Back in the day, students had to rely on instructors and libraries to garner their knowledge. With time, technology has advanced, and they have had to switch to social media networking.
They now seek knowledge from online technology platforms like Google Messenger, Twitter, Skype, YouTube, Yahoo messenger, Facebook, WhatsApp, Blackberry messenger, google talk, Snapchat, etc. Due to the numerous social media platforms, students are victimized and cyberbullied.
There are two sides to a coin, and a student’s every process. This means that there is either a good or bad side to using social media in learning. Let us face it; the bad outweighs the good in every case scenario.
Thanks to social media, students are getting crappy grades and building a pathetic reputation. Social networking isn’t for a bad course, but its excessive usage has had detrimental results that have significantly affected the students academically in the following ways
1. Diminishes the research capability and learning of a student
Do you know that there is a difference between being learned and being educated? Educated students are what the work sector is getting these days. This is a result, where students have entirely adapted to relying on it for their academic needs. Instead of sourcing information from notes, books, and journals, students rely on social media. Why work extra hard to get data while social media can provide similar data asap? The result is an educated individual with little or no research skills.
2. Causes destruction
Truth be told, social media is enjoyable and very addictive. A student might be tempted to keep on browsing social sites instead of preparing to sit for an academic paper. They also are incapable of submitting their assignments within the given time frame, and if they do, the work is, in most cases, plagiarized. Pasting and copying for them is the new normal. The end product is discontinuation from learning, failure to graduate, or a pathetic grade.
Students who constantly use social media are unambitious in studying and lack the courage and morale to go into the real world and make friendships. In education, you survive by learning from others and interacting with them. Yes, It is a learning platform, but what exactly do you learn? Are some of the knowledge gained there necessary or even helpful? Thanks to social media, instructors have to deal with
3. Impacts a student’s health
Unsupervised social media usage can physically and mentally affect one’s health. Due to addiction to the media, students have little time to rest, prepare, and take their meals. Who are you without a goodnight’s sleep and a balanced diet? Worse still, being on the laptop or phone for long hours affects your eyes. A tired, underfed, and poor-sighted individual isn’t exactly a good candidate to sit through a professional essay writing and excel.
Fatigued students
Social media is highly addictive, so a student might be tempted to glance at their notifications and end up browsing for an extended period. They ache to know what’s trending, who has left who, who has won what, etc. The blue light on their devices is deceiving, and within no time, a student realizes they have spent the better part of their night scrolling through the media platforms.
A student can’t miss a lecture under the pretext that they spent their night on social media, right? The instructor has to face a groggy and exhausted student. This isn’t exactly the kind of person expected to excel academically.
