Negative Effects of Social Media in Students Performance

Introduction

Social networks are one of the most used communication methods of today’s world. With the availability of information on different topics ranging from health, education ,relationships, recipes and many more readily available on social platforms such as Google ,Facebook and Instagram it is wise for one to think that students are one of, if not the top users of social media. The impact of social media on students is quite an impeccable one given the opportunities, global connectivity, and help almost with everything but on a scale the negative effects would still outweigh it. The topic for this paper is to analyse ehat are negative effects of social media. This essay consists of conclusion, introduction and main body. It analyses how social media negatively affects the health, academic performance, decisions and the future of students.

Health

It is no secret that students tend to spend more time on social media than on more productive activities such as exercising, something that is most likely to maintain their health if not improve it. There is a higher chance of social media users of which most are students to encounter back issues, neck issues, obesity, eye strain as a result to being glued to a screen for a long time as well as cardiovascular issues. Most students are unable to go a day without checking their social accounts, this was diagnosed as FOMO- the fear of missing out. FOMO leads to anxiety because students are constantly on edge because they want to be up to date with other people’s lives on social platforms and their experiences and with anxiety comes depression and obsessive disorder. Research has confirmed that “participants who spent a significant amount of time on the internet reported higher levels of loneliness and a greater number of daily stresses than people who did not use the internet as much”. It appears that besides depression and anxiety, students have unhealthy sleeping patterns. Students sleep for less than the required sleeping hours as a result of being on social media for too long, in addition their productivity is affected caused by stress. Moreover their inability to go for a day without checking their news feeds or any other social media accounts, they become addicts. Henceforth they are unable to detox.

Academic Performance

The use of social media by students is negatively affecting their academic performance rapidly that it cannot go unnoticed. Given the fact that it has become a rare occasion to walk on campus without noticing students glued to their screens, one cannot help but wonder what type of activities they are engaging in and for how long during school hours. In view of the fact that “students who reported internet caused school work problems were found to have spent five times more hours online than those who did not, and they were also significantly more likely to report their internet use caused them to stay up late.” It can safely be argued that students spend quite a lot of hours on social media and as a result study time is reduced which results in low grades. For instance in a case scenario where student X had to study for a test but decides to view their Whatsapp status instead, given the temptation of social platforms like Whatsapp it is most likely that student X will spend quite a massive number of hours on viewing the status. As a result study time is reduced and the student might as well be too tired to study which results in lower grades compared to what they would have obtained had they not decided to view Whatsapp status. A disturbing matter is that living in a virtual world can seem beguiling for a short amount of time yet what students fail to realize is that it can have a negative effect on their academic performance. Students are not able to communicate effectively in person ,their body language is bad and they lack social skills. This argument is an indication that students who spend much of their time on social media are more likely to obtain low grades in presentations compared to those that engage in social interactions more often. Another issue is that students have a tendency of engaging in a variety of tasks in a limited amount of time known as multitasking, they often view it as an achievement on the contrary it is simply a division of devotion which results in low grades if not failure as students are not able to concentrate on the task at hand. There is no point in discussing the negative effects of social media on students without acknowledging the bad role played by the sms language in their academic performance. With the frequent use of social media and sms language which includes slang and abbreviations such as nvm,lol,btw etc it is virtually imaginable how difficult it is for students to avoid incorporating it in their academic writings such  as essays, speeches and summaries. 

Materialism

Students come across images on social media which they instantly idolize not knowing that these images are idealized and not real. They then compare their own material possessions usually undermining them. It raises their expectations and how their lives ought to be as a result they use their study time looking for loopholes to improve their lives by making quick money and they do not always come up with the brightest ideas because girls usually tend to sell themselves and boys commit petty crimes such as selling drugs. In the midst of students trying to improve their social profiles they get lost in the unnecessary exposure which is of little or no benefit in the future as they obsess over other people’s seemingly perfect lives. Furthermore it lowers students’ confidence because they are too enthralled in these idealized perfect lives of people on social media. Students also try to keep up with the latest fashion trends which is mostly overly expensive brand items in order to keep up with a perceived flashy life for internet posts, likes and popularity of social media. Girls spend a great deal of their time obsessing over other girls’ bodies which they believe are perfect, thus they try to get such bodies by all means and if they do not achieve those goals they get anxiety and are consumed by depression. This not only wastes time for studying or completing academic assessments, nonetheless it also creates a higher chance of failure and afore mentioned health problems.

Future

Most students are oblivious to the fact that whatever they share on social platforms will most likely haunt them in the future. Social media and its impact on communication. More & more people now have access to smartphones ,that enable them to be on social media including Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumbler, Instagram, Twitter, Whatsapp and many more. The majority on these platforms are budding youths wanting their alternative views to be heard”  it is clear that the youth which includes students often want to be involved in discussions on social media and tend to post almost anything that comes to their mind without being cautious with their words. As a result when they graduate they struggle to find jobs, because they are uninformed that employers will always do a thorough background check on applicants for safety purposes and it is most likely that the potential employers will find the disregarding or unethical comments, videos or pictures the applicant puts on their social profiles. Applicants will automatically be considered unprofessional no matter how perfect one is for the job. They will not be employed even though they were unaware of the harm they might have done. In addition, there is a higher chance of identity theft whereby a person uses another’s profile to interject ruthless comments on other social media users usually known as cyber bullying or other inappropriate or scandalous activities which will fall back to the employment. Not to mention the revealing photos students share on social platforms also contribute to a bad image which most firms will not want their employees to have. So to avoid that, they refrain from employing applicants that possess such baggage which in this case would be students.

Conclusion

With the countless negative effects of social media on students’ health, academic performance, decisions as well as their future it is only wise and, fair that one gives recommendations as a conclusion. Firstly students should choose to engage in academic related matters on social media rather than trying to be updated with other people’s lives so as to avoid depression, anxiety and other health risks. Secondly they should take a closer look at what they post on social platforms as this can post as a threat to their future employment possibilities. Thirdly students should limit the time spent on social media as this  takes up study time in addition it leads to the inability to communicate  effectively in face to face meetings which results in low grades in cases of presentations.