The Effects of Social Media on Students Essay Example

Today’s world is a global village. Everyone is connected to one another in this vast network generated by the Internet. Humans are social animals. We always like to remain in some group or follow a thing, and we prefer to follow what this group does or what this thing or person does. All of our traditions and cultures are the product of this group-oriented facet of human nature. Social media has created a few norms to society and influenced our society in many not so good ways. These negatives affect students in school today in a few ways. One being, it allows people to do what they want. Such as upload or say anything they choose. People also have a desire to be better than someone so if they see someone do something online that is popular, they’ll want to match what they did or do something better. Or a simple negative is that people would much rather want to socialize or see what other people are doing online than to learn anything important they can use to be successful in life.

Many reasons exist that explain why students love to spend time socializing, which can lead to challenges faced by students. Firstly, social networks provide them the freedom to do whatever they want, such as , upload what they want and talk to whom they want. They like to make new friends and comment on the lives of different people. Students can create other online identities that the real world does not allow. The freedom it gives them to act just by sitting in front of a computer fascinates them, and they then demand for more freedom. Never before has it been so easy for young minds to create a digital image of their actions through such a spontaneous medium. But this has a darker side that has gained the attention of many parents, and even eminent psychologists, all over the world. One of the biggest problems is the identity crisis constant social networking produces. Many psychologists are worried about the identity crisis that our present generation may face today. The lives of people, especially students, are largely influenced by what is posted by other people on their profiles. The habits that students learn are decided more by what their friends do and less by the teachings of parents or professors. 

Secondly, students have become prone to frequent fluctuations in mood and self-control. If one of a student’s friends posted about his or her present relationship with someone, then other friends are pressed to do the same thing. Actions that attract more public attention hold more value, even despite some of them being immoral or illegal. We even see that many students are worried about their looks, and so they always try to upload nicer pictures than their friends or nocer pictures to build their self-esteem. A recent survey has stated that whenever someone uploads a profile picture, it immediately affects the moods of friends. It often produces stress, anxiety or fear about their identities as people. Constantly thinking in this way can sometimes lead to depression. 

Finally, getting too involved in social media can lead to an addiction that inculcates bad habits. Students prefer to chat with friends for hours, and this leads to a waste of time that could have been used for studying, playing or learning new skills. It is often said that a long-term friendship or relationship is developed when people meet each other, spend time and share their experiences. But this virtual way of communicating with each other does not lead to a natural, friendly experience and hence cannot produce a healthy relationship with those friends. Also, these relationships tend to terminate easily due to a lack of personal contact. 

The most important things in a student’s life are studying, learning good habits and gaining knowledge to become a person with moral character. But today, as we see in various studies, this optimal learning process is seriously jeopardized by students becoming entrapped by the ploys of social networking. Students neglect their studies by spending time on social networking websites rather than studying or interacting with people in person. Actively and frequently participating in social networking can negatively affect their grades or hamper their journeys to their future careers. 

A counter argument one might use is the workload of assignments given by teachers. That then causes students to be overwhelmed which leads to them to cope with their anxiety through drugs or alcohol. Most commonly used today are tobacco and marijuana. Usually teenagers smoke is because of influence from friends and also the thinking that smoking can relieve someone from being stress. So as this student starts smoking, it turns into a habit which is quite difficult to stop. Due to that fact alone, one may say drug use is a bigger challenge for students. 

Considering all of the above pros and cons, it is necessary to develop certain regulations over the use of such social networking sites, especially for high school and college students. But still, students should get the choice to spend time socializing in an effective way. It should not hamper their school or college performance, and it should be kept in mind that social networking sites create virtual worlds that drastically differ from reality. Students should develop the cognitive and intuitive ability to analyze how much time they want to spend on social media. It is left up to the students to decide what really matters in their life and how much of this virtual life translates to real life.