The Positive and Negative Impact of Social media on Student Learning

Introduction:

Modern science is a blessing for us nowadays because of the incredible inventions which have made our life easy and blissful. Information technologies are playing an essential role in creating a globalized world. A social networking service is mainly an online-oriented service. There are so many social networking services, such as Facebook. Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Skype, etc. All of these social network services are web-based. These social networks are spreading so fast and becoming very popular daily. Because most social network services are provided free of cost, as a user, anybody can use these services free or pay very little to the Internet service provider. We can make our profile first and then enter into the online community. It is like representing ourselves before the digital world, which is technology based. Instead, if we are interested, we can also look into others' profiles as per our wish. It is elementary for any user. We can do many refreshing activities by using social media. Such as these media allow us to upload photos and multimedia content and modify our profiles.

Moreover, there are some measures also which provide us privacy protection also. A user should be aware before sharing any information with others, and they should check the number of visitors or viewers. So, in our everyday life, we benefit in many ways by adequately using social media. Everything has both positive and negative sides. Like, social media has some disadvantages also. Most of our young generation, especially students in school, college, and university are becoming addicted to improperly using these social media. Even some criminals use these media to fulfil their various criminal offences such as killing someone, smuggling, drug supplying, eve-teasing, blackmailing, robbery, etc. Social media does not know which is social work or anti-social work. It just helps anybody to complete their technology-based work. Thus, any anti-social activity happens by misusing social media.

That's why we should be careful and aware of the disadvantages of social media and its services. Social media is the most potent means of communication. People from all over the country and abroad can connect through this. From children to the elder, they are tied to social media. Social media has made people's lives very easy. Everything is available through social media, and everything has become simple, whether it is clothes or utensils. But it also has many adverse effects. Through this, people also spread misleading and wrong information. Which adversely affects the people. Now the government has become very strict. The government will take strict action against those applying bad things. Technology is increasing day by day. With the blessings of those technologies, you can get any information about anything within a short possible time. Now every work can be done staying at home. Earlier, people used to send letters to deliver messages to each other, which took a lot of time. Now people can send their messages through messages instantly by using messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.

Social Media:

Social Media can be defined as some websites and applications that provide the facilities for users to create, edit and share any content. Social media is not only enabled users to post photos or videos about holidays online. It is a reliable source of information. It has achieved credibility over the years and gained a platform where organizations can interact with viewers.

In this age of the network, the use of technology media helps the individual to develop computing and communication technology.

Social Media In Education:

Social media plays a very significant role in education. It provides enjoyable and resourceful learning. Nowadays, we can observe that education institutions are adapting these social media to develop their teaching systems. And these resources and technologies help to improve student life. In our daily life, using social media in education enables students to learn effectively. It also allows teachers and parents to get helpful information and connect with other learning groups and other educational disciplines that make education convenient. Different social media tools afford students and educational institutions multiple facilities and opportunities to improve learning and teaching methods.

As an educational institution, it is mandatory to be active on many social platforms. Online tutorials can benefit students from online tutorials through YouTube, courses delivered by renowned universities abroad through Skype, and other resources shared through social media. Through these social media, you can include social media plugins that help sharing and interaction. We can acquire valuable knowledge from these social media, such as analytics and insights on various topics for study purposes. This also helps to train a student in a better way and preferable training strategies.

The most important thing about using social media in education is that you can soon learn who the experts are in different fields and subjects. It guides you to start following these experts so that you can learn more and gain helpful content from them. This enables you to perform a great result. Social media is capable enough to broaden your perspective on various topics and provides illuminating, instant content that is entirely new for you. You have the opportunity of asking help from experts to get answers on the subject that you may need help on. Learning colleges can also connect with students using social media networks such as Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, and YouTube. We can use these channels to communicate campus news, make announcements, and provide all students with resourceful information. This creates an engagement between the college and students that help to tackle many student issues through group discussion. Using social media for students of different institutions can provide some supportive and positive posts that reach all students connected to the media and tools. You can initiate hashtags on social media that are very helpful in engaging students and online interactions. We can use social media to share valuable videos that inspire students and help them understand their courses related to their topics. Videos are prominent tools in social media trends that are too effective. By properly using social media such as YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram live video, the engagement between students and the institution can be long-lasting. The advantages of using social media in education are not limited to the teacher-student relationship. Besides this, social media networks have many benefits at higher levels. For example, principals and administrators can find many new ways to integrate social media, like sharing school news via social networks and holding meetings with parents for different projects.

Social media also can become the only channel of communication very soon since we're living fast-paced lives, parents are usually busy with their work, and that's why they cannot attend school meetings. But this doesn't mean they shouldn't check on their kids and be in touch with them occasionally. Social media provides the audience and topic monitoring tools that are essential and one of the best platforms for extracting data. You create an Instagram or Facebook poll, conduct a survey using Google Forms or Survey Monkey, or use forums like Quora to find out how experts perceive and advise on a particular topic. This can also help students to compile and produce helpful content for further research. Whether a student is working on any assignment or working on any project, or trying to acquire more information on a subject, some of the best information and needed tools can be found on social media. Sharing slides could help make presentations of such data given by their instructor. Learning management systems are networking software that delivers educational programs and provides instructions to other administrative activities. Instead, social media learning can provide instant chat functions, videos, forums to share information, and other lesson resources to help students. LMS systems strengthen student participation and make collaborating on any team project easier. This system exists to address problems related to students and learning to produce quality full education schemes. Using popular learning management systems with social media integration is essential for organizations to have optimal reach and impact through the system. Other social learning benefits include live conferencing systems, webinar capabilities, sharing group reviews, blogs, etc. Teachers also use social media as a powerful medium to find out new resources to support their lessons, activities to teach unique concepts, bulletin board ideas, and information on new apps to follow up on specific topics. And besides these, it also helps to know what is happening on the network. Overall, social media is a significant part of our day-to-day life, and there's no benefit to keeping it away from students and the education process. We should encourage the staff of the school, college, and university to properly use technology for student and parent communication. The advantages are obvious, starting with healthier interaction and Parent-teacher relationships and all the way to permanently changing how our children will learn effectively and efficiently.

 

The positive impact of Social media on student learning :

1. Contribution of social media to education:

Social media is a beautiful tool that empowers audiences with educational content. Educational, social media content is much more effective than any of your classes in high school, with dynamic social content formats, videos, photos, and more to deliver exciting ideas. If we think about all the accounts we follow on social media, whether it is on fashion brands or fitness bloggers, each of these accounts is helping us learn something new. It also helps write brilliant captions that reveal practical tips and tricks about discussed topics.

2. Social media increases global connectivity:

Global connectivity enables us to discover new languages, learn exciting things, and broaden our horizons. Using our fingertips, we can share ideas, collaborate and communicate with people via social media. When you are following any travel bloggers on the other side or connecting with those countries you have never visited, social media provides the potential to reach and connect with users from all corners of the world.

3. Role of social media in blended learning:

In this modern era of networking services, blended learning is an effective way of learning and can provide quality full education access. Blended learning means learning both online and online at a time. Nowadays, our government has made a rule for schools, colleges, and universities to take online classes at least once a week. Rest of the days, they can take offline classes. Using Zoom cloud meetings or Google meet, teachers can take online classes at home; thus, teachers and students don't need to go to any institutions.

Instead, by using social media tools such as multimedia projectors, We can watch the visual reflection of our education-related topic. 

4. Uses of Facebook, YouTube, Messenger, WhatsApp, and other tools in learning:

Teachers, especially university teachers, ask their students to open a Facebook group through which they can share routine, pdf, photos, videos, and other necessary documents. They can also take online classes on Facebook live. But most of the teachers call for an online class on zoom cloud meeting or Google meet, which also helps us to join any online classes at home. We also can share pictures, pdf files, and other learning materials via WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, etc. These social media tools provide an effective digital learning method and save time. Thus social media plays a significant role in improving our education system.

5. Social media provides open online courses:

There are a lot of students who want to make themselves efficient through online courses which are open to all. They don't need to pay any fees for that. For example, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are very available which are free of cost, and open for all to enrol. MOOCs afford a flexible way to learn new skills, which help to advance your career and provide quality educational experiences. Millions of students use MOOCs to learn to develop their careers and change their lifestyles. It provides lifelong learning to all.

6. It builds up worldwide communities among students:

When we are speaking of connectivity, it is noticed that one of the most significant advantages of social media is the ability to foster, build and grow up social communities. Whether you are a member of any Facebook Group about your favourite educational sites or have joined a virtual book club on Facebook or Instagram, social media gives us the power to find out and engage with like users from across the world.

7. Social media provides students support and solidarity:

One of the social media's most motivational positive effects is its ability to empower support and solidarity. The groups and accounts on social media we prefer can help us to navigate standard blocks such as getting fit, navigating heartbreak and struggles like overcoming addiction on any awful thing, helping in dealing with a chronic illness, or processing grief. During times of loneliness, stress, and anxiety, social media can help us to act as a powerful tool to gather all people at a fixed time to support and lift each other when they need it most to motivate themselves. Thus, social media provides support and solidarity to boost people.

8. It helps students to improve their new learning skills:

Social media is an effective medium to improve our new skills quickly. One of the most influential and positive sides of social media is its ability to provide the training of new skills to the users and share expertise with the technology-based and digital world. These skills help us to know how to organize and operate the technology and tools and use them to improve our studies and communication systems. Instead, those skills modernize our thoughts and digitalize our working ways. We can easily cope with the present world by acquiring the knowledge of the skills.

9. Social media unite students during times of crisis:

Bangladesh suffers from many natural calamities. Many people become the victims of those tragedies. Social media is capable enough to connect and make united groups to help people and make a positive impact on the world during the crisis, from lobbying the government to organizing demonstrations and the conditions of relief efforts. By using social media, we can now call for donations, share all needed information about affected people and find innovative ways to unite users in meaningful ways.

10. Social media helps to bring students together in moments that matter:

One of the most important positive effects of social media is that it can support students and unite the users during crucial moments. Students can make a video call and talk to their friends and others when they cannot meet face to face. It is one of the civil rights protests against a global health crisis. These pivotal events have changed how we lead our daily lives and keep our eyes on the world around us irrevocably.

The negative impact of social media on student learning :

1. Facebook can cause depression :

Nowadays, Facebook causes depression and creates an emotional disturbance associated with addiction to social media usage. Excessive use of these social media tools creates a severe addiction that significantly hampers their study. Instead, students sometimes believe in strangers on Facebook and get trapped in those who intend to cause harm. Students also feel inferior to their social media counterparts and get depressed by that.

2. Excessive use of social media creates anxiety among students :

Mental health is more important than physical health. When a student is mentally happy, they can study well. But social media makes them more curious about others people's matters than themselves. They spend more time on social media and get to know about others. After that, when they realize that their other friends are going well, they get depressed. It causes anxiety among them. That's why it is recommended for the students to use only half an hour per day instead of wasting a whole day.

3. Students can be the victim of Cyber Stalking :

Cyber Stalking means blackmailing or making someone afraid by sending any threatening message via email or other social media. Nowadays, most parents remain busy with their jobs and can not spend enough time with their children, which is why the girl/boy feels alone. So they get badly involved in social media and make friends online, which hampers their studies. As a result, they became dependent on those strangers and started sharing all their information and location where they were. It causes dangers; strangers can take advantage of them and trap them easily. After that, they can be kidnapped, and the strangers send threatening messages to their parents wanting money. That's why parents should spend enough time with their children, especially with teenagers.

4. Victims of prolonged cyber-bullying :

By using social media, when someone shares false information, embarrassing messages, or videos with a specific person, it is called cyberbullying. Especially students become the worst sufferers of this evil deed. They suffer from psychosocial issues such as depression, isolation, loneliness, stress, and anxiety and can even commit suicide. Sometimes they become the victims of prolonged cyberbullying.

5. Negatively affect student's self-esteem :

At present, girls follow some celebrities on Facebook and want to be slim, beautiful, and attractive like them. As a result, when they cannot be successful in being like the celebrity, they get depressed and feel inferior to them. They start copying those celebrities, and this imitation can negatively affect their self-respect. They demean themselves by doing these activities. It also hampers their studies. When they can not make a good result by getting involved in these activities, they are also insulted by their teachers, friends, and parents. Thus they fall apart and hamper their studies as well as their lives also. Sometimes it can be the reason for their committing suicide.

6. Social media hampers Social Isolation:

The relationship between social media and social isolation is entirely statistical. When students get too involved in social media like Facebook, youtube, messenger, WhatsApp, etc., they can not maintain their social connection strong enough. They always remain busy uploading photos, videos or other posts and counting reactions and comments. They connect with people online more. As a result, they can not get those friends in real life when they need any help. Thus social media negatively affects students' social relationships. It hampers their social values, and it also can cause anxiety. It hinders her social isolation and they can become the sufferers of "FOMO", which means "fear of missing out".

7. Being more dependent on social media creates impractical expectations :

Students use social media too much to make online friends and continue chatting regularly. So they wait for a reply from another side. Instead, the wish of becoming a celebrity affects them a lot because they continuously follow the lifestyles of those celebrities, and it grows impartial expectations among them, which is harmful to the students. Social media tools like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., are the leading cause of impartial expectation.

8. Hampers the concentration of the students :

One of the most harmful effects of social media on students is that they lose concentration on classroom studies. Most students consider using social media as multitasking, but it is not like that. Students have the habit of simultaneously using social media. This hampers their concentration on tasks like homework, classwork, assignments, etc., which are essential to their studies. According to some research, this constant interruption causes harmful and adverse effects on their attention and reduces their curiosity about learning and other performances.

9. Decreasing the eagerness to perform different activities :

Teenager social media users are affected heavily because they spend much time scrolling Facebook and chatting on Messenger, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. As a result, these students lose their eagerness and interest in other offline activities and studies. They also became very lazy and suffered from diseases by constantly sitting there. They should exercise daily to keep themselves physically fit and keep their mind fresh and reduce their chances of depression and anxiety.

10. Increasing internet addiction :

Students who are uncontrolled in using social media can lead to a dangerous addiction to the internet because it becomes their habit to spend more than their limits on social media, eventually becoming severe addiction. It affects their mental health and makes their brain work. Parents should take care of their children so that they can come out of this addiction. Otherwise, it will harm their school performance and personal development.

Conclusion:

Social media plays a vital role in every sector of the modern world, especially in education. It contains tools that allow people to share ideas, information, and thoughts via online communities. Social media connects people virtually. It helps students provide technology-based learning and digitalize their methods of education. Social media tools like Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat, etc. help students share sheets, pdf files, and other study-related documents in the shortest possible time. It also provides privacy and safety to personal information. Social media contains some videos for students according to their classes so they can learn effectively and keep a clear concept about their lessons. It also shares some tips and tricks by which students can learn any complicated topics quickly. But there are some demerits also. Some people use social media to fulfil evil deeds like robbing, smuggling, and blackmailing people. Students also suffer a lot from the uncontrolled use of social media. They become addicted to social media, and as a result, they get heavily depressed, which hampers their studies. Social isolation decreases their interest in doing something new and exciting in their life. So, we all should be careful about using social media and confirm a limited use of social media tools to avoid the harmful effects of those media tools.