Many years ago, the normal for parents was to caution their children to switch off the television so that they could have time for study. Today, the subject is not television anymore, rather, it is smart phones. Technology has brought about improvement in every aspect of the world’s affairs. Social media is one of the products of latest technology. It brings with it a great improvement in communication. It makes information spread faster to a wider audience, today more than ever. Just with a tweet, information can be broadcasted to millions of people in a very short.
Facebook, has more than a billion users, while twitter has more than 500 million active users. So do other social platforms which are reporting millions of users day after day. More than 80% of the active users in these social platforms are youths, while about 80% of them are students. From this estimated statistics, it is obvious that students are actively involved on social networking sites. What has been the effect of the active engagement of students on social networking on their academic performance?
EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON EDUCATION.
To say that social media has no adverse effect on education will be a bias justification. Yet, one cannot assert that social media has not necessarily contributed to an improvement in learning. The effect of social media on education can be best addressed by using the illustration of the effect of a knife or a gun. A knife can either be good or bad, it all depends on how it is being used. It is bad if it’s used to wound, but that same knife is very useful in the kitchen for cutting.
Back to the subject matter. Can social media improve education? Now you should know how to approach the question. Let’s briefly examine the effects of social media on education.
THE POSITIVE EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON EDUCATION
Social networks create an opportunity for many students from different walks of life and various institutions to reason together. There are lots of questions and answers forums where students can easily get there ask and get questions answered. They can also organise a discussion on a particular topic and everyone will contribute their own quota. For some students will learn better in such a discussion forum than when being taught in the classroom.
Sharing of information becomes much easier and faster when compared to a time when social media was not in existence. Hardly will a student not check his or her Facebook account once in a day. Social networks helps in connecting people in far away lands together, it can also teach students the skills they will probably need to thrive in the business world.
NEGATIVE EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON EDUCATION
Students tends to abuse the use of social media. Instead of using it to improve their learning, gain more understanding and dig out more information, they are rather taken off and use it chat with their friends. The amount of time spent on chatting gives less opportunity for study. This will possibly be detrimental on the academic performance of such students. A serious academic disease widely spread throughout social networking sites is the issue of abbreviation. It is said many students have difficulty spelling some words correctly, because they have gotten so used to the abbreviation.
Because of the easy accessibility of information on the social networks, many students who rely on this have become too lazy to conduct research on a subject by themselves. These are serious issues that are affecting the academic performance of many students today.
In Conclusion
Social networks, if used in the right way by students, can improve learning. It can also have a great adverse effect on education if not properly handled. Parents as well as teachers should ensure that their students make most out of social media to improve their learning. Indeed, social media can have a great impact on education.
