The best way to remain connected with friends, relatives and colleagues is Social Media. The modern world is excessively busy; today it is very difficult to maintain connection between the people. Social media has simplified this issue and it is leveraging internet platform to keep people connected over various channels.
We are also aware that Social media is extremely addictive. We develop an addiction towards it and it impacts our life in various possible ways. Social media is indeed a drug if a student starts misusing it. Undoubtedly it can help a student in numerous possible ways but a student needs to identify the border line and should use it accordingly. Today in this article we will be discussing about the effect of Social Networking sites.
In this article we will be discussing advantages and disadvantages of using social networking sites and its impact over students. Then we will be concluding our discussion for the same.
Advantages of using Social Networking sites:
1.) Improved Learning Methods
Few Networking sites can be used as a new learning method. Various educational videos, contents and educational materials can be found over social networking sites. A student can leverage social media in learning different things and can add value to his education. Through social media a student can afford various learning things for which they needed to pay a heavy amount in an offline mode. Thus it can be leveraged by the students to improve their learning methods.
Social media has increased – “Distance learning opportunities”.
2.) Better Communication between students
Social media has contributed a lot in better and faster communication among students. Those days are gone where a student needs to wait for the next day to take class notes from his friend. Now several social media apps like Whatsapp, Telegram is allowing the sharing of the images in one click. These are providing a platform where a student can ask questions among themselves and can discuss on the possible solution. It is seen that some teachers are connecting with the students of their class by using facebook live.
If a student is stuck at a particular question or concept he can ask the same instantly with his friend or with his Tutor.
3.) Providing Valuable information Online
Social media has become an online platform where several groups dedicated for online education or for competitive exams preparation are sharing concrete information about the courses, date of exams and several tips for preparing and cracking the exam. They consist of latest data on various subjects which a student can use and do his survey for education and for exam preparation.
Thus a student can leverage these networking sites for getting connected with likeminded people and get valuable information online.
Disadvantages of using Social Networking sites:
1.) Major source for Distraction
Social media is capable of diverting students from their goals. A student opens a social media app and didn’t get to know and realize that several hours have passed while he was scrolling through the feeds of his friends. It is undoubtedly a chief source of distraction among them and a student needs to identify the same. Students are generally using social media to impress their classmates, they keep on finding new ways to gather more likes for their posts.
It is the prime responsibility of parents and elders to discuss the negative impacts of social media as it could create a wide gap in their performance and can create lack of interest from the study.
2.) Increased cyber bullying
Social media has increased bullying among students. Privacy is almost dead for everyone. People feel cooler by posting the trending things, memes over social media. Social media comments and likes have become a judge for the individual performance, looks etc. It is analyzed that students have started bullying their friends and classmates over social media feed. Thus it can’t be used for a source of bullying as it creates disappointments and depressions among them.
3.) Lack of face to face communication
Social media has given a platform where we are comfortable in doing communication by sitting behind the mobile, laptop and tab but we are not so much comfortable in doing face to face communication. It is increasing lack of self confidence when it comes to face to face communication.
We have discussed advantages as well as disadvantages of using social networking sites from a student perspective. It can be used and leveraged in both the way but a student must have a self control over the same. Social media is indeed the future but a student should know how to use it in a wise manner and should capitalize it for their betterment.
