We are living in a virtual reality today. Almost everyone we meet has at least, three to four accounts on different social media networking sites.
In a world like this, where differentiating between what is real and what is virtually real is becoming increasingly difficult every day, are there ways we can use it to actually benefit us?
How does social media affect different groups in our society, especially students? We hope to address these very questions below.
Advantages vs Disadvantages of Social Media
There are several ways in which social media affects students. Some of them are positive and some are negative.
Let us do a pertinent comparison.
It Can Help Students in Getting Access to A Plethora of Information.
Today, information is not as hard to find as it used to be earlier. In some cases, even money is not a hindrance anymore, because there are various articles available on a given topic, for absolutely no cost to the user.
Social Media Has Made Students Politically Aware.
When news from all over the world is right on your fingertips, it becomes easy to remain alert about the world’s political scenario.
This has also made students more likely to vote. Students form an important and powerful group of voters and therefore, must have knowledge of and access to information of a political nature.
The disadvantages of social media mostly occur when it is abused and used to excess.
- Social media can lower the concentration power of students. There are studies that have shown that we have a lower attention span now because of various forms of social media.
- Students report lower productivity and hamper education due to social media sites. It is a quick transition from a few minutes to hours wasted once you get caught in the rabbit hole of scrolling through reels.
- Social media networking sites are also known to influence people’s minds and produce severe mental health hazards on students aged 11-18. The ‘influencer’ culture is known to be very harmful to the self-image of students and teenagers.
Skills That Emerge from Social Media
That being said, social media helps students develop essential skills that can be very helpful in college, university, corporate, and personal levels.
Some skills that social media develops in students are:
- Communication – Social media can help students in learning how to effectively communicate a piece of information with a large audience in a short time.
- Writing – Although information on social media can be broadcast through audio-visual means, writing skills always come in handy in the form of captions etc.
- Creativity – Content online needs to be catchy and crisp, otherwise, it will not be popular. This gets the creative juices flowing in students, and helps them find new ways to float information into the world.
- Digital Marketing – A very important skill and job opportunity nowadays, digital marketing is the key to corporate advertising in the new world. This skill comes in handy when applying for jobs.
As you develop these skills, they will help you perform better in your university. Writing and creativity skills will come in handy while you submit your papers, essays, and other assignment help.
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After all, it is better to get help from professionals and understand how to write an essay correctly than to get an unsatisfactory score.
How Can Students Monetize These Skills?
The skills developed on social media are mostly common and will be useful in any industry or any independent organization.
Although now social media managers are special internships that companies pay students for. This could be your chance to use your skills to manage your firm’s online image and earn a few dollars from it.
There are also vacancies such as SMM promotion, which is directly related to social networks.
Like most things, social media has its pros and cons. It is definitely up to us how we use it. Most of the downsides can be avoided if we strictly control the time we spend on these sites and the type of content we consume when using them.
But we must already admit that this is a part of our life, from which we will not go anywhere, so we must use them as useful as possible for you.
