The Effects of Social Media on Students and Their Studies - Essay Example

? IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE IN ACADEMICS Table of Contents Page Introduction………………………………………………………………………..3 Short History of Social Mediaand Networking Use………………………4 Most Reported Effects of Social Media and Networking Use………….....5 Discussions………………………………………………………………………...6 Benefits of Social Media Use……………………………………………...6 Some Minor Issues in Social Media Use as Mode of Instruction…………8 Conclusions……………………………………………………………………….10 References……………………………………………………………….………..11 Impact of Social Media Usage in Students’ Academics Social media and social networking has reached the levels of other mass media among users of various age demographics, and is now considered to be one that mostly affects members of society due to its ease of use and accessibility to most people. Its success is based on the main idea that more information can be passed on to other people through the use of an extensive network, either closed or open and consisting of people proximate to or having close relations with the individual user, or similarly groups of individuals sharing the same interests and connecting with others (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). The increased accessibility of the internet during the past few years, from being only available through local area networks (LAN) or direct service lines (DSL) from phone companies to wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) and eventually through mobile devices and phone service providers using third or fourth generation (3G/4G) networks generated an expansion of a media once limited to only a few subscribers to a greater part of the population (Rutherford, 2010; Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009). Despite the societal benefits of having an extensive network of people in an individual’s life, as with all kinds of widely-circulated and utilized media, the expansion of the internet created both boons and banes, particularly among the student populations, and many data involving the use of social media and networking sites and its relation to student academic performances showed negative effects (Jacobsen & Forste, 2011; Karubi, et al., 2012; Rutherford, 2010). Still, despite the adverse effects of excessive exposure to media forms accessible via the internet many students still log online frequently, prompting some academicians to put social networking and social media to good use by integrating studies with social media use, and with surprising successes (Junco, Heigerbert, & Loken, 2010). This integration of media and learning was a phenomenon not foreseen, but was able to make possible changes in educating many students, and thus instead of being seen as a negative aspect of social media and networking must be seen as a step forward in bridging an education and social gap among various kinds of students, especially those who are unable to participate fully in classroom lectures due to issues such as social inhibitions or simply not having enough gist of the flow of discussions and lessons. Short History of Social Media and Networking Use Even before the advent of the internet, social networking has already been existent, but not in a large scale as what is being observed at present. Much like how networking is defined, social networking involves having connections between and among groups of people a person knows, such as family members, relatives, friends, neighbors, and so forth. However, for these networks to succeed and proliferate, there must be constant communication within people in the networks to keep everyone in the loop and informed about many things, entailing the different forms of communication accessible to everyone (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Using traditional methods of communication such as word of mouth, telephoning, snail mailing, or planning meet-ups among members may not always be possible due to geographical distances and barriers, which were all mitigated with the rise of internet and the World Wide Web as a new form of communication method. In using the internet, greater bridges were crossed and gaps lessened, as anyone can now meet people online whether or not they knew each other in real life, but not without negative consequences or effects (Steinfield, Ellison, & Lampe, 2008). Still, the use of social networking sites were still considerably faster in comparison with other methods of communication, even more now when users can post larger quantities of information in a shorter amount of time and money as opposed to short snippets of information sent using traditional media and modes of communication, which considerably takes longer time to spread and costs more as well. With the internet being cheaper and faster than traditionally-used communication methods, as well as its ease of use, not only can it reach more audiences, but more people in wider age brackets can use it at their own time and convenience (Steinfield, et al., 2007). This easy and fast use of the internet made social networking a hit among people, and enabled social media to become the most well-known method of choice for spreading various kinds of information to a wider audience. Social media has been existent since communication among individuals became necessary and vital, but its major use in previous years has been due to the rise of methods of globalization, such as greater capacities to reach a greater variety of audiences, with distances and other geographical barriers becoming near-obsolete as long as communication devices such as telephones and wireless receivers are able to transmit anything clearly between communicating parties (Haythornethwaite, 2005; Valenzuela, et al., 2009). While print media such as newspapers and magazines were still able to reach a wider audience, and television and radio are still popular among subscribers, the increased flexibility of internet use for circulating information in a cheaper yet faster way enabled it to become the media of choice for sharing any kind of information amongst users, especially since other tasks such as printing in large quantities and transportation of media were removed from the process (Rutherford, 2010). This increased speed and efficiency enabled users to post information in their personal pages, and through networking sites gain greater numbers of audiences, relying on the relay of information through and between different social networks, but with faster results. However, along with the increased speed of information exchanges occurring among users, due to the higher rates of usage among school-aged individuals, social media and networking gained a negative image among parents and teachers of these individuals. Most Reported Effects of Social Media and Networking Use Many studies linked the excessive use of social media and networking into lesser gains and greater disadvantages, especially concerning the productivity and effectiveness of workers and learners alike, as overusing the internet has been associated with decreased time devoted to either studying or work (Asad, et al., 2012; Karubi, et al., 2012; Rutherford, 2010; Srivastava, 2012). For working people, excessive use of social networking sites such as Facebook can decrease productivity by up to a whole day’s worth of working hours (aside from the additional distractions of social networking in study time and apart from other types of distraction such as offline electronic media or other non-academic related activities) (Asad, et al., 2012). In addition to electronic media usage time in distracting users and consuming hours supposedly devoted for work or studying, the use of social media has also been linked to a decrease in the social awareness of people, as well as being linked to some psychiatric disorders such as aggression and depression, making social media use seem like a double-edged sword (Srivastava, 2012). In order to harness the accessibility of the internet and the attachment of most users to its various offerings, many academicians looked into it and saw its potential for a more portable and interactive way of educating students. Discussion Benefits of Social Media Use Inasmuch as the use of social media has gained a negative image due to users allotting more time to it that what they were expected to be doing, in the field of academics many instructors used the advantage of accessibility, speed, and anonymity of the internet to make lectures more palatable among younger students. To determine how accessible social media is among students, surveys were conducted to find out if it can be a possible way to create more communication exchanges between the instructors and their students. In one study, instructors were surveyed and it was found out that they have accessibility to different social platforms and spend considerable amount of time online, with at least an hour on the average, removing a potential technological gap from their side (Asad, et al., 2012). This information gives a chance for social networking to be accessible for most instructors since they have the capabilities to do so. Since students were primarily much more easily distracted by social media usage than non-students, the likelihood that social networking and social media use can be beneficial has been studied in greater detail. For example, the use of social media in creating a personal learning environment has been explored, customizing and adjusting the lessons depending on the knowledge levels and skills of students (Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2012). Although there were better results obtained from students with higher knowledge management and self-regulatory skills compared to those who do not have such capacities, the feedback instructors give their students in answering their questions with regards to things that they did not fully understand during the lectures helped them become much more motivated, as opposed to not receiving any feedback at all, which shows that communication and exchanges were just as important in the use of the internet to bridge the information gaps between groups of students with various levels of information retention. Another study that utilized the social networking site, Twitter was able to show that the proper use of social media and networking not only improved the academic performance of students in a given subject, but also were able to participate more in discussions of lessons, making the subject much more dynamic than traditional models of instruction (Junco, et al., 2011). In addition, the element of engagement in combination with technology not only made the students retain much more information, but also helped in establishing cooperation and communication between the students as well. Active learning became possible, prompt feedbacks were very helpful in the learning process, and students were able to learn respect for diversity by entertaining everyone’s opinion, prompting many students, especially for those who were rather shy or had inhibitions in participating in actual or face-to-face classroom discussions to speak their mind and contribute to the information exchanges within the class (Junco, et al., 2011). However, the study’s limitation to only pre-health majors needed further studies to be conducted on other fields of specialization, as well as to other levels of education in order to support the researchers’ claims. Lastly, the effects of participating in social media and networking enhanced the capacity of students to not only engage in academic activities online, but also in venturing out in pursuing other modes of learning such as civic and political participation. Aside from helping the students achieve increased academic performance, students also become much more aware in some issues that would be otherwise accessible to them have they not access social media sites (Valenzuela, et al., 2009). Aside from posting their written ideas in social networking sites such as Facebook, they could also upload photos of their experiences and describe them in detail, thus, giving other users within their social networks both additional knowledge and awareness, as well as giving them insight and the push in opting to try these things as well. Also, the fact that there is a greater chance of self-expression on such sites not only give these students a breather in terms of allowing themselves to be heard, but also due to the fact that many of them having the same ideas or mindsets could gather, meet, plan, and propose various activities in line with civic and political duties at a faster rate makes social networking sites not only conducive for thinking beyond the textbooks, but also giving them much more experiences with the real world in general (Valenzuela, et al., 2009). However, the researchers still warn that the excessive use of the internet could result to some diminishing of some aspects of education, such as the use of formalities, grammar, etc. Some Minor Issues in Social Media Use as Mode of Instruction While social media use may grant students a greater academic freedom in terms of participatory efforts with discussions, there are some issues which should also be addressed by instructors or professionals to prevent negative consequences. As a group of researchers mentioned in their report, there are some minor issues that could arise from the excessive use of social media and networking, and while some are quite harmless, some could affect some aspects of students’ academics, and thus must also be addressed by instructors whenever necessary. Among these are the potential negative effects of social media to more sensitive members of the groups, especially those that feel disengaged or those that had negative experiences to activities that were originally created for better discussions among members (Valenzuela, et al., 2009). In addition, there have been not enough reports that the number of discussion groups online are also proportional to their participatory efforts, suggesting that enough time is needed and devoted in order to make the discussion or participation experience enough to make significant changes in an individual or groups of individuals. Lastly, due to discussion groups being too easy, and being just one click away but without an expert moderating the conversations, some misinformation or miscommunication could happen between and among members, which without proper discussions or clarifications could increase the overall negative experiences or incorrect information to be absorbed by the users (Valenzuela, et al., 2009). In another group of researchers’ report, aside from the distractive potential of social networking sites to students, other problems such as exposing too much information, potential lack of control in use resulting to excessive usage, as well as the employment of incorrect grammar or spelling in some posts could carry-over in academic lives, which could still outweigh the benefits, and possibly decrease overall academic performance (Srivastava, 2012). Thus, in order for discussion groups to become productive, aside from instructors or professionals contributing to the moderation of information exchanges and clearly explaining answers to most of the students’ enquiries, there must also be ethical guidelines among users to prevent negative experiences and enhance the participatory effects of online discussion boards among students. Still, there is considerable advantage of using social media for education purposes, as long as it is used responsibly and in moderation. Conclusion Social media and social networking is now much more relevant today more than when these two were first thought up of, and has become the major choice of communication and information exchanges in between and among groups of people, encompassing even physical barriers and being much more accessible to a wider audience range. This rapid rate of expansion lies in the internet’s speed and ease of use, allowing many users to upload or pass on various kinds of information to other people at a rate faster and cheaper than traditional methods employed by other kinds of media. As such, this accessibility and easy-to-use interface of the internet allowed social media to flourish, and social networks gain ground over other media types. However, issues such as distracting many age groups from studying or working turned it into something negative, with regards to the academics performance. But this also gave instructors an idea on how to made education much more accessible and portable to more students, by integrating social media use and networking with academic discussions. This method was proven effective in some studies, since not only were students able to engage in lessons, but also had much more active roles not just in learning lessons, but also in other activities such as civic and political duties, helping them participate more as opposed to non-usage of social networking. However, despite the effective use of social media for learning, there must also be moderation in its use, as well as the instructors actively monitoring the online discussions due to potential miscommunication issues or incorrect information being passed around, or the vagrant use of incorrect spelling or grammar, problems that could get carried-over to the classroom. Due to these issues, while social media still has great potential in improving academic performance of students, there must be responsible and moderate use of it to prevent distraction from the overall learning process.References Asad, S., Al-Mamun, M.A., & Clement, C.K. (2012). 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