Role of Social Media in a Student’s Life

The digital age has led to an increase in Social Media usage among people of different age groups. With the Quarantine time, social media has gained traction among all people including students. However, some people still believe that social media is always considered to be a deteriorating tool in academics. While social media is here to stay, instead of criticizing, it is better that we learn to take the better part of it and learn how to make an opportunity out of it.

Like everything around, social media has its set of perks and shortcomings. While on one place it is a source of distractions for students, it is also a quick way of interacting, learning, and solving problems.

Let us discuss now what social media is and how students can best utilize social media to their advantage.

What is Social Media?

Social Media is a set of applications and websites that provide users a platform for sharing anything and increasing their social networking. Apart from posting photos and updating status, social media also provides an interactive computer-mediated technology where one can share various ideas, information, career interests, and other forms of expression through apparent communities & worldwide networks.

Over the years, social media has gained plausibility as a source of information where organizations interact with their audience.

Research shows that the most popular social media platform among students are WhatsApp (83.3%), Facebook (78.0%), Twitter (12.8%), LinkedIn (7.9%), Instagram (7.5%), Imo (2.6%), Snapchat (1.8%), Myspace (1.3%), and Skype (0.9%).

Why social media is important?

Social media platforms play a pivotal role in the lives of individuals with different lifestyles and occupations, especially for exam aspirants preparing for competitive exams.

Here are some key points that indicate why social media is important for students:

• Creative exposure: In the past few years, students have understood the significance of improving their creative skills and utilizing them in their student’s life. In the earlier years, talented students found it challenging to show their talent to the outside world. Presently, several social media platforms have made it possible for talented professionals to show their talent and improve their skills with feedback, thereby gaining more opportunities soon. If you are consistent enough, you will gain significant exposure, and appreciation, and create an asset for your future on the respective social media platforms.
• Learning: The birth of social media is a boon for students and young professionals as it helps them to learn several aspects engagingly. Platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are the go-to platforms for student learning, especially in the form of video format. In addition, Facebook and Instagram help students to exchange their knowledge and learn something new every day when the students use these platforms in the right way. Social media group discussion is one of the notable advantages of social media for students.
• Networking: Right from the time pandemic hit the world, most students and young professionals have understood the importance of building their network on different social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, to name a few. Along with this, students can also utilize different engaging activities and contests such as Sudoku, Hackathons, and Quizzes, to name a few. Participating in these activities aids in building soft skills such as communication, teamwork, networking, critical thinking, professionalism, and building confidence, which are some prominent benefits of social media for students.
• Employment opportunities: Social media has become the go-to platform for freshers and young professionals to land a job in today’s era. This method has taken over the traditional method of landing jobs via newspaper and job portal search. It indicates the significance and role of social media in the lives of youngsters who are currently seeking jobs after completing their graduation. Several companies use their social media accounts to advertise their job openings on their social media accounts and social media group discussions. This way, job seekers can use the opportunities and apply for the same according to their interests and/or experience. Another benefit is that you can highlight your skills in a portfolio. For instance, if you are a tech enthusiast, you can add your GIT hub profiles to your social media accounts and increase your chances of attracting opportunities according to your profile.

These are some advantages of social media for students that every student must keep in mind before investing time on different social media platforms.

Why do Students use Social Media?

Research has shown that over 95% of students have access to some sort of mobile device that connects to the internet, meaning that using mobile technology for educational purposes will possibly exclude less than 5% of students.

With the digital age, social media has become an important tool not only for communication and marketing but also in the field of education. The lockdown phase during COVID-19 has witnessed the closure of various educational institutes, leaving social media the only place for students to interact.

Thus, social media has emerged as an effective spot for sharing, reviewing, and getting quick information to any doubt that you may have.

The top 5 reasons that have been found for students to use social media are:

Thus, it can be clearly seen that maximum utilize social media for obtaining new information and learning something.

How does Social Networking impact learning?

Social networking impacts learning in both ways, depending on how students deal with social media platforms. As a student, especially if you are a competitive exam aspirant, you must remember that you must wisely use social media platforms in your daily life. Social networking can be a blessing in disguise if used at the right time and way. Here are some of the ways how decent social networking impacts learning in a student’s life.

• Improves student engagement: In the era of technology, students find it interesting and comfortable to use technology to study for their school, college, or even competitive exams with the help of different formats such as videos, and text content to gain sufficient knowledge in their syllabus’ respective subject or topic.

• Collaborative learning: As human beings, we have an inner desire to interact and work with each other on online and offline platforms. Social media has helped students to fulfill this desire in the best possible manner and use the platforms wisely for their growth and development. Students can reap the advantages of social media for students via social networking. They can ensure to use the assets of social media such as podcasts, YouTube or Vine videos, and blogs to work together and show their skills and final product to the entire world.

• Promotes both learning and teaching: Social media has helped the education sector evolve exponentially in the past few years. One of the recent studies has concluded that the ones who understand the benefits of social media for students study better and perform well in their exams compared to students who do not use the beneficial features of social networking in the best possible manner. This occurs due to the thoughtful peer feedback combined with social media group discussion that aims at brainstorming ideas, plans, and collaborations, thereby leading to improved academic performance and overall personality development right from high school days.

Therefore, these are the ways in which social networking in the world of social media can influence learning in a student’s life.

Importance of Social Media for Students

As discussed above social media plays an important part in every student’s life. With the replacement of brick and mortar system of education with online classes, social media has become that bulletin board where you can get all the information about classes, doubt-clearing sessions, and results. It also helps students connect with their fellow mates to discuss and share information.

Teachers too these days have taken up social media to interact with the students, educate them and clear their doubts. Thus, social media is no more a disturbance, but a constant companion for students during their studying phase.

Recent research too has strengthened the role of social media for students through its various findings.

1. The research says that 64.4 percent of faculty use social media for their personal lives, 33.8 percent use it for teaching.
2. Also, the research has come up with the finding that 41 percent for those under age 35 compared to 30 percent for those over age 55 reported using social media in their teaching.
3. Faculty in the Humanities and Arts, Professions and Applied Sciences, and the Social Sciences use social media at higher rates than those in Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computer Science.
4. While Facebook or LinkedIn is used for social and professional connections, Blogs and wikis are preferred for teaching.
5. 88 percent of faculty, regardless of discipline, reported using online video in the classroom.

Role of Social Media to Students

Thus, the above data has clearly shown how important social media is for students. Now taking these finding forward let us discuss the role of social media for students.

1. Educational Benefits of Social Media

According to Simonson et al. (2000), online learning tools are more effective than traditional classroom learning (using textbooks for learning) because of the availability of online materials and 24 hours access to learning.

Social media has gained credibility as a trusted source of information. Apart from that it also provides a great platform for teachers and students to interact. The students can also expand their horizons by getting in touch with teachers around the world and gain more knowledge. Through social media, teachers can engage the students more in studies through different methods of teaching.

2. Easy sharing of Information

Now one does not have to call each other to pass on the information. Sharing any information is just a click away with social media. Thus, students can share useful information, study material, projects, practice paper, and other exam details with their friends and other fellow students.

This social media also has platforms that are dedicated to students and provide all the information from the book lists, study material, class notes, video lectures of teachers which all the students have access to. This really helps in the preparation for any competitive examination.

3. Online classes

Gone are the days when students would leave their homes and travel to faraway places to prepare for an examination. In these times online classes are the new norm and all the institutes are adapting to this culture.

Thus, social media has brought classrooms to each student’s house without the need to spend heavily and travel to some other city.

4. It helps to Gain Wider Knowledge

As social media has no borders or boundaries, it helps students connect with people from across the globe and gain wider knowledge. When students have any confusion while studying, social media really help in gathering relevant information through various online platforms.

While earlier students had to wait to meet the teacher and then clear their doubts, with social media it takes only a search and you can know the answer to any of your doubts,

5. Share their knowledge

Social media also provides a great platform for students to share their knowledge. The students, who clear the exam, take to social media to share their knowledge and their preparation strategy which is very helpful for the students who are preparing for the exam.

So while social media can be used to showcase your skills and share your knowledge, it acts as a guide to students, who are aiming to achieve something in their lives.

6. Shaping their future:

Social media has opened various avenues for students to pursue. Based on one’s skills and talent, students can now learn the various future prospects that they can choose from, instead of doing what others around them are doing.

7. Awareness:

While earlier one did not have much scope to increase their awareness, with social media you can increase your awareness about any exam, subject, or particular field of interest. Just one search and you will know all about it.

The great philosopher of communication theory Marshall McLuhan, said, “The new electronic independence re-creates the world in the image of a global village.” This electronic independence is inherently dependent upon the Internet. Social media has emerged as a new age media technology in education and helped students interact with students while also increasing their knowledge.

However, like every other thing, the social media picture is not this rosy all the time, there are some negative aspects of social media too like dark space, bullying, addiction to social media, which fall under the category of disadvantages of social media for students. Therefore, parents and teachers must understand the importance of timely monitoring of students. Some effective monitoring techniques include the following:

• One should ensure that they only have apps that are important for studies.
• Download an app that ensures that you do not spend too much time on social media.
• Discipline yourself to not use social media or your phone, when you are studying from books. Instead, underline or write your doubts in your diary and search for them once you are done reading the topic.
• Keep a specific time of the day for social media and the rest of the time utilize reading from your books and hard copies.
• Do not keep your phone close to you when you are studying from your books.
• When you write down your daily targets, write down the topics that you have to study online, and only use social media when you are reading those topics.

The Role of Social Media in this century has made students’ life very easy and convenient. While it has both positive and negative aspects attached to it, but only using it as a tool to improve your skills and learn more can be very beneficial for students. Wilcox (2012) suggests “Eventually, the way you check this is by raising your mindfulness. It’s not about don’t invest energy in  Facebook,  but rather just know about what it may do to you”.

Use social media only as much as required. Unintentional scrolling brings no positive impact on the lives of individuals. Always remember that you must not let the internet rule your life. Focus more on internal work instead of the internetwork in student’s life.

Hope this blog guides you to take the right steps towards your social media usage and balancing it with your competitive exam preparation.