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RUNNING HEAD: IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ACADEMICS

IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ACADEMICS 12

IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ACADEMICS

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IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ACADEMICS

Social media is according to research has a great impact on the academic performance for freshmen in study. Recorded research indicates that freshmen spend much of time in texting, listening to music, browsing in the internet and conversing in the social network. In average a fresh woman in the field of study spends up to 12 hours engaged in any form of social media. Research indicates the interaction between the student and social generally results in poor academic performance. Some critics argue that social media such as music and newspapers enhances high academic performance

From the research done, there is a like hood that they focus on the impact the social media has on the adolescents rather than the fresh and new students in the college. The activities focused in this case include social networking, texting, which have become so popular in the modern days. Some researcher have stated that for the impact of the social media to the performance of academics to be detected, a longitudinal analysis should be done cutting across all ages that are school going. Narrowing down to the adolescents may not bring a clear implication (Haythornthwaite, 2005). If the new college is also put into analysis the impact will be felt since such students are mature and can help to tell the amount of time wasted on social media as compared to the adolescents who doesn’t know how to plan themselves.

An interview that touched 483 freshmen women from the northeast university indicated that a minimum of eleven different social media negatively impact the academic performance. Some of the mentioned negative influencers include television, movies, music, browsing the internet, social network, voice calls, texting, magazines and many other non-school reading materials. Most students are having become addicted to many of the above material up to any extent that they cannot do without them. The TV, movies and other social media are now replacing the daily routines. Books are meant to be read are now kept a way as the student concentrate in watching and reading non-school materials. According to the research conducted in the northeast university, students analyzed the effect the social media had cost to their academic live. All students presented a negative impact.

Research indicates that possession of cell phones, social network access, newspapers and television watching has a severe impact in the academic performance. According to Walsh, students who spend their time with the social network have a tendency of submitting incomplete assignments and late attendance to classes. The students have less time for sleeping since they spend much of their time on the social media. Lack of enough sleep makes the experience difficult in concentrating in class when being taught. Some of the students may include some substances that make them a wake for a long time while on the social media. The substances abused makes changes in the normal activities of the body a fact that makes them underperformers.

Higher learning institution student are the most affect people that experience the above problem. Walsh, gives a suggestion that to reduces the impact caused by the social media, teachers should also join the social media and tries as much as possible to always remind the students on their assignment and even assign the students while in the social media. By doing so, the students will start using some of the time spent in the social media to better their academic life.

General back ground

Social media and other internet based tools promote collaboration and sharing of information, if they are put into an academic setting; it will promote student engagement and finally enhances high academic standards. The system if well put in place it will result in collaborative and educational activities.

The high advancement of information and communication technology has promoted the positive incorporation of the social media in the academic processes. It helps in both community development and it also improves the standard of interaction between students and the community at large. The social network helps individuals to express themselves and interact with each other. The ability of self expression and interactions makes it easy for the students to learn how to do their things independently. Some of the social network such as face book makes it easy for the student’s access visual information making it easy for the students gets to learn new concepts faster and clearly understood (De Vries, Gensler, & Leeflang, 2007). If the social media is organized, students should interact with their peers and make an interchange of information easer. The sharing of information may lead to better understand of some concept which otherwise would be defunct for an individual student to tackle. Students have found a platform where they share important information in a unique manner.

Though social media can help in improving student learning through student interactions, challenges arise when social media are included in an academic system. The assumption that students are used to using certain types of social media results from educators to fail to provide the resources. Encouragement required supporting the student to learn found that even when social media is used for an educational purpose, students incorporate the technology into their lives in a way that may differ from the intentions of the course instructor. For example, off-topic or non-academic discussions occur on social media because of its primary design as a social networking tool. Further, as student's age increases, the frequency of off-topic discussions also increases. The above indicates that while social media may encourage broader discussions of course content, older students may spend more time than younger students engaging in unrelated discussions. Social media can also negatively impact student GPA, as well as a number of time students, spend preparing for class the primary explanation for this effect is that social media gives too much stimulation and therefore has ability distract students from completing their coursework. Another important reason for this is that students may spend much time on the social network a fact that may make it difficult for the student to balance their online activities and their academic development.

Social media and the system can also be a tricky instructional issue to implement since it tries to balance the power of the teachers with the active participation of the students. Collaboration through social media makes it learning easier this is because it provides a platform where students and educators can work together thus coming up with a common understanding of a particular topic, rather than an approach that emphasizes individual contributions. The above makes, students and educators equally participate in the knowledge sharing process. Though this seems beneficial for creating and disseminating knowledge, social media can also become a privacy concern. The concept above suggests that establishing standards for social media use should call for behavior and attitude guidelines similar to those initially employed in the school.

When using social media, instructors must be able to play an active role in the interacting the process. Educators must not only promote creativity and assess student activities but also inform and clarify misunderstandings that occur involving the content area and subsequent knowledge creation to maintain the integrity of the learning environment. For the full support of these functions, instructor must be provided with professional development that demonstrates how to incorporate social media into their classrooms for it to be used to promote student learning effectively. Even though educators are supportive of using social media and may receive professional development. Teachers report that they do not know how to incorporate it into their classroom these teachers are employed with the time factor involved in designing lessons that make use of the social media while at the same time creating lessons that do not use social media. However, educators will be compelled to incorporate social media activities into their classroom that they have created because they can control the content that is included; for example, content that may be assessed on state mandated tests

Some educators have managed to incorporate social media into their lessons; other educators are not able utilizing social media for educational purposes. The use of social media must be of high purpose. It should be applied in situations that are the most appropriate for learning and student understanding to occur, take an example of the social network that is used as the best introductory tool for review and collaboration, not merely as a method of advertising class reminders. Therefore, instructors who are considering incorporating social media into their academic courses should ensure that the particular type of social media used matches the learning requirements for the students.

Research questions male students

1. How old are you……………………………………….?

2. What level of study are you………………………………………………?

3. Do you know anything to do with social media…………………………………………?

4. How many social media sites are you aware of………………………………………….?

5. How many are you a member………………………………………………?

6. What do you use social media for……………………………………………….?

7. Per a day how many hours to do you send in the social media……………………………………

8. What benefits to you get from social media.................................................?

9. Do you thing social media has a positive imp active on your academic life……………………………..?

Questions for female students

1. How old are you……………………………………….?

2. What level of study are you………………………………………………?

3. Do you know anything to do with social media…………………………………………?

4. How many social media sites are you aware of………………………………………….?

5. How many are you a member………………………………………………?

6. What do you use social media for……………………………………………….?

7. Per a day how many hours to do you send in the social media……………………………………

8. What benefits to you get from social media.................................................?

9. Do you thing social media has a positive imp active on your academic life……………………………..?

Questions for English department

1. How old are you……………………………………….?

2. What level of study are you………………………………………………?

3. Do you know anything to do with social media…………………………………………?

4. How many social media sites are you aware of………………………………………….?

5. How many are you a member………………………………………………?

6. What do you use social media for……………………………………………….?

7. Per a day how many hours to do you send in the social media……………………………………

8. What benefits to you get from social media.................................................?

9. Do you thing social media has a positive imp active on your academic life……………………………..?

10. Do you recommend your students to use social media…………………………..?

11. What social media do you recommend your student to use……………………………….?

Research methodologies

Qualitative

Qualitative type of research technique involves describing in details specific situation using research tools like interviews, surveys, and Observations. It is basic exploratory research. It helps in gaining a clear an understanding of underlying reasons, and motivations found in a given situation. It provides the knowledge of the problem and contributes to \ ideas development. The technique is a valuable tool for coming up with some important hypotheses for optimum quantitative analysis.The method is also used to open up trends in thought and opinions and dig deeper into an issue. A collection of data uses vary using unstructured and semi-structured methods. Some common methods include focus groups individual interviews, and participation. The sample size is typically small, and respondents are selected to fulfill a given quota.

Quantitative

Quantitative research approaches call for quantifiable raw data that incorporates statistical explanations. Quantitative Research is mainly used to determine the quantity of a problem by way of generating data that can be modified into useable statistics. The technique is applied to quantify attitudes of different individuals, opinions available, and behaviors. Quantitative Research method involves measurable data to analyze facts and open up patterns in research. Quantitative data obtained from the field are much more structured and where expanded than Qualitative data collection methods. The data collection methods include various forms of surveys which include online surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys and kiosk surveys, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and systematic observations

Meta-Analysis

The meta-analysis research method is useful for finding out the mean impact of several different studies on a hypothesis

Sampling Method

Through random sampling method where the essential starting point and it was identified by the searching clue where the first student was randomly identified, within the location of study. Gender parity key to consider in the study, as per conventional study mode, in case a male student was picked the next was supposed to be a female respondent.

Pros

It helps in establishing reputation outside the learning initiations. The above is mad possible since the involved students get a with range friend in the online platforms. Some platforms such linked in make the students directly interact with their future employers (acobsen, W. C., & Forste, 20012). By the interaction, the students get to learn how to associate with people and thus the way they will be relating with their employees in the future.

Social network improves the student research ability. A student with a vast number of social network accounts online tends to interact with each of them in daily basis. During the interaction, such students learn skills that would help them research on some important academic concept.

It makes it easy for the student to reach and socialize with knew people. The online chats enable students in capacity building. Social network opens up avenues for the student tom learn on to socialize with each other a factor that is not taught in class. In the process of socializing students tend to accept the diversity.

It makes it easy for the students and their teachers to share new concepts. Social network has made it easy for the teachers and students to share important information which otherwise would not be felt if the technology was not implemented

Sharing of information between students from different institutions have been made possible. Students from different schools can now share information given to them by their teacher. This establishes a mutual understanding among the involved students. Some information that a given teacher had and was not understood by some students will be obtained from a different source and be understood if it is presented in different way.

Cons

Time wastage. Most students do not have principles governing them on what should be done at what time. Such students may get engaged into the social media and forget about some other important aspects to be addressed. For example the student may get involved in some other aspects found in the social media and forget about the academic achievement.

Existence of multitude of networks to choose from, This make the involved students get confused on what type of network to be linked. In the process of confusion, the student may found him/herself surfing into some worthless sites that cannot enhance academic development. Some end up wasting a whole twelve hours doing nothing but moving from one social network to another.

The students may get harassed while using the social media. Sometimes the students may get some images or content that may harass them (Bryant, J., & Oliver, 2009). Some of the harassing content the student may come across includes nude pictures and some dirt videos

Some personal posts may ruin the student’s image to the outward world. Since social media has all stake holders that the student need, some post may result in spoiling the picture created to the employees and parents a factor that will result in low self-esteem in student which finally can lead to failure in exams.

Conclusions

Using social network for academic purposes can be of significant advantage for student learning in multiple ways. Social media enhances peer interactions, and sharing promotes Diversity Bridge in the classroom. It establishes open lines and cheap mechanism of communication between students and instructors. The social network has also facilitated discussion and transfer of knowledge among students, establishing a deeper sense of understanding of the course material. Thus, students who use social media can move beyond the memorization of material and create products that represent their voices finally; social media can aid in the achievement of both general and content specific student learning outcomes. Therefore, student learning can be enhanced when teachers incorporate social media into academic course content.

References

De Vries, L., Gensler, S., & Leeflang, P. S. (2012). Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(2), 83-91.

Bryant, J., & Oliver, M. B. (Eds.). (2009). Media effects: Advances in theory and research. Routledge.

Jacobsen, W. C., & Forste, R. (2011). The wired generation: Academic and social outcomes of electronic media use among university students. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14(5), 275-280.

Haythornthwaite, C. (2005). Social networks and Internet connectivity effects. Information, Community & Society, 8(2), 125-147.