BMSW 4001: Social Media's Impact on Students - Report

This report, prepared for the UWTSD Centre Manager, investigates the multifaceted impact of social media on students. It begins with an introduction defining social media and its relevance to students, followed by an overview of the report's structure. Task 1 delves into both the positive and negative effects of social media, including improved access to information and communication skills, alongside adverse impacts on learning, and psychological well-being. The report provides recommendations for students to better utilize social media, ensuring a balanced approach to its use. The conclusion summarizes the findings, emphasizing the importance of understanding and managing social media's role in students' lives. References are provided to support the analysis.

Impact of social media on
students

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
Positive impact of social media...................................................................................................2
Negative impact...........................................................................................................................4
Recommendations........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Social media is defined as the technological platform which allows individuals to share
and exchange information, thoughts and ideas with communities with the use of virtual network.
These internet based communication medium are known as one of the fastest means of
communication which have brought significant changes to life of all individuals. Students are
also greatly affected by social media in academic as well as personality aspects. However this
effect has both positive and negative side. The report will evaluate both of these impacts of
social media on students. It will also suggest some recommendations for students so that they can
better utilize this tool for their development and growth.
TASK 1
Positive impact of social media
Like many others now a day’s students are also spending a good amount of their time on
popular social media tools like Face book, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube. These tools allow
students to share photos, videos and to connect with communities via social and virtual
networking. There are several key benefits of using social media in student life such as improved
access to knowledge and information sources, communication skills, social connectivity and
knowledge up gradation. The impact of these benefits cannot be neglected and for this sake
students are regularly encouraged by their teachers and family to stay active on social media. The
two key beneficial impacts of social media are discussed as below:
Communication and social connectivity:
Social media platforms are spread all over the world and thus people from different
culture and nations actively use them. Thus students have lot of opportunity to interact with new
people as well as with friends who are lost long ago. It gives a sense of emotional support and
connectivity with the world. There are certain aspects which cannot be learned via books or
knowledge given within classrooms (Chuni, 2019). For instance a sense of diversity, different
trends going around the world and cultural beliefs across the globe can be learned only by

interacting with people. From cost and time perspective it is not feasible for all students to visit
across the globe. Thus connections developed through social media platforms like Facebook
builds such emotional relations that student’s get chance to learn about other aspects of world.
With study schedules and jobs it is also many time difficult for students to get in touch
with their family members. It becomes more crucial for the students who are studying in
university miles away from their home town or nation. Without any emotional support they may
feel loneliness and it can have adverse impact on their academic performance and health
(Salloum and et.al., 2019). However with the social media students never feel lonely because
they can communicate with their friends and family at any instant. Social media is also known to
be best platform for making friendship stronger. Thus the emotional support provided by these
tools helps learners to stay focused on their study and to easily cope up with the depression,
homesickness and other psychological pressures. Use of social media relaxes students so that
they do not consider study as burden and challenging. Many times when students face any
difficulty they can share it on social media with family, friends, classmates or even with
unknown people of community. As a result many helping hands are available for students to help
them with donations, study material and emotional support.
Wide access to information sources:
As a student I believe that the speed with which I can access any type of information on
social media tools is unbeatable. It has changed the long notion of pursuing studies only for some
limited hours and to rely completely and only on one teacher. The use of social media allows
students to have 24 hour access and support system from the knowledge providers. Students can
easily share the information, books and can discuss their queries with experts from all over the
world (Rambe and Jafeta, 2017). For the successful development it is necessary that learners
must be given an environment in which they can learn freely and all their problems can be
resolved. On social media students communicate with the professionals and experts which have
more experience and better techniques to solve study related problems. Thus for solving any
problem students can access support from multiple mentors. This knowledge support enhances
the capabilities and knowledge of students. For instance on many occasion there are concepts
which I don’t understand in classroom based study but on social media sites when I observe
practical demonstration of the concept through examples then it gives me more clarity. It is also

anlaysed that contrary to the earlier beliefs now students are not only oriented to a particular
subject. Instead learners are able to gain knowledge of multiple subjects in which they have
interest that too without paying any additional fees or resources. Social media has made it very
easy for the students to access good quality of study materials at any instant of time without any
difficultly (Amin and et.al., 2016). Social media platforms support information exchange in
variety of format such as in text, video, audio and graphics. It makes study process more
interactive and influential. Prior to social media it was not possible for learners to quickly and
easily share information in such wide range of information in seconds. Thus the study has been
made so interactive and fast with the help of social media which allow students to learn any
subject or area with more clarity and accuracy.
Negative impact
It cannot be denied that social media has improved the way of communication and
learning for the students. However its uncontrolled and unmonitored use can also have negative
impact on the students. The significant negative impact of social media is as follows:
Adverse impact on learning and studies:
Many students are so much influenced by social media that they began to spend large
amount of time on social media. The communication with other users and access of much
inappropriate web content also make it undesirable from the study perspective. While using
social media many students do not have proper schedule and thus they began to stay up late on
these online platforms (Celestine and Nonyelum, 2018). As a result of this self study time of
learners may reduced and can have adverse impact on the performance. One of the major
drawbacks of social media which affect all of its users is that it does not have any monitoring or
control of the type of information floating around it. Thus many times even inaccurate or
misleading information is also adopted by the students.
The benefits of social media make student believe that all content available on social
media is accurate and useful. Thus they even began to disbelief their teachers and mentors.
However in reality there are majority of occasions when social media content is inappropriate
and can misguide the learners. Thus in such situations it is vital that students cannot rely blindly
on social media. It can act as assistive tool but cannot serve as sole learning tool. For many

students social media has emerged as distraction. Even during exams or important assignments
when students are required to focus on their assignments or studies they are not able to cut off
from social media. These tools are becoming addictions for the students.
Psychological and physical impact:
Increasing popularity and fun of using social media make students addicted to these
platforms (Rahman, Ramakrishnan and Ngamassi, 2020). Thus when individual spend excess
time on internet or on their mobile or computer device it leads to various health issues such as
sore eyes, back pain and joint related issues. Due to busy study schedules when students are not
able to access social media then they began to feel depression or anxiety. It is also observed that
apart from the study related dependence students also have psychological dependence. For
instance when students get appreciation on social networking sites then they began to post each
and everything related to their life on public platforms. Thus in situations when people do not
show appreciation or encouragement then students began to feel lonely and depressed.
As a result of this instead of focusing on studies students tend to emphasis on fact that
whey they are getting good response on social media. In such conditions the ultimate goal of
students becomes to impress virtual social community. It not only reduces grades of students but
also makes them depressed. Social media tools also give permission to unknown individuals to
enter into private life of a person. Thus cyber bullying or financial and emotional fraud scams are
also quite common threats of social media. Some students also experiences bullying on these
platforms which makes them frustrated and diverted from the studies.
Another negative aspect of the social media is that it develops inferiority complex among
students. For instance when students observe their fellow mates buying new expensive things or
having good things in their life then they may begin to compare themselves with others. This
comparison often makes them negative and upset about having problems in their life
(Chukwuere and Chukwuere, 2017). The negative attitude developed among students makes it
hard for them to focus on learning. Instead of providing time for studies students focus on
searching profiles of other students. Some students began to completely face diversion from their
studies and start spending their time with friends so that they can post updates on social media.
In such circumstances social media platforms become great threat for the quality study outcomes.

The cyber bullying or fraud or blackmailing from the fake id can lead to mental destruction of
the students. They may become very sensitive and emotional and excessive fear can use
traumatic life to them (Talaue and et.al., 2018). With social media students also get a chance to
raise their voice against multiple issues which may not seem related to them. When such issues
are related to social welfare then its good but it can also have negative results. As students may
start devoting their time to handle such matters, they naturally give less time on researching or
making efforts for study. Thus social media usage must be controlled and regulated by students
so that only its benefits can be grabbed.
Recommendations
It is recommended that for utilizing social media benefits students must have balance
between the study and social media. They must have fix time duration for using social media so
that they not spend excessive time on such platforms. When time will be limited then students
will have chance to study more productively as well as they can themselves decide how they
want to use social media. Another important recommendation is that students must be guided
properly regarding risk of social media (Boateng and Amankwaa, 2016). For instance students
must be aware about cyber crimes and hacking risk. In situations they face any kind of cyber
bullying or fraud they must immediately report it to their family members or guardians without
any hesitation. Parents and teachers must also ensure that they provide their support to students
and guide them that on social media students must make friends wisely. Students must also learn
that which information they have to share on social media and which information they must hide.
Social media can be helpful in studies but for that it is necessary that students must avoid social
media addiction and its unnecessary usage.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above study that though social media also include negative
impact on the students development and growth it is an inseparable part of the society and
individual’s life. Thus it is necessary that students must understand the ways to use social media
properly so that it can contribute to their grooming and development. It has been also analysed
that students must also understand the negative side of social media and associated threats with
it. This will assist learners to expose themselves with benefits of social media tools.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Amin, Z., and et.al., 2016. Impact of social media of student’s academic
performance. International Journal of Business and Management Invention. 5(4). pp.22-
29.
Boateng, R. and Amankwaa, A., 2016. The impact of social media on student academic life in
higher education. Global Journal of Human-Social Science. 16(4). pp.1-8.
Celestine, A.U. and Nonyelum, O.F., 2018. Impact of social media on students’ academic
performance. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research. 9(3). pp.1454-
1462.
Chukwuere, J.E. and Chukwuere, P.C., 2017. The impact of social media on social lifestyle: A
case study of university female students. Gender and Behaviour. 15(4). pp.9966-9981.
Rahman, S., Ramakrishnan, T. and Ngamassi, L., 2020. Impact of social media use on student
satisfaction in Higher Education. Higher Education Quarterly. 74(3). pp.304-319.
Rambe, P. and Jafeta, R.J., 2017. Impact of social media advertising on high energy drink
preferences and consumption. Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR). 33(4).
pp.653-668.
Salloum, S.A., and et.al., 2019, October. Understanding the impact of social media practices on
e-learning systems acceptance. In International Conference on Advanced Intelligent
Systems and Informatics (pp. 360-369). Springer, Cham.
Talaue, G.M., and et.al., 2018. The impact of social media on academic performance of selected
college students. International Journal of Advanced Information Technology. 8(4). pp.27-
35.
Online
Chuni, S., 2019. Positive and negative effects of social media on students. [Online]. Accessed
through < https://www.parentcircle.com/article/positive-and-negative-effects-of-social-
media-on-students/>