Jobi.ngTalking about the benefits of social media to students: Currently, students are experiencing an exchange of ideas, resources, and information other than textbooks and class readings using social media.
Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and many more provide students with free access to online communication and information.
In this article, we will talk about how using social media can improve learning and education.
We will also be discussing the different types of social media, the benefits of social media, and how you can use them effectively. But before we do that, quickly browse through the content below and learn what social media is.
What is social media?
Social media are computer-based applications that facilitate the exchange of ideas and information by creating virtual networks and communities.
They are websites designed to allow people to share content quickly, efficiently, and in real-time. Social networks contain different categories based on their different functions.
Types of Social Media
Before you begin, you should be aware that not all social media platforms are created equally. It is classified according to the user’s specific interests and technological characteristics.
While social media like Facebook and Twitter help you connect with people, discussion forums like Reddit and Quora create a platform for you to share news and ideas.
With that in mind, you can choose where to invest your time. Take a look at the different social media categories below.
Social Networks
Social networks, also known as “relationship networks,” help people and organizations connect online to share information and ideas.
As a student, you can share information, photos, videos, and more through these sites. These platforms are mainly designed for sharing knowledge and connecting with people. Example Include;
Media Sharing Networks
If you are searching for the most visual types of social media platforms, connect with media sharing networks. With these sites, you can create different types of social media campaigns.
Generally, media sharing networks focus on sharing photos, videos, and live videos.
These media sharing networks are a great place for teachers to share lecture videos and hold a live class with students. Business owners can also share visual content and engage their audience.
Examples of media sharing networks are:
- YouTube
- Snapchat
- Tiktok
- Imgur
Discussion networks
Another type of social media platform recommended for students is discussion networks. These social platforms are where to find, discuss, and share news, information, and opinions.
These are the sites where people go to find out what everyone’s talking about. They follow up on content threads to see other people’s posts and comments. Users on these sites are generally expressive.
Below are the discussion networks available for you.
- Quora
- Digg
- Nairaland
Interest-based networks
This is a great social media platform that connects you with others around a shared interest or hobby. Interest-based networks are focused solely on a single subject, such as books, music, or home design.
There are good sites to keep up with current trends.Below are three social media options for interest-based networks:
- Goodreads
- Houzz
- Last FM
Social Blogging Networks
Social blogging networks are unique types of social media that require constant content to publish.
They provide people with tools to publish content online in formats that encourage discovery, sharing, and commenting.
Some of the social blogging platforms include:
- WordPress
- Tumblr
The social media highlighted above offers plenty of opportunities for enhancing learning and interactivity, and students are benefiting from these platforms.
Benefits Of Social Media For Students
A lot of people believe that social media is a huge distraction for students. While their opinion is not totally wrong, there are still great reasons why the use of social media in education should be encouraged.
- Educational Tool
- Share information
- Social media marketing
- Instant Updates
- Global Exposure
- Find Friends With Similar Interest
- Enhanced Learning management systems
- Research Work
- Building Supportive Online Communities
- Distance Learning Opportunities
- Social Media Use for Awareness
- Increase Social Interaction Among Students
- Social media helps with internships and job searches.
- Meeting with mentors and experts
- Creating digital portfolios
- Participating in group work
- Web Engagements
- Digital Literacy
1. Educational Tool
Also, educators can leverage this knowledge. They set up webinars, online discussion forums, and other such platforms to enhance the college education process.
2. Share information
Students share views, opinions, tips, projects, study material, and other useful stuff with each other. They exchange helpful information for classes and examinations.
Social media enhances students’ communication skills. They develop a great ability to access, evaluate, maintain, and share information.
3. Social media marketing
Another benefit of social media to students is social media marketing, which can serve as a side hustle idea for students. It is seen as a skill that is an emerging career option that prepares them to become successful marketers.
Students are extensively carrying out social media strategies for several companies all over the world.
4. Instant Updates
Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram keep students well informed about the lives of their friends and family. They also keep them updated on various trending news stories from around the world.
You simply look at the news feed and get a snapshot of job openings, new technology developments, entertainment, and news updates from around the world.
5. Global Exposure
Global exposure is one of the benefits of social media for students. Because it allows students to share and learn about loads of content each day on informative websites, tutorial videos, and webinar links.
The use of the internet makes it easy to access vast amounts of information on any topic you can ever imagine. As a student, you can also share your discoveries with your peers.
Social media gives you a chance to interact with teachers and students from across the world, share knowledge, seek help, hold discussions, and watch classroom videos of renowned professors.
6. Find Friends With Similar Interest
Social media provides a platform where you can look for more opportunities, followers, and even people with similar interests and hobbies.
7. Enhanced Learning management systems
Learning management systems are networking software applications designed for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs.
Basically, social media learning in LMS includes instant chat functions, videos, forums to share information, and other lesson resources to help students.
Most LMS’s are integrated with built-in social media, which allows users to interact with the system, which is one of the benefits of social media for students.
The system strengthens student participation and makes team projects easy to collaborate on.
8. It helps In the research process
Social media offers students a great platform to extract data. You can find out how people’s opinions on a particular subject matter or how experts perceive and advise on specific issues.
If you are a student working on a project or assignment, social media can help you gather information and produce useful content for research.
9. Building Supportive Online Communities
Online or internet communities help to create a feeling of belonging and pride in any organization. It enables members to stay updated with news and the latest happenings, which would otherwise be hard to share with everyone.
Online communities provide sports updates, highlight individual student achievement, and share information about a new recycling initiative undertaken by staff members—all at your fingertips.
It also helps alumni, prospective students, or staff keep up-to-date and get a flavor of the school’s character. You can reconnect with your colleagues who have already graduated for future collaborations.
10. Distance Learning Opportunities
There are many disadvantaged students who cannot afford a traditional college, but social media tools make it possible for them to acquire a formal education through distance learning programs.
Today, hosting live lectures via Skype or webinars via Zoom is the way forward for allowing students who live in remote areas of the world to access education.
11. Social Media Use for Awareness
Social media is the best and cheaper way of communicating with other people. By using social media, you can easily contact and deliver messages to people.
College students use social media to create awareness and share it with their colleagues.
For example, you can tag or mention your friend in a post or comment on awareness, and the person will get notified about that thing instantly.
12. Increase Social Interaction Among Students
In today’s world, social media is the most popular communication channel. It has a great impact on the way we live and changes our way of interacting with other people.
It allows you to connect with people easily. By using social media, you can contact an old school friend whom you lost contact with for a long time.
Social media increases a lot of human interaction; we can find it very easily simply by opening it and searching for the desired person or business.
13. Social media helps with internships and job searches
Do you know how to get a job offer through social media? Most successful companies are using social media to find candidates.
Platforms like LinkedIn make provision for job seekers to connect with potential employers. You can make your profile on LinkedIn, and the companies can contact you and offer you something by looking at your profile.
In addition to job searching, a lot of people use social media to connect with mentors.
14. Students can build social credibility
Social networks can help you, as a student, build a digital portfolio for your career. This prepares and positions your career to have social credibility.
As social network interactions advance in education systems, social media will become the number one means for solving education problems.
Students are encouraged to get a digital marketing qualification. This can lead to various social media and marketing job paths.
15. Parental Involvement
Every parent wants to get involved in their children’s learning. They want to stay updated on school-related activities, projects, and events that are happening.
Parent’s also like to get in touch with teachers in case they want to share the child’s progress via Skype or other secure online platforms the institution uses.
A social network for parents can be created via WhatsApp, Twitter, or Facebook Messenger, which can enable them to be informed about school matters, learning, and education.
Parents’ involvement and academic support at home raise students‘ consciousness about their studies and thus improve students’ performance at school.
16. Participating in group work
Social media is very helpful when it comes to communication. When teachers send in assignments or group projects, students turn to social media to collaborate.
They create group chats using Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Google Hangouts in particular, for things like advanced science projects.
17. Web Engagements
Students using social media can share tools, resources, and useful website links with each other and use anyone’s shared files and information through the post.
In fact, they can share all their achievements and projects online to share them with the world, allowing them to create their own online presence.
The use of social media also makes it easier and faster for students to interact with teachers. Students, within a few clicks, can also share and transfer all the study-related matters and topics.
18. Social Media Improves Reading Skills
Social media sites are, for the most part, interactive, contain eye-catching animations, and thus keep even the lazies of a student involved.
Such online activities will draw the attention of students and help them develop stronger reading habits, which will gradually improve their writing skills.
19. Digital Literacy
Digital literacy is one of the benefits of social media for students because it involves teaching them the skills and information they need to navigate and engage properly in the online environment.
By harnessing social media platforms, students can build critical thinking, communication, and teamwork abilities.
This method not only boosts their capacity to obtain and evaluate information but also creates a better grasp of digital etiquette and online safety.
Overall, including digital literacy through social media improves students by preparing them for the difficulties and opportunities of the increasingly digitalized global context.
20. Personal Branding
Another benefit of social media for students is personal branding. It helps students to demonstrate their talents, achievements, and interests, leading to the creation of a strong online presence and personal brand.
Although social media presents a lot of benefits, it also has some major drawbacks.
What Are the Disadvantages of Social Media for Youth in Society?
The following are the dangers and negative impacts of social media on the lives of students and youth.
- Addiction: Most students use social media so much that they are always busy online, reading news feeds, and commenting on posts.
- Distraction: Social media distracts students from their studies and educational goals.
- Decreases Face-to-Face Communication Skills: Students that use social media regularly may lose their ability to engage in face-to-face communication. Even if the world is turning to technology, students must know how to communicate in the real world.
- Cyberbullying: Students may write hurtful messages about other students, and this could scare them for life.
- Inappropriate Content: Students may post inappropriate content, like pornography, on social media. This will defeat the purpose of the medium altogether.
Knowing the dangers and risks of technology tools, students are called on to take advantage of the opportunities the digital world presents and to use these tools to do good in the world.
Tricks Of Using Social Media As Learning Tools
It is possible to avoid the wrong usage of social media if you apply the tips below:
- Create a Facebook group for your class and ensure that you post notes to remind your students about the instructions for important assignments as well as the submission deadlines.
- Constantly search for new online resources that make learning fun, and share the links in the group.
- Share book reviews, history research papers, and other assignments that students usually submit in print on the blog site.
- Introduce a daily hashtag on Twitter related to a certain topic you elaborated on in class.
- Use YouTube for the flipped classroom concept.
