, thereby creating a community of interconnect people (Safko and Brake, 2012). The members of the community often show identical mentality and share common field of interests. They socialize by communication with each other by engaging in discussion regarding their common area of interest. The “media” on the other hand is the platform that is used by the individuals to socialize. Before the onset of advanced technology, the social interaction among people was limited to face to face communication and sending letters. As a result it was quite difficult for them to interact over long distances. However, the advent of internet and the telecommunication technology has completely changed the way the people communicate with each other. The rise in the internet usage has allowed the users to communicate with others over long geographic distances. The rise of internet communication and its rapid wide spread has given birth to the modern day ‘social media’ (Scott, 2012). The social media services have allowed the people to create a virtual community which allows them to engage in discussions and sharing personal opinions. The inception of social media services like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. have completely changed the way people interact with each other and share information. These social media services offer an open platform that allows the users to freely post and share information in form of texts, pictures and videos. This as a result makes it easier for the users to connect with a lot of people at the same time (Smith and Zook, 2011). Over the years social media has found its usage in several aspects. It is used as a tool for marketing communication, making professional connections, sharing information and also for communicating with customers. From the perspective of behaviour of the general public, it has been found that people are spending a significant portion of their personal time in social media which as a result has opened up new opportunities to develop new ways of effective and efficient information sharing. At the same time it has also questioned the relevance of the traditional media in the near future (Lin and Lu, 2011). Starting from how we connect, how we gather information to how we make our purchase decision, almost every aspect of our life is being associated with social media. Along with all the aspects of our lifestyle, technology has also influenced the modern education system and the way the students learn. The internet has opened up new ways for gathering information and study materials for the students, which has completely changed the traditional way of education. The gathering articles, books and topic of interest have never been easy owing to the advanced search engine applications like Google, Yahoo, etc (Lewis, Gonzalez and Kaufman, 2012). Moreover, social media has also played an important role in the education system. The ability to connect with a lot of people at the same time has completely changed the way the students studies in groups. The social media services like Facebook have allowed the students to create dedicated page, where all the other students can discuss about respective subjects, post study materials, increase social communication and gather information about their institutions. It can also be used by the educational institutions in order to communicate with the students in a personal level. This in turn can help them to identify the new ways to improve the education system. Social media services like YouTube can be effectively used to share educational videos among the students, so that learning becomes more interactive for them and at the same time they also can also discuss about issues that they might face and discuss about any query. The YouTube has been increasingly used by student groups to post educational contents and recording of class rooms from reputed institutions and share them publicly or within a private community (Scott, 2012). The increase in the internet usage along with smartphones has made it easier for the students to communicate with their fellow members to share information and ask for their queries. Thus, social media not only acts as an effective medium for marketing and personal communication but at the same time it also acts as a similarly effective tool for gathering knowledge and improving the exiting educational system. This research paper is based on the effectiveness of social media in the education system. The researcher will try to find out how the social media can help in improving the learning process among the students and in the near future how social media can be used as a mainstream process for knowledge distribution and gathering. Research Question The research question on which this research paper is based on is as follows: To what extent would the usage of social networking sites as a medium of teaching and learning improve the academic performance of LSBF students? This research question suggests that the researcher will focus its study on the LSBF students only and try to find a significant role of social media in improving the academic performance of the students. The students are interested in new ways of learning; therefore a successful implementation of social media may help them to learn in a better way. Research Objectives The research question can be answered by following the research objectives. The research objectives are as follows: To analyse the effectiveness of the social media and social networking sites to improve the learning the process of the LSBF students. To find out how social network can be used as a medium of disseminating instructional materials. To analyze the level of contribution of FBT’s current teaching and learning media in the students’ academic performance. To provide a clear understanding of the perspective of teachers on the efficiency of social networking sites in education instruction. To identify the constraints that may hinder the successful implementation of social media as an instructional tool for teaching and learning. Literature Review Introduction The literature review allows the reader to have a background knowledge regarding the topic of discussion which facilitates in better understanding of the research work and what the research work is based on. It also offers a clear overview of the past works and theoretical propositions made by other researchers and authors. This literature review is based on the previous studies made on the impact of social media on general public and how the education system and the learning process has evolved over the time. It will also focus on how the learning process and the theories associated with it. Discussion Wrzus et al, (2013) have mentioned that the social media has influenced our lifestyle in more ways than what is apparent to the users. Social media has integrated in our life style so deeply that it has changed a lot of aspects in our daily life, starting from how we communicate with each other share information, socialize with reference groups, make fun and display signs of rebel. Almost each and every aspect of our life is now connected to the social network. This in turn has increased the likelihood of a more connected and open world where information has no boundaries and the people can easily share and post their suggestions, opinions and grievances. The impact of social media is quite far reaching, where the people make major decisions based on the information gathered from the social network. This may include major purchase decisions, decision to make judgement about a product, about people, about political incidents, etc. It also influences the thought process of the people and how they interact with each other. The social interaction made in the social media platforms are often made in an open forum where people can join in and communicate. This in turn can largely change the way people interact with others and make new acquaintances. Lin and Lu (2011) opined in his study that the social media has both positive and negative aspects that can directly impact the stakeholders. From the point of view of consumer behaviour, social media plays a major role in shaping the purchase decision of the potential customers. The increase in the social media usage has allowed the consumers to discuss with a large number of people regarding a particular product. It acts as a perfect platform for the spreading of word of mouth among the customers. Palonen and Hakkarainen (2013) suggested that social media boosts word of mouth by several times, which as a result largely influences the decision making process of the users in any ground of interest. The social media has the ability to change the thinking process of an individual as it offers opinions and suggestions along with evidences from thousands or more users. Thus, social media is largely responsible in shaping our lifestyle. Katona, Zubcsek and Sarvary (2011) further added that, over the years the users have become dependent on the social media in terms of information search and connecting with new people. People have started to give value to the information shared by other people and have begun to make decisions based on that. This as a result has made this platform a ‘double edged sword’ for the marketers. The rapid spread of positive word of mouth in the social media like Facebook or Twitter can definitely increase the sales of a particular product and it can also increase the brand image of that company. Thus the marketers use social media platform to promote their products and services and also helps them create hype among the customers. On the other hand the social media platform can also put devastating impact on the brand image of the company if the word of mouth turns negative. Rettberg (2013) have stated that the social media is “word of mouth on steroids”, which means that any negative aspect of the company or its products can get amplified by several times and can go viral in the social network. As a result it can lead to brand rejection by the customers. Lin and Lu (2011) further added that the social media, despite of its popularity can also hamper with our privacy. People make status updates and posts personal opinion on public forums, which can be used by cyber stalkers and hackers. The privacy in the social media is a major concern for the users. The marketing companies use browser cookies and monitor the personal data and preferences of the individuals to offer targeted advertisements and product suggestions. However, the social media services if used responsibly and cautiously can prove to be a useful tool for the users to gather relevant information and help others do the same. It can help people to socialize with others, which otherwise may not be possible due to the geographic distances. At the same time it has also helped people to overcome boredom by communication with others. Palonen and Hakkarainen (2013) opined that technology has been incorporated in almost every aspect of our daily life, including the way how we make friends. The interaction made over the social network may be virtual but its implications are quite real and are capable of making deep impacts in our life. Lewis, Gonzalez and Kaufman (2012) explained that technology has helped us to evolve our lifestyle by making it easier is several aspects. Our daily activities can now been conducted faster and with less effort, starting from transpiration to making lunch. Technology has changed a major portion of our life. In terms of education and gathering knowledge it has also contributed to a great extent. Technology is slowly but steadily changing the modern education system, where the students gain access to the necessary information more easily and quickly. Kolb and Kolb (2012) have described that the learning process can be divided in to four stages where the student or the learner goes through experiencing, reflecting, thinking and applying. The ‘experiencing’ stage is associated with the concrete experience, where the individual is exposed to new information or experience. In this stage the learner internalizes the information that he has been exposed to. The next stage of learning is ‘reflecting’ or reflective observation, where the individual reflects over the gathered information and tries to extract the necessary information by analysing the data gathered in the previous stage. This stage is followed by the abstract conceptualization or ‘thinking’, which help in creating a generalized idea or theory from the reflection process which can be used in other scenarios as well. The final stage of learning is the application of the gathered information in the real life. The learning process is not complete if the learner is not being able to implement the learning process in the real life. This helps to justify the overall learning process. In light of the learning process, it can be stated that the students who are exposed to higher levels of experimentation, reflection, thinking and application are more likely to learn more and have higher academic performance. The social media platform can be used by the institutions and the students alike to help them improve their performances. Social media can offer a wider perspective of information gathering and it can also offer a wide range of perspectives to one single topic of study. It can be more useful in case of higher studies where the students can get in touch with their tutors via social media and he can also guide a large number of students at the same time by offering them study materials over social media. The social media platforms also allow the students to engage in group study without having to any distance. Reuben (2010) has mentioned that students seem to learn better when they study in group and discuss among themselves. The group study and discussion helps them to engage in brain storming activities which in turn helps in the abstract conceptualization process. At the same time studying in a group also offers a large amount of information leading to enhanced concrete experience and reflective observation by following different perspectives given by other students. Thus it can be stated that studying in group helps the students to increase their learning capacity and at the same time it also allows them to increase their knowledge base. BBC Active (2015) has stated that the learning through social media can be helpful for both the students and the teachers. The social media offers a platform for conducting group study where the students discuss regarding their common topic of interest with their friends. This as a result allows them to engage in brain storming and also help them share each others’ queries. At the same time it also helps the teachers to communicate easily with the students and offer them proper guidance and study materials. The use of social media for the educational purpose can prove to be highly valuable if it is used properly and responsibly. Ferriman (2013) have mentioned that social media offers an interactive platform for studying and it helps the students to learn faster and also helps them to retain the learning in the long term memory as well. To put it simply it can be stated that the students can remember longer by learning thorough an interactive mode of studying. It has also been found that the use of social media for educational purposes have increased over the years by several times. 59% of all the educators have supported the fact that the interactive nature of learning creates a better learning environment for the students. The students are also quite interested to use new ways of learning other than the traditional process. This as a result also increases their interest in learning and motivates them to use work harder. Moreover, using social media for the study purposes helps to create a healthy competitive environment among the students. While competing with each other in an open platform it drives them to work harder to perform better than others. At the same time it also offers a wider platform for them to compete with, thus giving them a clear perspective of their current status in educational performance.79% of the teachers have agreed that the use of social has increased the teacher and student communication, thereby facilitating more information transfer to the students. Further, more interaction between the students and the teachers also help in increasing the motivational level of the students. The teachers are able to monitor the performance level of the students much more closely and accordingly the teacher can offer the necessary guidance to the students. BBC Active (2015) have stated that the increase in the competitiveness among the educational institutes, particular in the higher education, have compelled the institutions to seek out for new ways to add value for the students and make the learning process more interesting and effective. The central goal of any educational institute is to ensure that the students’ academic performance can be improved as compared to other institutions. Thus implementing social media in the educational process has also allowed the students to learn better and helped the institutes to implement a new learning process to attract new students. Inquisitr, (2014) have stated that the rapid popularity of smartphone usage has also increased the usage of social media platforms through mobile applications. This has allowed the students to keep in touch with their peers at anytime, anywhere. Thus it has added time and place utility to the social media usage. The students can now gather information no matter where they are. Landry (2014) have contrasted that social media platform and mobile technology can also bring a lot of distractions to the students and deviate their attention from their study. This argument has went through several speculations and it has been observed that 56% of the educators believe that implementation of the social media in the learning process can do more damage than good. The distractions can come from several directions when a student is exposed to an open platform. The social media websites are supported by advertisements which often create distractions to the users. Moreover, a discussion in the social media often takes place among large number of people and at the same time it also involves people from different background. This as a result can easily deviate a particular discussion in a different direction. The increase in the number of participants can often ruin an important discussion and it is likely to happen in the social media platform. Moreover Ferriman (2013) have opined that the knowledge gathered from social media platforms like blogs and Facebook pages can be questioned for their relevance and authenticity. There is hardly any ways of knowing if the information shared by other people is authentic or not without cross checking. This as a result can also induce ambiguity among the students. The students often tend to believe what they hear from other people, particularly if they belong to the same peer group. However, the universities have taken several steps to ensure that the students can be provided with the benefits of special media which having to face the hassles of it. This as a result has allowed them to create learning management systems like Moodle and Blackboard. These platforms are quite popular among students owing to the streamlined approach towards the learning process. The universities use it as a tool for distributing lecture notes, course materials, a platform to upload assignments, chat forum and also for checking plagiarism. These dedicated social media platforms can be used by the universities to increase the effectiveness of the learning process of the students. Conclusion Social media helps the people to easily connect to new people and share information easily with the rest of the world. It allows the user to gather information regarding any product or services, political incidents and even information about page three articles. Social media can as a holistic platform where the individuals can gain all sorts of information regardless of their field of interest. The increase in the competiveness among the firms has compelled them to use the social media platforms as a tool for marketing communication. Apart from connecting with different people over large geographic distances and helping the marketers to communicate with the buyers, it can also help the students in improving their learning process along with their academic performances. The literatures discussed above have clearly stated that social media has the potential to improve the academic performances of the students but at the same time it can also distract the students as well. Thus, the social media platform needs to be used in a controlled manner so that its negative impacts can be avoided and it can help the students in the leaning process. Reference List BBC Active, 2015. How social media is changing education. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 3 July 2015] Ferriman, J., 2013. Growing Use of Social Media in Education. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 3 July 2015] Inquisitr, 2014. How Social Networking is Quietly Changing Our Lives. [online] Available at: [Accessed 3 July 2015] Katona, Z., Zubcsek, P. P., and Sarvary, M., 2011. Network effects and personal influences: The diffusion of an online social network. Journal of marketing research, 48(3), pp. 425-443. Kolb, A. Y., and Kolb, D. A., 2012. Experiential learning theory. In Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning (pp. 1215-1219). Springer US. Landry, T., 2014. How Social Media Has Changed Us: The Good and The Bad. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 3 July 2015] Lewis, K., Gonzalez, M., and Kaufman, J., 2012. Social selection and peer influence in an online social network. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(1), pp. 68-72. Lin, K. Y., and Lu, H. P., 2011. Why people use social networking sites: An empirical study integrating network externalities and motivation theory. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(3), pp. 1152-1161. Palonen, T., and Hakkarainen, K., 2013. Patterns of interaction in computer supported learning: A social network analysis. Fourth international conference of the learning sciences.  pp. 334-339. Rettberg, J. W., 2013. Blogging. Cambridge: Polity. Reuben, R., 2010. The Use of Social Media in Higher Education for Marketing and Communications: A Guide for Professionals in Higher Education. [online] Available at: [Accessed 3 July 2015] Safko, L, and Brake, D., 2012. The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, 3rd Edition. 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