Social media is rapidly changing and evolving. Over the past decade, social media have surged and considerably impacted people’s lives. The availability of the internet and smartphones has increased social media usage in everyone’s life.
It has come to the point that it is tough to live without social media. While it’s fun to use social media for posting photos, and stories, sharing your thoughts and experiences, and getting updated with the latest news and trends, you can fall into the dark side of social media too.
Social media applications such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter have made it thoughtful to connect to people worldwide. We can say that it has made a positive influence on our lives. But have you thought about the negative effects of Social media?
What Is The Positive And Negative Impact Of Social Media On Education
The impact of social media on education holds both positive and negative sides. There is a bunch of positive effects of social media on education which has highly transformed the educational style of the teachers and students. Actually, social media is affecting students’ academic performance at a very high pace.
Researchers define social media as “the relationships that exist between a network of people.”
It is a widely accessible free electronic tool, used for publishing, accessing, and collaborating any kind of socially acceptable content and information with the world, and a way to build new relationships.
Nowadays, social media has become one of the most important, next to the food, in everyone’s life.
It is a tool of trade for businesses, a platform for playing games for kids and sharing relevant information with media groups, and a digital classroom for learners.
Billions of People do watch and share, trillions of posts on Facebook consisting of text, photos, videos, and graphics.
According to research, YouTubers upload about 720,000 new content in a day which is equal to 30,000 videos per hour and one billion hours watched every day which becomes about 41.6 million hours per hour.
10 Negative Effects Of Social Media On Students
We should understand that adolescents and teenagers are particularly susceptible to several aspects of life’s growth and development. Thus, every informed adult should pay close attention to the effects that social media use has on these kids. It is important to quickly identify social media’s detrimental effects. Here are 10 major negative effects of social media on students:
1. It wastes time
Social media in today’s world is the biggest time waster. Not just teenagers, even adults are so much into social media that they overlook the time. Furthermore, students use social media in classrooms during lectures. Additionally, waste their free time scrolling the screen and eventually end up getting addicted to it.
2. Self-esteem and body image issues
Social media is full of people who try to show their best version possible, whether their lifestyle, status, job, or physical appearance. You can see many influencers and models on social media that portray the best lives and appearances.
Unfortunately, social media is changing the idea of how beauty is seen. The constant disclosure of unrealistic beauty standards and images and lifestyles on social media can generate feelings of being overwhelmed in people’s minds.
3. Anxiety
Instead of taking time for themselves, students are more interested in knowing what others are doing and about other’s personal life. Social media negatively impacts the thinking processes and emotions of those who use it more frequently, making them depressed and anxious. For study, job, and personal life, good mental health is crucial. As a result, it is advised to limit your time to a half-hour per day rather than waste the entire day.
4. It causes social problems
Social media many times causes social problems as teenagers on social media write and comment publicly. It may hurt sentiments and, viewers may not like it. Also, there is a lot of disturbing content that can implant the wrong mindset in students. Students many times feel inferior as they tend to compare themselves with others.
5. Unbalanced sleeping schedule
One of the main factors contributing to kids’ lack of sleep today is social media. They are continuously concerned with what their friends share and post. If they are not told to stop, students can remain engaged on social media for longer periods of time which will cost them their sleeping routine. If individuals engage in these activities, particularly during or right before sleep, there is a strong likelihood that their sleep may be disturbed.
6. Victim of cyber-crime
Cyberbullying is one of the most common harassment s faced by people using social media. Teenagers using social media get attacked by hackers and thieves and, many times, get exploited and blackmailed. There are some anonymous applications and software available. To acquire data of users, such applications ask for permission and, users generally permit without giving a second thought. As a result, they use this data to earn money.
7. Social Media Addiction
Social media is undoubtedly addictive, with all the latest trends, posts, stories, gossip, and friends’ whereabouts, but too much consumption and usage of social media can lead to social media addiction.
Suppose you’re constantly checking notifications to count the likes, comments, shares, and followers and get validated with these. In that case, you feel as if it is rewarding and you have achieved something, which makes you use social media more.
Social media addiction can lead to negligence of your personal life, concealing addictive behavior, stalking others excessively promoting unhealthy behaviors.
8. Attraction to material things
After seeing various social media posts and articles of actors and other famous personalities. As a result, teenagers tend to attract to unrealistic beauty and material things. After seeing others, students compare themselves and desire similar things that they might not be able to afford. As a result, many teenagers stole money and other items to fulfill their desires.
The Positive And Negative Impact Of Social Media On Education
9. Unrealistic views
Whenever you open social media apps, whether it is Facebook, Instagram, or Titktok, you can see tons of images, posts, and travel vlogs and think how exemplary their lives are. All you want is their perfect body, but nobody knows what happens behind the screen of social media.
The portrayal of idealistic views on body image, and extravagant lifestyles has a severe negative impact on the mentality of people. It can alter people’s relationships with others in real life, causing low self-esteem.
It has gone so far that teenagers opt for extreme ways to lose weight or attain muscle fast but are clueless about body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and several other mental and health subjects.
10. Anger issues and addiction
After excessive use of social media, students had anger issues. They had difficulty controlling their anger and frequent mood swings. Teenagers get addiction after the excessive use of social media. Many students, after the excessive use of social media, are admitted to hospitals as they face various neurological and other disorders.
