Impact of Social Media to College Students
The impact of social media platforms to college-going students has two sides to it – positive and negative. While staying connected and sharing information through social media is emotionally significant, the same platform is also likely to lead to depression of college students; as they compare their lives with each other, they end up feeling inadequate.
When you think of social media, what comes to mind? Well, there are student forums and communities. There’s Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and WhatsApp, among many others, to mention a few. This article highlights a few examples of both positive and negative impacts of social media on college students:
Stay Connected
Adjusting to college life can be overwhelming, and you may not have the time to meet up with a lot of people. Amidst the stresses of assignments, studying, and writing the term papers and other campus activities, one may feel isolated from the outside world. However, thanks to social media, which has become an essential part of our everyday life, students are more connected than ever.
Social platforms help students connect with their peers, high school classmates who moved away and allowed them to also share their college experiences with family and friends. You don’t have to call and look up two hundred plus contacts, all you need is to update your status, and everyone is updated about what down with you.
Photo/Tero
Stay Updated
As a student, you can get information about college events on time through on-campus organizations and clubs’ social pages or groups. Students also utilized social media to get research about classwork. Especially when one student is connecting to another student studying the same material.
In fact, according to research conducted by Tara Heffner, who is a psychologist at Rowan University, students utilizing social media for sharing classwork increased their GPA by 38%. Besides, students are continually receiving an updated in-form f a push notification, and if one student posts about a specific concept, they are bound to follow it up and stay updated.
Also, Students struggling with classwork used social media to ask for recommendations on best academic assistance agencies as well as read reviews of popular ones like Homeworkdoer.org, among others. They are also able to stay updated about free and cheap stuff on offer for students.
Depression or Anxiety
As humans, we are bound to feel envious and jealous, sometimes when we spot something with our peers. The problem with spending too much time on social media is student minding other people’s business and comparing themselves. In such an instance, when one sees their peers living, the life “they could have” or envy, the feeling of inadequacy often leads to depression.
Also, when students post pictures of themselves and get more likes compared to one’s post, their self-esteem tends to be damaged. That’s how one ends up having a negative self-image about themselves, not to mention the cyber-attacks one can get. Cyberbullying leads to social isolation n and emotional difficulties.
Reputation
Depending on what you post regularly as a student, social media can have a long-term effect on you in terms of image. Whereas posting on such platforms is free, few consider that their posts have consequences. For Instance, employers these days when recruiting usually ask for a social media handle.
When a background check is done on you, and you were reckless with your comments or post, your guess is as good as mine – you won’t get the job. Therefore, while it’s the digital age and students can’t survive without social media, precautions ought to be considered concerning what student share lest they damage their future job prospects.
Author: Lucas Arlo
