Title: Social Media and its Effects on StudentsAbstract: Human, being a social animal, is eager to gather information about others and meet other individuals, to assemble and share data. As a result of this, hundreds of social networking sites have been made to cater the man’s need of socialization. They have pulled in a large number of clients in few years that interpersonal interaction has turned into a marvel.
The key elements of social media websites are fundamentally the same. The main aim of this study is to analyze and evaluate various impacts of social media on students. Efforts have been done to focus on most significant impacts. Previous studies have shown that there has been a slight difference in the impacts of social media on both female and male students.Introduction: These days, the most commonly used method of communication is social media networking. It is being used by the individuals belonging to every walk of life. Almost a decade ago, Social Media was widely accepted by public.
There are numerous online networking platforms that include but are not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, LinkdIn, Google+, Flickr, Snapchat, Vine, Tumblr.Purpose of Social Media: The main purpose of social media is to give access to its clients and users. They can have conversations with individuals and construct social relations on web. They can share their individual data on Social Media, including everyday happening, suppositions, pictures, recordings and web-links. The capacity online networking to spread valuable data quickly has made it the quickest developing method of association. There is no doubt that online networking sites specially the Social Media have conveyed individuals closer to one another more than ever, yet specialists and researchers around the globe have been searching for the weaknesses that might have been faced by its users. After presentation of cell-phones, utilization of online networking has risen exponentially.
The long range interpersonal communication has its consequences for society inside and out for instance, specialized techniques, self-expression, disengagement, relations and sense of humanity.Problems: Problems associated with Social Media are as follows:Privacy and accountability issuesQuality and dependability of online dataFake newsGeneric health issues due to lack of physical activity(online gaming)History: By tracking history of Social Media, it can be found that the face of Social Media today is quite different from what was considered to be Social Media in past. It is vital for everybody now-a-days but it was not like that almost a decade ago.
Six Degrees is the Social Media that was evolved for the very first time in 1997. Users could make profile and invite people as friends. This way of communication lasted till 2001. Around hundred million individuals began to use internet and this social networking websites by the start of 2000.
It turned out to be common for individuals to be engaged on five Million websites. Obviously, then it was thought to be odd, still more individuals started to use and visit these websites for socializing, dating and educational purposes. After that, communication methods like Blogging and Instant Messaging evolved. Inspite of the fact that blogging may not appear like a form of Social Media, the term fits since it made public capable of communicating through blog website instantly and conveniently. MySpace was the first social networking website using which people could set up a profile and make friends that become inspiration for next-generation Social Media including Facebook. Today, the Social Media website containing the largest number of subscribers is Facebook. It was by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004.
It was initially released specifically for students belonging to Harvard University. It currently boasts over one Billion users. The second most famous Social Media website is Twitter which was created by Jack Dorset, Biz Stone, Noah Glass and Evan Williams. Twitter has more than five hundred Million subscribers. A little later, there were many different sites giving Social Media services.
Flickr was one of the earliest and still is a standout amongst the most prominent photograph sharing Social Media websites. Besides Flickr, Photobucket and Instagram are among the top online Social Media to incorporate on Business cards and other media. As more and more people started using Social Media websites, it became important for different business brands to list their Social media addresses, that mostly includes Facebook and Twitter links. Hence Social Media became a spot for business as well. Likewise, Social Media started to be one of the courses in which web advertisers and site proprietors would support the appearance of their site online networking bookmarking turned out to be the major form of promotion and there were services that would bookmark a post or a site. This study aims at investigating the main idea of Social Media Networking, its importance and utilization.
This study will focus on how the use of Social Media affects daily life of students and how it influences their academic and social prosperity.Objectives: The objectives of this research are as follows:Analysis of how and for how long Social Media is being utilized by studentsAnalysis of Students perspective regarding Social Media that includes the following:Reasons for using Social MediaPositive/Negative impact of Social Media in:AcademicsSocial Behavior Physical HealthPrivacyAnalysis of above impacts of Social Media on Students w.r.t gender; Male Female students separately Literature Review: Study conducted by Kuppuswamy and P.
B Shankar Narayan in 2010 clarified that using Social Media Networking takes most of the time of students and redirects it towards non-constructive things often non-ethical, deceptive and improper activities. Youth especially students use Social Media for time-killing and happiness. However, use of Social Media for academic purposes is a positive step. Another study (Shahzad Khan, 2010) examined and investigated the effect of Social Media websites on students. A survey was conducted based on a questionnaire. This study verifies that a large portion of students use Social Media because of peer pressure and due to the fact that there friends have been using it. Those students who achieved 3.
0 to 3.5 GPA, for most of their part utilize person to person communication sites for excitement. This is a strong indication to the point that usage of Social Media has not affected student’s academic performance. The paper ( Samir N. Hamade, 2013) states that the best advantage of Social Media was a better connection and social exercises.Research Methodology: Research methodology is a confirmation that the problem under study has been analyzed and addressed thoroughly.
It gives completion and effectiveness to the research. The research methodology includes:DesignData collectionReliability and ValidityAnalysis of DataEthical issues involved in the research processResearch Design: Research design is of two types:QualitativeQuantitativeThe chosen research design is purely Qualitative, based on questionnaires, as this research is based upon human behaviors which cannot be calculated in the form of numbers and are very unpredictable.Data Collection: Data collection is categorized into two types:QualitativeQuantitativeIn this Research, Qualitative data is involved.Data Sampling: There are three types of data sampling:Random Sampling ( sample chosen randomly )Systematic Sampling ( sample chosen on the basis of some strategy)Stratified Sampling ( Chooses most relevant subjects and then sample is chosen randomly)This research uses Stratified sampling, for which most relevant subjects are Students, in which random sampling is done, by using questionnaires.Methods of Data Collection: Collection of data is done by:ExperimentationObservational studySurveys/questionnairesThis research uses Questionnaires, as a method of data collection.Analysis of Data: In order to extract useful results for reaching a strong conclusion and decision-making, it is important to analyze the data. In this research, answers obtained in questionnaires are analyzed to build patterns of user’s behavior and impacts.
Results: The following results are obtained after analysis of data, which was obtained through questionnaires:Students Utilization of Social Media overall: Majority of the student i.e 35% spend 2-5 hours on Social Media while 18% spend more than 8 hours on Social Media.Students Utilization w.r.t Gender: 80% of female students use Social Media, while96% male students use Social Media.Reasons for using Social Media overall: Major reasons for using Social Media in descending order are as follows:Socializing and making new friendsStaying updated about the trendsCollaboration with fellow students and studyAs a source of recreation and relaxationReasons for using Social Media w.r.
t Gender: According to female students, major reasons for using Social Media in descending order are as follows:Socializing and making new friendsCollaboration with fellow students and studyStaying updated about the trendsAs a source of recreation and relaxationWhile for male students, distribution for all the given reasons is equal.Academics: Most of the students agree on Social Media, proving to be helpful in their studies by any means. While almost less than half of them agree on Social Media, proving to have negative impact on their studies by any means.Social Behavior: Most of the students think that Social Media is helpful in keeping touch with friends and also in socializing. While less than half of students think that Social Media have negative impacts on their lives. A few agree that it destroys social skills.
When students were asked whether their real social life has been affected, more than half disagreed while less than half felt uncomfortable in face to face conversation.Privacy: When students were asked whether they think that there is any privacy issue associated to the usage of Social Media, more than half of the students agreed, while only a smaller number of students disagreed.Peer Pressure: According to the students, most of them think that peer pressure plays no role in their joining of Social Media, while only a few students think that peer pressure has some impact on their Social Media usage.Impacts of Social Media w.r.
t Gender: Results reveal that there is no significant difference between the answers of male and female students. The following are the major differences have been found in the following cases:Male students use Social Media more than female studentsMajor reason for the females to use Social Media is to socialize and to make new friends while for the male students, all the given reasons are equally significant.According to male students, the worst drawback of using Social Media is lack of privacy, while according to female students, the worst drawback of using Social Media is reduced focus on studies.Conclusion: Previously conveying and free sharing of information among individuals were confined by long distances and lack of facilities. The new universe of Social Media networking permits free sharing of thoughts, pictures, videos, news, business, brand and other updates. However, there are some negative aspects Social Media including:Privacy IssuesGrades and studies issuesSocial Media addictionLazinessLack of physical activitiesReduced real life interactionsRumors It is concluded that Male students are more aware of the privacy basics of Social Media sites, while female students are more concerned about their grades and studies.
It can also be concluded that if appropriately used, Social Media can prove to be a very useful source of learning, sharing and health activities. An e-learning system can play a very important role for students in order to cooperate and work together through the Social Media channels.Limitations: The focus of this research work is not generalization but rather an activity research and analyses the impacts of Social Media on particular group of students.References:”The history of social media”, Online Available: http://historycooperative.
org/the-history-of-social-media/ “Use Social Networking Technology”, Online Available: http://www.iop.harvard.edu/use-social-networking-technology Sunitha Kuppuswamy and P.
B. Shankar Narayan, “The Impact of Social Networking Websites on the Education of Youth, Volume 2, Issue 1, page 13, 2010. Shahzad Khan, “Impact of Social Networking Websites on Students”, Abasyn Journal of Social Sciences, 2012 Fezile Isik, “Comparison of the use of social network in education between North and South Cyprus”, In Proceedings of Social Behavior Sciences, pages 210–219, 2013. Samir N. Hamade “Perception and Use of Social Networking Sites among Undergraduate Students in Kuwait”, Proceedings of the 2013 10th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations, pages 439-444, 2013
