The Use Of Social Media And Its Effects On Students And Society

Objective

The advancement in technology in the recent times has enhanced the manner in which people connect, make friends and get to update. All these have been brought up by the rise technology and its development that have resulted to use of social media.  Social media has changed the lives of many people including students as they spend most of their times in networks such as Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram.

The use of social media has simplified ways of communication amongst people as they can chat regardless of the geographical location.  Social media have also enhanced sharing of thoughts and it has also helped people to satisfy their social needs. Nevertheless, the use of social media  have  significant impacts on the grades of the students, time-management skills and this may affect their general performance due to distraction that use of social media` comes with.

Objective

This report researches the use of social media and the effects it has on students and other people in the society.

Rationale

Investigating the impacts of the use of social media on students will help in identifying areas that students can adjust so that they can responsibly use social media. In addition to this, the research will help in determining how students and people can best make use of social media so as to improve their lives. 

Methodology

In order to get more insights about the effects of social media on students, I reviewed literature through articles and journals and I also considered statistics about the use of social media in schools and at the wider society. The research also considered a survey from 72 students from Conestoga College about their feelings on the use of social media at school.

 Research Findings

Use of social media

Social media has become an integral aspect of the modern society and this has been attributed to the huge number of users of internet across the global. According to Hung & Yuen (2010) the number of users of internet worldwide is 4.021billion as at the beginning of the year 2018. This was a 7% increase as compared to the previous year.

Positive impacts of use of social media

Undoubtedly, a good number of students and teenagers have phones and they are fond of using social using social media.  While there are schools that have banned the use of cellphones in schools, there are others where students have still access to these devices and there are some positive impacts the use of social media has on the students.

Rationale

First, use of social media increase interaction and collaboration among the students. Students need to talk to each other and they need to keep each other to update concerning school assignments, projects and other home works (Perrin, 2015).

Secondly, social media can also be used to encourage participation in classroom.  At times, students can be asked to express their opinions on a certain discussion through social media.

Lastly, use of social media is also important in psychological growth of the students since the sharing of funny messages and videos keep the students lively and this also boosts their morale in classroom.

Negative impacts

While social media can create a learning environment through enhanced interaction, collaboration and improve of social and interactive capabilities, there are negative effects that social media have on students.

First, social media is the most common source of distraction amongst students and this lowers their productivity and hence decreases in the grades at school. There are constant new information and updates that come from the social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram which can be hard to ignore especially to teenagers who like to be up to date of the modern world.

Lastly, social media eliminates physical interaction among people which is critical especially to the teenagers who are growing. These students are used to virtual communication and this drops the face to face communication which is common in the society.

Accounting Students Opinions

A survey of 72 students from the Conestoga College determined their opinion and preference regarding the use social media and this is shown in Appendix 1 below.

Time used in social media

The amount of time by students is a major to the parents as it reduces the amount of time spent at school. In order to investigate the amount of time spent on the various social media sites, students at Conestoga College research.

The response on the number of times the students use Facebook has been represented in the graph below.

the number of times that students use social media. Evidently, students visit the social media multiple times a day. This implies that visiting 34 times a day is like visiting the sites once every hour. If one is a student, visiting social media platform at this rate is alarming since they will be distracted even when in class or when conducting their normal studies.  This report has been presented in the graph below.

Methodology

Evidently more students follow their students on Instagram followed Facebook, then YouTube, Linkedln and Twitter. Students as young as they are would want to connect with their friend and they are exited with posting of pictures. Instagram is the modern social site and it has been popular in strengthening relationships among the friends.

The research also sought students to find out how the number of times the students visit Conestoga College social media platforms. 19.44 students stated that the use Facebook multiple times while 16.67% stated that they use Facebook at least once a day. 

Also, students were asked to asked to rate the interest in the information that Conestoga College provides through their social media platforms. 52.78% of the students said that they were very interested while 20% of the students said that they were somewhat interested and only 1.39% said that they were not interested in the information.  This means that students have accepted the social media as a source information while at college.

Additionally, students were asked to rate the information that Conestoga College provides through their social media platforms. 58.33% of the students said that they found the information useful while 25% said that the information was somewhat useful. However, only 1% said the information not very useful and 0% said not at all useful. The same has been presented in the chart below.

Conclusions

1. Social media has both positive and negative impacts to students.
2. Through social media, students are able to access information shared by the university on their social media platforms.
3. Although most of the students use these social media in accessing information from the university’s social media, they seem to spend most of their times in chatting and connecting with their friends.

 References

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