Many people believe that social media affects the amount of learning time and has led to a significant diversion of students' attention from their studies. Many parents are worried that the rise of social media is distracting children from their studies.
However, according to new European research, using social media sites such as Snapchat, Facebook, or Instagram has a minimal effect on academic performance.
Researchers from the University of Bamberg, Germany sought out to clarify whether social media does have a negative impact on school grades. They looked at 59 studies that included more than 30,000 young people worldwide.
Some of the 59 studies report that social media can have a negative impact on school performance, others show a positive influence, while some have failed to find any relationship at all.
Connections to friends and other people proved to bring a positive effect on students' academic achievements. To add to that, students can connect with various educational groups related to their field of study on social media. They can easily access important and authentic information shared by others. They are also conscious of its positive as well as a negative influence on interpersonal relations.
The usage of social media is useful as an outlet of higher educational institutions. Group discussions can be arranged with the experts and an appointment can be fixed with other subject experts using social media.
Social media has the potential to affect the grades, social-skills, and time-management skills of college students, but it could be a positive or negative effect.
"I am just always interested in what everyone else is doing. It does negatively affect me because I could be spending my time doing other things to improve my life and academics, but I choose not to," said Caylan Harrison, a sophomore student at William Peace University.
Too much exposure to social media can lead to an addiction that fosters bad habits. Chatting with friends for hours leads to a waste of time that could have been used for studying, playing or learning new skills.
One sign that highlight the fact you are spending too much time online is when checking your social media accounts is the first thing you do when you wake up and last thing you do before you go to sleep. Another sign is when you are taking breaks too often to check Facebook or other platforms, thus making the task longer and more difficult to process.
Forming groups on social media enable professors to connect with the students to share crucial instructions and vital study material for the class online. Students have the freedom to air their viewpoints, innovative ideas or even doubts related to studies with their classmates and professors on these groups.
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