How students can use social media to their advantage
Young people, especially students, want to learn about many things. One way to gain knowledge on certain subjects is to find someone to discuss it with. Social media gives them a wide network to obtain and share information with one another.
Nowadays, students use various social media apps. Popular applications such as TikTok, Facebook, Discord and many more are downloaded on almost every young learner’s phone. In fact, around 90 percent of teenagers aged 13 to 17 years old have social media access. This is how prevalent these apps are in today’s generation.
But what makes these applications so attractive? Is it the seemingly mindless dance and makeup videos? Or is it something far more important?
If it is the latter, how can these social media applications be turned into assets for students to use in their studies?
Magnet for youngsters
Social media apps like Tiktok, Facebook and others are designed to allow people to share and communicate with one another, which is what many learners do. When they find out what social media can do, they get drawn to it. Then, they encourage others to use it thus increasing the number of young social media users.
Using it for communicating
Social media allows people to interact, that’s why the word social is in it. Young people who want to speak to each other for longer periods of time and have fun at the same time can do so through social media. Texting through Facebook messenger allows them to do this. Discord is also an app that is solely chat-based, using servers where young people can speak to each other and share their thoughts on various topics.
Good way for sharing things
Young people, especially students, want to learn about many things. One way to gain knowledge on certain subjects is to find someone to discuss it with. Social media gives them a wide network to obtain and share information with one another.
This network makes communicating and sharing ideas easier. This is because of the anonymity granted to each user, letting them speak their minds securely and more confidently. Eventually, through the sharing of thoughts, these young people having met peers online could make new friends.
Forging friendships
Communicating and sharing are essential in forming healthy relationships with others. Social media makes these easier for many young people and students, which allows them to make friends more easily.
In fact, social media can let people increase their connections because of shared interests, ease of usage and accessibility of essential information. As long as young users are aware of computer ethics and boundaries online, the social media experience can be a positive, lifechanging one.
Spreading awareness
Social media can also make young people more aware of issues in today’s world. The spread of news is even faster with the creation of website links, and news agencies themselves are taking advantage of this.
Through shared interests and various affiliations, young social media users can express their concerns for issues along with other people. Shares and likes allow information to spread quickly.
Making social media apps an asset for young people
While all the reasons young people frequent social media stated above may be pointing to the fact that these social media and other apps are beneficial to them, they may become distractions, too.
Young people, though eager to learn various things from others and to make friends, still have their studies to focus on. Social media can cause them to focus more on their TikTok profiles instead of their homework. They just have to regulate their use of it.
Facebook and Discord can be used to create groups and servers for classrooms. Their chatting and voice room options can be used to hold classes and for students to share their thoughts on lessons. Teachers can post questions on Facebook that students can answer through comments.
The appeal of edited videos to young people’s groups can be made into an asset, too. TikTok, a 15-second video sharing website, can be a great place for students to share video activities with each other and their teachers. They can play around with their preferred aesthetics and reliable, lesson-related information that can enhance their knowledge on the subject.
Most of all, through the comment sections and group chats, students can communicate with each other and even form long-lasting bonds even from a distance. Social media can allow them to work as a team no matter the distance.
Social media is here to stay
There are many reasons better access to social media is a good thing. Through proper management and knowing each other’s needs in the academe, social media can be used to young learners’ advantage, allowing them to succeed academically.
It may be challenging to understand why we are like iron fillings to a magnet when it comes to social media, but once we laugh, learn and enjoy through TikTok, Facebook and more, it becomes easier to do so. It even becomes more worthwhile when we use them to make ourselves better students and young people of our generation.
Through shared interests and various affiliations, young social media users can express their concerns for issues along with other people. Shares and likes allow information to spread quickly.