The rapid development in the field of technology has provided with significant opportunities in terms of establishing connectivity among people. In the past, the exchange of information between people was limited by long distance. But thanks to technology that it has bridged the barriers of long distance by providing an interactive platform to communicate, irrespective of distances. The lifestyle of both the students and teachers in a university setting is highly affected because of social media. Increasing dominance of social media is evident in the sense that there is increasing number of students seeking for
assignment help services over such social media platform. However there are both the positive as well as negative influences identified in terms of overall development and learning of students from the use of social media.
Some of the ways in which social media has positively and negatively affected the lifestyle pattern of students are summarised as follows:
Social Connectivity: A common tendency among human beings especially the students is to live together in group. This group oriented nature of students has made the social media platform a significant part of their academic life. According to the Maslow theory as suggested by Abraham Maslow, the third most important need of human being is social need. This is regarded as the main reason for which millions of students use social media networks like Facebook, twitter in order to establish a social bonding and connectivity with others. According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Centre, it is evaluated that 72% of high school students and 78% of college students are positively engaged in social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This indicates the influence of social media over the lifestyle of students, as they are mostly engaged in sharing their images, experiences and connectivity with their friends.
Learning through Sharing: An important benefit achieved by students from the use of social media is learning through sharing. Students are provided with group task as a part of the university program, and this requires them to work together with the groups assigned. Social media tools like Facebook offers great connectivity among groups, and this provide a good platform to students in sharing their experiences, and important information within books through the use of social media. The use of Facebook messenger is quite significant in allowing students to interact in groups even when the group members are located in different locations. The ability to interact on real time allows them to share useful information and help them learn through group knowledge and understanding, and ultimately aids in getting positive academic outcomes. A study by Asad, Al Mamun and Clement indicated that the use of social media allows students to undertake group discussions that allows them in positively sharing ideas among their peers, and also provide teachers with the opportunity to share course materials, assignment details, and remain connected with the students.
Apart from having the positive impact, there is a negative impact as well, on the lifestyle of students from using social media. Some of the ways in which social media is negatively affecting students’ life are discussed as follows:
Negative Impact on Studies: One of the negative impact of social media on student is the excessive use of social media platforms which ultimately jeopardise their learning abilities. Many students neglect their study and spend most of the time on social media tools to interact with their friends, and in doing other activities. Their frequent participation can have negative impact on their studies and ultimately on their grades.
Increasing Chances of Serious Controversies: One of the major drawback of social media system is that it creates competition among students to make as many new friends as possible. They compete against each other in terms of how many friends they have on social media, and their desire to make as many friends often results into wastage of time and their lack of attention towards their studies. In pursuit of making as many friends, many students often comment on social or political issues, as they do not have sufficient knowledge and understanding about the ways to accurately analyse the world. This sometimes leads to comment on social or political issues, and may create serious controversies for them.
Negative Implication on Health: Excessive use of social media among student is directly correlated with their health performance. The addiction to social media leads to negative side effect in the form of eye strain, lack of sleep, and also results into excessive stress among student. Student life is very difficult because they are required to carry out the number of tasks as a part of their university program. Addiction to social media jeopardise not only their studies but also their health condition in terms of increasing stress in managing their important tasks.
The analysis therefore indicates that the lifestyle pattern of student is significantly influenced by social media. It is important for students to adopt a controlled approach in utilising social media tools in their personal life, so that they can remain away from negative effects as identified above, and seeking for assignment help services would become a 2nd choice for them.