For the last few years, social media has played an essential part in our lives. If you take a moment to recall how your life was ten years ago, you will realise how social media has a significant effect on our daily lives. Social media has evolved so much in the past decade, that now you interacting with people from different parts of the world with just a tap on your mobile screen.
Social media site like Facebook has 500 million followers; Twitter has Near 200 million. There is no amount of doubt that social media has a strong influence on students’ life as well. Teenagers are more concerned about their social life nowadays. There are obviously a lot of positive impacts on teenagers who are using social media.
The way they can express themselves through this platform helps them a lot to open up in the latter years of their lives. Even a few years back a teenager used to have friend circle nearby his/her place, but now having a friend from a different continent is not difficult at all. Social media not only has positives, but it also influences students’ life in some negative ways as well.
Check these ways to analyse how social media is impacting students’ life:
- Social media is an addiction
A recent time study showed that 63% Americans log into Facebook on a daily basis and 40% of them do it multiple times in a day. Most of us go online because we are bored and needs to distract ourselves from the current situation.
Posting a photo on social media and getting likes and comments gives you a definite boost in life where you feel nothing is going right with your life. This kind of powerful temptation does not take much time to become an addiction for teenagers.
- It’s where you meet your friends
Meeting a friend in person is old school now. Teens respond to their friends online. They meet, talk, and share their sorrows and happiness on social media these days.
Obviously, they meet in social venues, but it is now easier to connect to people who share the same interests with you on social media. There are thousands of groups on social media, who met online first, then met in person. There are so much more than only communications on social media – people talk about global and environmental issues, share their views, learn new things, in one word it helps you to change your worldview.
But sometimes, teenagers take this virtual life so seriously; their real life is in trouble. Social media cannot be a perfect replacement for the face to face meetings. The likes and comments on your photo deciding how popular you are, or how many notifications you get deciding how much people love you, is nothing but made teenagers’ life vague.
- Impact on studies
A recent survey has shown that about 72% of high school students and 78% of college students are active on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Their online identity is playing a great role to develop their real life identity too.
Most students are likely to multitask like checking on their social media sites while studying, which leads to lack of concentration in their academic performances. An essential thing in a student’s life in learning, studying about new things, but nowadays the learning process is put at risk by students who are mostly influenced by the virtual social lifestyle.
Frequently surfing the social media sites can profoundly affect their grades and overall performance in studies. If you need help with this problem in your life, you can go through “Steps to organise yourself with your study for better resultâ€.
- The influence on our lives
A few years back it used to be a great deal when celebrities have fans and followers, but because of social media regular people now also have followers. It was a big deal that how many people are reading the New York Times or how many are watching Oprah’s show because they had the power to have an impact on peoples’ opinion.
Now the manipulative power has spread widely since social media’s arrival in our lives. Not only reputed organisations, but normal individuals also have millions of followers of their blogs or Facebook pages or Instagram profiles. The lives of students are mostly influenced by the things others post online. They pick up the habits mostly from their friends and groups they interact, rather than parents and teachers.
- It causes depression
Most psychologists are now worried for their patients who are suffering from social media depression. Posts on social media try to put things such an ideal way, which it leads you to compare your life to others. The idealised version of what is going on others lives, or what is happening is everywhere on social media.
Most people around us try to prove that they are the happiest in the whole world. And if you are having a tough day, and you go online, and you see thousands of happy posts by your peers, that is never going to help you with your self-esteem.
Psychologists also say, it gives rise to ‘fear of being missing out’, where you always feel you are missing out on many things in life what others are doing. It leads to the pressure of doing what others are doing, sharing every life experience. It can evoke stress and anxiety where users feel that everyone is having fun without them and they are the ones left out.
Recommendations:
Technology has always helpful in evolving our lives and taking it to the higher level, but we should also keep in mind our priorities. As a student, your first responsibility is to learn study and grow a personality with dignity and moral character.
No influence should bother you, not even social media. The more you let the stress and anxiety troubles out, the more you are going with the flow without thinking of any consequences. I am sure these help you to overcome the bad habits you are growing because of the virtual life and used it in a controlled way. Have a great day!