In the fast progressing modern world of technology, social media is everywhere. Most people today connect to the Internet every day and are constantly engaging on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
In the article, I will reveal the effects of social media on students academic performance.
Furthermore, teenagers and young adults spend 7 hours every week playing video games which often involves social interaction on social media platforms.
It isn’t surprising because many students spend a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
And this affects the students’ academic performance in school in one way or the other.
It Births Laziness
One of the major negative effects of social media on student academic performance is laziness.
All social media platforms are designed to hook users to spend most of their time interacting on the platforms. Students are not left behind.
Spending a lot of time on social media makes students lazy to read, do homework, and improve their academic performance.
It Causes Distraction
One of the greatest distractions of our time is social media. Social media gets people and students distracted to the extent that they lose focus completely.
Many students enjoy browsing and having fun on social media rather than studying. All of these lead to a waste of time and a decrease in academic performance.
It Promotes Procrastination And Unproductivity
Another negative effect of social media is that it promotes procrastination and unproductivity.
Many students tend to procrastinate their school activities and resort to spending more hours on social media.
Procrastination makes students become less productive at school and at home and this affects their academic performance.
It Births Addiction
Some students are not performing well in school, not because they are not brilliant or understand what they learn in class. But because are already addicted to social media.
The addition is one of the hardest habits to break. Students like this find it difficult to read and study their books, write their homework, and do other necessary school activities.
Negative Exposure
A lot of activities happen on social media – the good things and the bad things.
This exposes inappropriate content to students which leads to bad habits and other evil vices.
Some students get negative exposure through social media which affects their personality, communication and interaction with others, and their low performance in school.
Social media can make or break you as a student.
Social media is one of the greatest gifts in our generation and it has a lot of advantages and disadvantages depending on how you use it.
Does that mean you shouldn’t use social media as a student? Of course not. But as a student, you should use it effectively to your advantage and not disadvantage.
If you fall into any point of negative effects of social media listed above then you are already using it to your disadvantage and it is harmful to you now and in the future.
Students should learn how to use social media to increase their academic performance, productivity, brilliance, and relevancy.
The results showed that 97% of the students used social media applications. Only 1% of them used social media for academic purposes. Whereas 35% of them used these platforms to chat with others, 43% of them browsed these sites to pass time. Moreover, 57% of them were addicted to social media. Additionally, 52% of them reported that social media use had affected their learning activities, 66% of them felt more drawn toward social media than toward academic activities, and 74% of them spent their free time on social media platforms. The most popular applications (i.e., based on usage) were Snapchat (45%), Instagram (22%), Twitter (18%), and WhatsApp (7%). Further, 46% and 39% of them reported going to bed between 11 pm and 12 am and between 1 am and 2 am, respectively. Finally, 68% of them attributed their delayed bedtime to social media use, and 59% of them reported that social media had affected their social interactions.
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