Social media effects on social & personal behaviors - Research Paper Example

Social Media Effects on Social & Personal Behaviors Lim, In Taek (Peter) Chamberlain College of Nursing Carol McDonough PHIL 447: Logic & Critical Thinking February 21, 2015 Social Media Effects on Social & Personal Behaviors Increased use of social media in the education will improve students’ social and personal behaviors. Social media is the new mode of communication as well as education. Students of all ages and levels of education have been deeply engrossed with using the different social media to carry out research on school assignments and to communicate with their fellow classmates and their professors. The professors and tutors are also using the platforms to contact their students as far as educational matters are concerned. The continued use of the social media has led to more positive changes in the social and personal behaviors of the students than the negative ones and the research findings indicates that more positive effects can influence the use of social media. It is important to look into more detail about these positive and negative effects of social media use in education because its use is on the increase. Addressing these issues will enable those in the educational field to get tips on how to engage their students more efficiently and effectively, as well as to assist students to interact and to enhance their classroom skills. Positive effects will be collaborative interaction, communicate with an instructors and peers, and create positive environment in school, whereas the negative effects will include cyber-bullying, stalking, and creating a negative environment in education. The readers should be aware of the negative effects of social media that are present, in order to enforce more strict measures to protect them as well as their personalities for the future, and try to avoid them as much as possible. The positive effects should be continually employed even to those who are not avid users of social media. In this regards, it can be finalized that with an increase in social media users in education, students are gaining more positive social and personal behaviors. The positive effects which are being encouraged and supported will be discussed first and their facts presented in more detail. First, the open and distance learning students are employing the social media use to not only contact their professor, but also gain academic success through formation of online discussion groups. Research carried out by Ozmen and Atici (2014), claims that distance learners indicated their performance was positively influenced and results were higher when they engaged in discussions through social media use than when the former methods were used. The results show that social media use was better than face-to-face learning. Students prefer to take classes online rather than face-to-face because they can achieve better grades (Ozmen & Atici, 2014). The improvement in performance as well as the increased social interaction is an indication of positive influence of the social media use in education for personal and social behaviors. If performance is being increased through this medium, then more social media use should be encouraged among these learners. A research excerpt by Miah, Omar, and Allison-Golding (2013) says that over 70% of teenagers are active users of social media sites and this figure keeps on increasing with time. This research further indicates that other than social communication, over half of the teenagers on social media are using it for educational purposes. They are assisting each other with their homework especially in Mathematics and English. Others are using the site to carry out further research on other academic topics of interest to them thereby expanding their knowledge base. They have made this educational trend much more fun by using pictures and diagrams to make explanations in their assignments. The more time they spend on educational material on social media and communicate with each other, the more they refrain from reckless behavior which leads to not only positive social behavior but positive personal behavior as well (Miah et al., 2013). As the teenagers are benefiting positively from the use of social media and especially for educational gain, parents should encourage them to use it more frequently than going out with friends. The positive effects of social media use on college students include constructive communication. Tham and Ahmed (2011), states that unlike the others who have been using it not only for assignments and group discussions, college students have been using it to interact with their professors about school work, research, and to communicate with other professionals about their upcoming careers. This research carried out on the college students shows that the constant social media communication with their professors in an environment that is not very serious but rather relaxed will most likely increase their performance ratings. They gain confidence in their educational skills while talking to professionals which in turn leads to positive social and personal behavior (Tham & Ahmed, 2011). The fact that even college students are positively benefiting academically and otherwise is an added bonus to encourage its continual usage in this environment. Counterarguments presented by Christofides, Muise, and Desmarais (2012) argue that out of the millions of Facebook users, approximately 7.5 million are children under the age of 13 years. These children are using social media without parental consent or supervision. Without the presence of parents to protect them and filter their friends, they are subjected to cyber-bullying and other forms of harassment that breach their privacy. They are unable to process any educational research and activity due to the harassment they face, and many end up not using these sites at all. The stress of cyber-bullying and avoidance to tell their parents for fear of punishment affects their personal as well as social behavior (Christofides et al., 2012). Thus, this is an indicator that not all teens using social media for education gain positive outcomes. If parents monitor their children’s social activities and especially social media use, they can be able to prevent the cyber bullying and encourage their children to try out researching on academic facts without threats. In addition, stalkers have been taking advantage of the lack of privacy in the social media sites. People expose almost all of their private information when communicating with their social media friends and throw privacy caution to the wind. Students have been on the receiving end of stalkers who expose their information and to socially harm the students. The research conducted by Debatin, Lovejoy, Horn, and Hughes (2009) explains that the humiliation the students face as a result of the stalkers, in combination with the fear of online stalking, has made them refrain from the use of social media even for their own educational benefits (Debatin et al., 2009). This has caused students to have an experience of negative social and personal behavior. If more privacy measures are taken by social media users, then they can be able to avoid the stalkers and work on their research in peace and ensure academic excellence. In conclusion, the positive effects of social media use on the social and personal behavior of the students such as the collaborative interaction and communication to peers and professors are a clear sign that this medium should be supported and encouraged. With such positive results on the educational field, further research should be carried out on more positive ways in which the students, especially those in high school, can benefit even more from using social media positively. References Christofides, E, Muise, A. & Desmarais, S. (2012). Risky disclosures on Facebook: The effect of having a bad experience on online behavior. Journal of Adolescent Research, 27(6), 714-731. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ983641 Debatin, B., Lovejoy, J., Horn, A. & Hughes, B. (2009). Facebook and online privacy: attitudes, behaviors, and unintended consequences. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15(1), 83-108. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01494.x/full Miah, M., Omar, A. and Allison-Golding, M. (2013). Effects of social networking on adolescent education. Information Systems Education Journal, 11(3), 90-100. Retrieved from http://isedj.org/2013-11/N3/ISEDJv11n3p90.pdf Ozmen, B. & Atici, B. (2014).The effects of social networking sites in distance learning on learners’ academic achievements. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 17(2), 60-74. Retrieved from http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2014/Ozmen_Atici.pdf Tham, J. & Ahmed, N. (2011). The usage & implications of social networking sites: A survey of college students. Journal of Interpersonal, Intercultural and Mass Communication, 2(1), 1-11. Retrieved from http://www.scientificjournals.org/Journals2011/articles/1508.pdf Note Positive Business, diversity, entertainment, education, community purpose. Get email promotion for a survey to participate in someone else’s research survey to receive gift cards, coupon, and funds in research settings. Go watch movies, eat dinner, encourage other people to participate in fun activities in community. More convenient for traveling and save time, create visual aid for online class learning (students’ preference), share contact information, and secure privacy and change important information once in a while to prevent from getting hacked. Technology will only get improved, it can’t get worse. Negative People committing a suicide because of an academic failure, identity theft (credit card), playing an online game and lose a lot of money (addicted people take out real life money from the banks and have a lot of debt and they use that money to invest in game and buy other people’s game account through eBay), chances of getting personal account hacked (PayPal account), scamming (spam from email to apply for scholarship opportunity), virus (child abuse pornography) – fake website, sexual exploitation, cheating on exams, and stalking (Facebook creeping). Privacy information can be slipped away as well as cyber-bullying. Overall these are some negative effects that are not good for the social media use. Read More