NEGATIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN EDUCATION
Dipen Patra
Assistant Professor
Department of Education
C.K.B. College, Teok
Contact no.- 8638659616
Email-dipenpatra2013@gmail.com
1. INTRODUCTION
Social media is any websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. It is interactive computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. Social media provide some online platforms such as: facebook, twitter, youtube, whatsapp, instagram, snapchat, telegram, skype and so on which people use to build social networks or social relationship with other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections. Out of many social media platforms or sites facebook is the most worldwide popular sites where users can post comments, share photographs and post links to news or other interesting content on the web, chat live and watch short-form video. Along with facebook; youtube, whatsapp, instagram and twitter is also popular social sites use for similar purpose. Users can only use these platforms when they have internet facilities on their smart phones and computers. The number of users is rapidly increasing all over the world now days because of revolutionary improvement and easy accessibility of internet facilities. Because of more than half population of the world entered and shows active participation on these sites, now these platforms are also using in all major areas including education. Now, teachers, students and administrators are using many of social media sites in different ways for teaching-learning as well as administrative purpose. Involvement of social media sites brings a drastic change in teaching learning process. Its gradually change the teaching methods and the role of teachers and students. Using social media in the field of education is found some negative consequences. Thus it is essential to discuss negative influences of social media involvement on education along with its remedial cure.
2. OBJECTIVES OF THE PAPER
The objectives of the paper is-
2.1 To highlight the negative influences of social media on education.
2.2 To describe the remedial measures of negative influences of social media on educati.
3. ANALYSIS OF DATA
3.1 TO HIGHLIGHT THE NEGATIVE INFLUENCES OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON EDUCATION
Some of the adverse negative influences of social media on education include –
3.2.1 Disrupted the writing skills: Over dependency on social media and internet disrupted students writing skills. Students no longer know how to write long essays because they no more read novels and storybooks that may educate them on writing .
3.2.2 Damage communication skills: Social media not encourage much to having face to face conversation. Body language is a huge part of communication between humans, and when people primarily communicate through technology, then body language clues can be missed, or students do not learn to use body language as a queue for understanding the context of what the person is trying to convey.
3.2.3 Reduce concentration: Learner who attempt to multi-task, checking social media sites while studying, show reduced academic performance. Their ability to concentrate on the task at hand is significantly reduced by the distractions that are brought about by YouTube, stumbleupon, Facebook or Twitter.
3.2.4 Effect on health: The unnecessary use of social sites has an effect on the mental as well as physical health. Because of their addiction students do not take their meals on time and take proper rest. It makes them lazy and unmotivated to make contact with the general population face to face. (Akram, 2018).
3.2.5 Lack of filter of information: The kind of anonymity that is available on the internet has made many students forget that they need to filter any information that they post .
3.2.6 Narrow attitude towards learning: Social media sites directly or indirectly contribute to decline student’s passion to read for pleasure and enjoyment. Many students now prefer to seek pleasure from the media by streaming videos on social medias and playing with their phones. The main reason why they now read is just to pass an examination and not to gain knowledge.
3.2.7 Time wastage: It’s almost next to impossible get out from social media sites if someone got addiction. This problem is face by many students and teachers now a day. Because of its addition many students and teachers forget their responsibilities. Over uses of media sites wastes their times and many of them not able to deliver their work in the specific time frame.
3.2.8 Loss of motivation: Social networking sites are basically a virtual world. The students’ motivational level gradually reduces due to the use of these sites. They gradually rely on the virtual environment instead of gaining practical knowledge from the real world.
3.2 TO DESCRIBE THE REMEDIAL MEASURES OF NEGATIVE INFLUENCES OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON EDUCATION
Following are some essential steps necessary to take for reducing negative impact of social media-
3.2.1 Engage with children’s online world: Both parents and teachers can ask their children to show them how they use social media. Try to navigate the social world together, rather than acting as a supervisor.
3.2.2 Take vacations: Students are now get addict to social media platforms and gradually losing interest to study. To solve this problem, parents and teachers need to plan some mini vacations for their children frequently. Educational tours, picnic, visiting new places are some well solutions to get their student out from social media addiction.
3.2.3 Phone-free zone: Learners will not get chance to get addict of social media if teachers set rules of phone-free zone in their schools. One way to decrease students’ time on social media accounts is to designate phone-free spaces. Teachers may decide to make classroom as phone-free zone.
3.2.4 Bring self awareness: Self realization, self awareness, self questioning is very essential for getting maturity. Parents and teachers need to take steps to bring self awareness among their children. Social media id built into many of favorite apps: Facebook, Whatsapp, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Reddit and so on. Teachers and students may encourage students to take a moment to look at what kinds of media accounts they have, and reflect on how they use them. Encourage them to ask themselves: what do I do while I’m on this app?, Does it bring me joy, laughter, stress, anger?, Does it add value to my life? how?, Am I making meaningful connections here? etc. Such self questioning and awareness will help students to guide themselves and they will learn correct use of social medias by themselves.
3.2.5 Prune or cut off: Children now a day make and follow many online friends, contacts and stories through many social sites such as: Facebooks, Twitters, Instagram, Whatsapp etc. Over the times, some contact and stories may interest to them, but much of them might be boring and annoying. If children are suggested to unfollow, mute, or hide contacts; the vast majority won’t notice and that will be better for them. Many studies found that information about the lives of Facebook friends affects people more negatively than other content on Facebook. People whose social media included inspirational stories experienced gratitude, vitality, and awe. Pruning some friends and adding a few motivational or funny sites is likely to decrease the negative effects of social media. It will help children to focus on their studies and make better life. (Kecmanovic, 2019).
6.3.6 Be the influencer: It is true that every student has social media account now a day and because of revolutionary improvement of internet facilities, it is not completely possible to stay them away from social sites. Thus, instead of giving efforts on minimizing the media using time parents and teachers need to teach them how these sites can be use productively and positively. Teachers and parents need to share many motivational and inspirational stories, incidences and also teach them about how each human life is necessary for bringing positive social as well as national change. Such broad inspirational knowledges will change their all narrow perspectives and automatically they will share such motivational stories to their social sites
- CONCLUSION
Using social media has both positive and negative consequences. It’s undeniable fact that quality of education and overall life style will be decrease automatically in the absence of social media. People are now highly dependent on social sites. Thus, it is essential to stop fighting against of these and start working on giving knowledge and awareness of its better, productive and moral use. Along with teacher and parents, government will also require to take various necessary steps in this regard by means of giving fund for organizing awareness camps, seminars, workshops, discussion sessions etc.
REFERENCES
BOOKS
- Mangal, S.K. & Mangal, U. (2017). Essential of Educational Technology. Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
- Shaikh, I.R. (2013). Introduction to Educational Technology and ICT. New Delhi: McGraw Hill Education (India) Pvt. Ltd.
JOURNALS
- Akram, W. (2018). A Study on Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society. International Journal Of Computer Sciences And Engineering, 5(10), 347-354. doi: 10.26438/ijcse/v5i10.351354
- Raut, V. & Patil, P. (2016). Use of Social Media in Education: Positive and Negative impact on the students. International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication, 4(1), 281-285.
BLOG POSTS
- Grove, C. (2017). How parents and teens can reduce the impact of social media on youth well-being. [Blog post]. Retrieved October 30, 2019, from website, theconversation.com/how-parents-and-teens-can-reduce-the-impact-of-social-media-on-youth-well-being-87619
- Kecmanovic, J. (2019). How to use social media, according to a mental health expert. [Blog Post]. Retrieved October 30, 2019, from website, www.fastcompany.com/90356260/social-media-can-hurt-you-these-6-tips-from-a-psychologist-could-help
WEBSITES
- How can I overcome social media’s negative effects? (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2019, from website, quora.com/How-can-I-overcome-social-media-s-negative-effects
- Stunited: Union Students Globally (2015). Retrieved October 27, 2019, from website, stunited.org/home/faqpage
- TeacherTube (2019). Retrieved October 27, 2019, from website, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeacherTube
- The Role of Social Media in Education (2019). Retrieved October 29, 2019, from website, www.lcibs.co.uk/the-role-of-social-media-in-education/
