Impact of Social Media on Education

What is more, in an increasingly bureaucratic environment like higher education, social media makes it difficult to manage already fleeting time. Higher education is rapidly expanding and with the constant upgrade of online communication tools, more and more students are being required by their institutions to produce material of higher eminence and class (Tuchman, 2009). In relation to such, the use of social media in higher education becomes a distraction that adds to inconstant time management. This subsequent pressure as well as the desire to “take a break” upshots in low-quality productions.

The grades and scores tend to suffer greatly and the overall academic performance of the students decreases as the use of social networks increases (Alwagait, Shahzad, and Alim, 2015).

However, despite the ample negative facets, social networks and platforms are still convenient and efficient means of communication. At the outset, social media is proven advantageous because of the smooth communication it provides within higher learning environments. In order to have a successful learning experience, there should be a secure form of correspondence between educators and their students (Faizi, El Afia, and Chiheb, 2013).

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Experience has shown if there be an insufficient amount of communication feedback remains thin and vague thus optimal learning is not achieved (Faizi, El Afia, and Chiheb, 2013). Suitable interaction between student and teacher in terms of feedback can make learning easier. It can also help the students achieve intended goals, can increase opportunities for expanded learning, can strengthen the connection between educator and pupil and it can overall bring about a positive learning experience (Ministry of Education, Guyana, 2015).

However, in this respect, many institutions nowadays complain about the students’ lack of focus and poor performance. This is partially due to the lack of interface between the teachers and students. Hence, proper communiqué on both parts can remedy such a predicament.

Moreover, it allows students to participate in conventional and colloquial studying environments; it enhances the learning process. The information generated in a formal manner (course material) can then be presented in an informal style (general knowledge). Those with similar thinking patterns can exchange expertise on different aspects through the exchange of personal experiences, for instructive reasons (Zachos, Paraskevopoulou-Kollia, and Anagnostopoulos, 2018). For example, it may be known that first-year students can gather plentiful information concerning their faculty by merely consulting older students. This would help them have a finer grasp of this new chapter in their lives. To further elaborate, a study conducted by Wodziki, Schwämmlein, and Moskaliuk is 2011, reveals that 20% of German students exchange aspects of their academic understanding through ‘StudyVZ,’ the German equivalent to Facebook. The study mainly focused on first-year students in search of new friends in order to enhance their university experience. Such evidence suggests just to what lengths social media can go to if utilised appropriately.

Furthermore, social media allows for the leniency and accepting of varied cultures. There are many cultures across the world and social media has brought most of them together in a “global village” (Sawyer and Guo-Ming, 2012). Universities are filled with students from different cultural backgrounds who make transitions from one culture to another. For instance, the UK has an average of 22.1% international students (University, 2017) who relocate to unfamiliar environments and manage to re-establish and maintain relatively stable and functional relationships with the environment with the help of social media (Sawyer and Guo-Ming, 2012). Social media provides the opportunity to actually talk to and connect with people regardless of distance; breaking down barriers and building up understanding. Thus, such findings prove social media to be an advantageous way to adapt to diverse cultures, several senses of humour, numerous interests and sundry backgrounds; making the matter of higher learning abroad all the more painless (Gurcan, 2015).

In conclusion, social media use is at a peak in this present society, and the college campus is no exemption. It has now become a significant instrument in the higher education scene, highly influencing individuals and groups, as well as campus culture (Rowan-Kenyon et al., 2016). Though the benefits of social media are numerous, the depth of the demerits outweighs them at a considerable amount. As aforementioned, such a feat can be dangerous were it not handled as it should be. Therefore, in order to ensure a productive yet socially connected environment, institutions of higher education can implement policies that safeguard that the staff and students understand the requirements of the University in the use of social media (Federation University, 2017).