Impact of Social Media on Students

Social networking websites like Facebook, twitter, MySpace, youtube and etc. are very much common among youth. Social media has several impacts on students and their academic work as Students use social media websites for discussion and for study purposes. Social media has become a vital part in modern society. Social media is becoming increasingly important for this era, because of increasing global outreach potential offered by the internet. Students can contact, address and influence many other people at the same time all around the world, via various forms of social media.

Social media also have some positive points, as it helps people in online communities and enhance communication. Social media has been used in many ways in this era as it is the era of technology. Youth is learning fast on social media and using it for constructive purpose also. One can educate people about the society, good and bad, values, ethics and culture, if its use is preceded in a positive way. Sometimes, Students use these social media tools in their studies also. They talk about their lectures, subjects or a single topic of their syllabus with their campus community groups.

Many of teens, youth but also adults also use it. Many of them don’t know how to use it safe. Over the past few years, social media networks have become one of the most popular applications on the internet. Social networking sites attracts youth, teens specially students towards them. While chatting and talking to friends, students forget about the time. Somehow, it is wastage of time, by saving that time students can learn more by studying.

Social media is just like a trap for students as students get so much involve in it. For some teens and tweens, social media is a primary way to interact socially. In spite of gathering and going out with friends, students prefer social media to contact and make fun with their friends. New generation usually now love to spend their time in using internet and mobile phones.

Use of social media affects students so much, not only their studies but also their relations. A large number students log on to one of their favorite social media website so many times on daily basis. Some if the students keep using cell phones for texting and instant massaging.

For youth and students, it is not much beneficial as social media websites are not much safe and students who use social media get so much addicted to it and they forget about their other activities and responsibilities. Too much use of social media websites is risky for the students as they lose their personal data and information, they upload on the websites. Not only on internet but also when students meet each other in their educational institutes, they keep discussing about their activities and data uploaded by them and their friends.

World is moving and developing fast, use of social media is not much bad, but it is worse, when used in a negative way. For parents it is advised that, while students are using social networking site or any other social media tool, it is the responsibility of parents to watch over them and tell them how to use it in a good way. Do not make so much hard and fast rules for children, that they begin to feel being caged. Proper guidance and counseling will works to teach students, children and youth the best and positive use of social media.

Limits of the social media

WHAT is this social media, and why is it so important?

Variations of this question rang out all weekend as news spread of the Social Media Mela, a conference that brought Indian journalists, writers, and activists to Karachi to discuss with their Pakistani counterparts how the social media has affected various aspects of their lives.

According to Wikipedia, social media is, simply put, “web-based and mobile-based technologies which are used to turn communication into interactive dialogue among organisations, communities, and individuals” (also known as Web 2.0). It includes Twitter and Facbeook, but also blogs and microblogs, online communities, YouTube and any other space on the Web that is accessible to all and enabled by “scalable communication techniques” — meaning that it can be accessed as easily on a humble mobile phone as on a sophisticated laptop.

The conference illustrated how Pakistanis are using social media, integrating it into culture, politics, activism and education, amongest other disciplines and areas, in a positive and constructive way. Recognizing the potential of the social media to effect far-reaching change in Pakistan, the US Consulate organised last year’s social media conference but this year took a back seat and left it to the NGO PeaceNiche, run by Sabeen Mahmud. She and her team decided to make Pakistan-India relations a primary theme at this year’s event, and for many attendees, the highlight of the weekend was meeting the Indian guests who were able to attend thanks to former Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s personal influence in having their visas issued.

The conference had a laid-back, relaxed feel with a desi atmosphere. Speakers from a variety of organisations and disciplines, as well as appealing graphic designs, gave the mela a unique branding, with an army of young volunteers ushering guests around the venue and a buzz that lingered for several daysafter the event. During the sessions, attendees learned how the social media has been used to raise funds for a movie in India (‘crowdfunding’), enhance and support the learning activities in a school in Kashmir, effect political change through online petitions, create instant celebrities in the arts and media, engage Pakistani youth in the political process and raise awareness about media ethics, sexual harassment and human rights issues. The Indian guests returned home with many negative illusions about Pakistan countered, and crates of mangoes to share with their families.

But the conference was as much about the limits of social media as it was about what it can achieve. This was brought to light in Ali Dayan Hasan’s keynote speech on social media and human rights. The Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch said that the social media helped spread information quickly and was useful for recording human rights abuses, but policymakers had to listen and effect change in government — which the social media has not been able to achieve.

Raheel Khursheed, communications director for India’s Change.org, also addressed the issue of armchair activism enabled by the social media, saying bluntly that online activism was useless if it was not followed by real-world action. Beena Sarwar, a peace activist, echoed Hasan in her blog observations about the social media conference: “Political establishments have the power to change [the situation between India and Pakistan], if only they would follow the voice of the people.”

That voice is being expressed louder than ever on the social media, but is anyone from the government actually listening?

In Pakistan, there is an image problem in the context of the social media. Its proponents sometimes expect far too much of it; they are almost evangelical about its powers to change society and the political system. They will be disappointed by the fact that the social media mela did not solve the Kashmir problem, eliminate corruption, stop the killing of the Hazara Shias or the Baloch, or the persecution of Ahmadis and Christians. Such people need constant reminding that the revolution will not come just because people click ‘like’ on a Facebook link or retweet a popular politician’s messages.

By the same token, many don’t take the social media seriously enough. Its detractors are often those who simply don’t understand it. Take the example of Pakistani journalists who think that the social media is merely reporting about social events.

Jokes aside, mainstream media in Pakistan has practitioners who feel that the social media is no competition to traditional print or broadcast journalism, or lacks legitimacy as a medium. And those Pakistani politicians who are online and tweeting to their followers seem to think of the social media as a game or a popularity contest: who has the most ardent followers or who has the most abusive trolls.

The power of the social media lies in its ability to give a voice to people traditionally left out of the mainstream media, to hold political figures and governments to account for their actions and abuses, and to mobilise people to action in communities and across them.

But there’s still a huge gap between intent and action, and it will take several years for the social media scene in Pakistan to mature enough to have a tangible effect on governance and policy. Still, learning, observing and experimenting without fear is the most intelligent approach to understanding what the social media can and can’t do for us.