Introduction
Internet is a very essential part of life from shopping to electronic mails and education, internet is very important. It is a very large community which is using internet for pure education but unfortunately we have also a very large number of people including majority of youth and teenager using Internet only for social networks. Internet is very big evolution of technology but when we talk about the social networks it is extremely dangerous for youth and become enormously common and widespread in past few years. The phenomena of social network is quite simple to understand, it is a web based facility which allows individual user to build a profile identity and generate subjective associations and connections among himself and list of other friends and communicate with them at a central location.
These websites are powered by many international companies because these websites are centrally visited by millions of people thus companies can get benefit of advertisements, this is how social networks are get paid; user can register himself free of cost in social networking sites like facebook.com, orkut.com and linkedin.com etc.. People get connected to one another after registration and then post news, information, fake news and other things including videos and pictures etc. Although social network can be used for good purposes but it is generally used for involvement of digital snapshots, illuminating demographic material and information, exposing securities, and conducting online conversations, because many communities motivate user for this kind of inappropriate actions and these communities has almost spoiled the image of social networks. In late 1990’s social network born with Web 2.0 introducing features of blogging and posting with the website named sixdegrees.com (1997) which allows user to create profiles and make friends, later it come up with new features in year 2003 a new face of social networks linkedin.com and myspace.com but in year 2003 facebook.com and orkut.com change the total concept of social networks in the history of social media and web sciences, it changes the definition of social networks.
After year 2003 social networks were very much advance with new features, by new features the user even can change the whole front end appearance of the website on his profile which is a step towards evolution. It is briefly dissipated the use of social networks from the very first social network website sixdegrees.com to the doom of decade, facebook.com, it has shown the year of websites popularity and probability of the usage in the given graph for every particular website, it has been plotted the history of social networks from 1999 to 2011 that how social networks come up with a very big ratio of usage today. Background
Flash forward to the present. College students in the year 2010 can’t wait to update their status. It is urgent for them to let their three-hundred and twenty Facebook friends know about the assignment they have due in two days. While paging through their live feed they realize, from a status update, they have an unknown assignment due the following day. In the news feed, they recognize their favorite sports team has won. They can see what their friends had to say about the game. If a college class is moved or a high school day is canceled, students are often more likely to find it out on Facebook rather than through communication with their school or university.
Facebook first went online for social networking in February 2004, from a college dormitory at Harvard. It was initially restricted to Harvard students until expanding first to area colleges, then all colleges, and eventually the world. Facebook currently has expanded to over 500 million users, surpassing MySpace in registered users and web traffic. Myspace allows its users to customize their own profile page and provide status updates similar to Facebook. It provides its users with the option of adding music and multimedia to a user’s profile page, which is a feature Facebook does not allow. Myspace is essentially a single webpage devoted to the user which can be used to communicate with friends. Both sides allow a user to post comments to friends. Perhaps the reason Facebook became more successful was due to its simplicity of operation.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank our teacher, Prof. Jonathan Cabradilla for their assistance and support, our group mates who further we would like to acknowledge all of those friends who helped us gathering dataset.
The Effects of Social Media on Students
Using social media Web sites is among the most common activity of today’s students. Any Web site that allows social interaction is considered a social media site, including social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter; gaming sites and virtual worlds such as Club Penguin, Second Life, and the Sims; video sites such as YouTube; and blogs. Such sites offer today’s youth a portal for entertainment and communication and have grown exponentially in recent years. For this reason, it is important that parents become aware of the nature of social media sites, given that not all of them are healthy environments for students. Pediatricians are in a unique position to help families understand these sites and to encourage healthy use and urge parents to monitor for potential problems with cyber bullying, “Facebook depression,” sexting, and exposure to inappropriate content.
Social media is quickly evolving in front of our eyes and it is almost impossible to reject and hide from this new form of media. Not only is it an important part of socialization within peer groups but now it is used to market and motivate people to become a part of a larger community. It is undeniably changing the way one communicates and how one finds and shares information. Most websites offer communication through the use of Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and many various blog formats. With new apps on Smart phones and photography and video made digital, media can be created, edited and shared quickly and once it is in this new digital cloud it is not yours anymore. Through these new advances in technology one can share things about themselves to the world to view, and prior to social media one would have to communicate and share physically. These social media site offer students new ways to access communication and entertainment and the long-term effects are still unknown. For this reason, it is imperative for parents to be more aware of this new media and what it offers both good and bad for students.
Five aspects of the use of social media:
not many restrictions on creatively expressing oneself
easy way to share information
informal support of other’s work
general understanding and respect of other people’s forms of expression an alternative way of socializing (Chau, 2010)
Positive Effects of Social Media on Children and Adolescents: There are many ways social media can be used by students in a positive way. It is not just an avenue for socializing; students can be creative, interact, and learn (Chau, 2010). Social networking provides an alternative way to get students interested in learning with a new and previously unconventional medium (Rosen, 2011). It can also help with “homework and group projects” (Clark-Pearson, O’Keeffe, 2011). Even though social media isn’t only used for social interaction, it is an important aspect of students’ lives. Social media provides an avenue for them to stay connected with peers they have met through school, sports teams, church, etc (Ito, 2008). Social networking can also help shy students have a more non-threatening way to interact with peers because they aren’t interacting face-to-face (Rosen, 2011).
It also provides an opportunity for students to connect with others who share a similar interest (Ito, 2008). Social media sites can provide a place for students to share their interests in art, music, games and blogs with others (Clark-Pearson, O’Keeffe, 2011). The teen years can be a challenging time, and social networks can be places for teens to turn to for support and advice when going through challenging experiences (Nielsen, 2009). Adolescents who use Facebook have been shown to demonstrate more “virtual empathy” (Rosen, 2011). Social networking can be a positive and somewhat easier way for students to get to know and become accepting of others from “diverse backgrounds” (Clark-Pearson, O’Keeffe, 2011). As well as providing social support, social media sites can also provide medical support. Adolescents can easily and anonymously seek medical advice (Clark-Pearson, O’Keeffe, 2011). Students are capable of impacting their communities and even the world in amazing ways. Social media provides them a variety of ways to go about making positive change. Some examples are implementing fundraising campaigns and getting involved in “political events” (Clark-Pearson, O’Keeffe, 2011).
Negative Effects of Social Media:
Although there are many positive aspects of social media, the negative effects on students are also numerous. Social media can affect the mental health of students. The level of effect, according to research, seems to go up as students’ use goes up. Their level of contentment can decrease, and their likelihood of getting into trouble or being depressed can increase (Rideout, 2010). Also,students that uses Facebook tend to be more narcissistic, antisocial, and aggressive (Rosen, 2011). Many forms of cyber bullying is also a problem and can lead to the victims experiencing depression and anxiety. Cyber bullying has also been the cause of many suicides in young people (Kowalski, 2009). It is bad enough that there are students who are victims of negative comments by peers, but many are victimized by strangers as well.
Many young online users are lured by online sexual predators (Ybarra, 2007). Because of students and their parents being concerned about the above mentioned risks, more students care about privacy issues (Youn, 2009). One problem concerning privacy issues is that many students are unaware of the privacy policies on the social media websites they use (Cox, 2007). Many students are influenced by the powerful advertising they see on social media sites, and it strongly influences their buying habits. Many of them are not aware that they are individually targeted because the sites keep track of their habits and demographics. These young people and their parents need to be aware of how they are targeted so smarter choices can be made around their spending habits (Clark-Pearson, O’Keeffe, 2011). As with just about everything, social media should be used in moderation. Studies have shown that adolescents and even college students who are on Facebook too much have lower grades (Rosen, 2011).
Socialization and Communication
Social media sites allow teens to accomplish online many of the tasks that are important to them offline: staying connected with friends and family, making new friends, sharing pictures, and exchanging ideas. Social media participation also can offer adolescents deeper benefits that extend into their view of self, community, and the world, including: 1. opportunities for community engagement through raising money for charity and volunteering for local events, including political and philanthropic events; 2. enhancement of individual and collective creativity through development and sharing of artistic and musical endeavors; 3. growth of ideas from the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming sites; 4. expansion of one’s online connections through shared interests to include others from more diverse backgrounds (such communication is an important step for all adolescents and affords the opportunity for respect, tolerance, and increased discourse about personal and global issues); and 5. Fostering of one’s individual identity and unique social skills.
The Negative Effects of Social Media
Using social media becomes a risk to students more often than most adults realize. Most risks fall into the following categories: peer-to-peer; inappropriate content; lack of understanding of online privacy issues; and outside influences of third-party advertising groups.
Cyber bullying and Online Harassment
Cyber bullying is deliberately using digital media to communicate false, embarrassing, or hostile information about another person. It is the most common online risk for all teens and is a peer-to-peer risk. Although “online harassment” is often used interchangeably with the term “cyber bullying,” it is actually a different entity. Current data suggest that online harassment is not as common as offline harassment,15 and participation in social networking sites does not put most children at risk of online harassment.16 On the other hand, cyber bullying is quite common, can occur to any young person online, and can cause profound psychosocial outcomes including depression, anxiety, severe isolation, and, tragically, suicide.
Sexting
Sexting can be defined as “sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or images via cell phone, computer, or other digital devices.” Many of these images become distributed rapidly via cell phones or the Internet. This phenomenon does occur among the teen population; a recent survey revealed that 20% of teens have sent or posted nude or seminude photographs or videos of themselves. Some students who have engaged in sexting have been threatened or charged with felony child pornography charges, although some states have started characterizing such behaviors as juvenile-law misdemeanors. Additional consequences include school suspension for perpetrators and emotional distress with accompanying mental health conditions for victims. In many circumstances, however, the sexting incident is not shared beyond a small peer group or a couple and is not found to be distressing at all.
Facebook Depression
Researchers have proposed a new phenomenon called “Facebook depression,” defined as depression that develops when students spend a great deal of time on social media sites, such as Facebook, and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression. Acceptance by and contact with peers is an important element of students life. The intensity of the online world is thought to be a factor that may trigger depression in some students. As with offline depression, preadolescents and students who suffer from Facebook depression are at risk for social isolation and sometimes turn to risky Internet sites and blogs for “help” that may promote substance abuse, unsafe sexual practices, or aggressive or self-destructive behaviors.
IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORKS ON
EDUCATION
Education is very essential part of an individual’s life for every students is more important than anything. Today students shows very much interest for using social networks but unfortunately Social Networks affect education badly [3]. Previous research has calculated that more than 90% of college students use social networks [9, 10]. Technology has shown a fast development by producing small communication devices but these small communication devices can be used for accessing social networks any time anywhere, these devices include pocket computers, laptops, iPads and even simple mobile phones (which support internet) etc.
Technology is step towards betterment, no doubt but any technology which can provide ease of social networks can be dangerous for social network addicts. Providing ubiquitous facility of social networks is a straight invitation of addiction to any teenager and even an adult, as academic satisfaction is not enough for those students who suffers from social isolation [11]. Social Networks grab the total attention and concentration of the students and diverts them towards non educational, unethical and inappropriate actions such as useless chatting, time killing by random searching and not doing their jobs. As social network has introduce many attractive tasks like gamming, advertisements etc. so that people can never get enough of these things. The social network addict becomes a useless node for parents, friends and other associated people.
They cannot succeed because they have no sense of upcoming future and competitions in their careers. Social networks use support of difference implicit applications by virtue of which it grabs the attention of students and increase the number of users. The applications include games, advertisements, and other online activities like online live television etc. User can use these applications free, so that’s why gaming freaks and addicts use to play these games without any installation and any other formality any time anywhere, these free of cost pleasure destruct students from their education, and they do not concentrate on their education.
As all of the applications are based on 2D screen play so by watching long time same screen could cause high blood pressure and anxiety which could be dangerous for education and health. According to survey students do not take their meals on time and do not sleep on time which causes a very non serious attitude with education. All they need after addiction is use of social networks. Social network connect them with one another so they not even bother to solve their home tasks and they contact elders and seniors to help them in cloning their educational material. Social networks provide a virtual life to the students, those students who not even speak in front of anyone could feel freedom in their virtual life. When they use social networks they feel like in heaven but this addiction kills their inner self confidence for ever. Becoming addict of social networks feels like you have so many friends but in real all of the contacts are virtual contacts. This act of going far from your family, friends, teachers and other associations could be very much dangerous for life and education. It changes the mindset of student completely like fantasies. This virtual life of student destructs his thoughts from education towards other activities and by living inside fantasy world student slowly starts to hate educated life and studies. One of very common action performed by almost every user on social networks is eavesdropping.
It is phenomenon of understanding the other users by spying their profiles, actions, likes, comments and other activities performed [8] In this regards opposite gender can be attracted by one another and to find loyalty of any friend all most each and every student spoils months and weeks on eavesdropping. According [1] U.S. Military banned use of social networking websites on solders in 2007 and Canadian government banned employees from social networking websites in 2007 while U.S. Congress has proposed to block such social networking websites in schools and library. Social networking websites obligate a very negative impression people of every age including teenagers, young adults and adults are continuously attracted towards social networks, international and national jurisdiction must take action against social networking websites.
GLOBAL:
In today’s world where Internet has experienced tremendous growth, social networking sites have become highly significant in peoples’ lives. This comparative study between India and the Netherlands will concentrate on youngsters more precisely college going students in Chennai and Maastricht. The research explores how college students create identity for themselves in the virtual world and how they relate to others online. It will analyze the cultural differences from the youth perspective in both the countries and
discuss whether social networking sites isolate youngsters from the society or help them to build relationships; the participation in these sites is also explored. Survey technique, interview, and online observation were the research methods used. Findings show that Indian students spend more time in these sites than Dutch students and Dutch students participate more actively than Indian students. It was also found that virtual interaction taking place in these sites is just a supplement to real life interaction.
NATIONAL:
Most of the time, students spend their time hanging around the web with the popular social networking sites. Every day, more and more people are getting more attached to Social Networking sites as it is now moving in as one of the primary means of communication of people. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ were only a few of the tons of the sites out there that cater the need of people. Through Social Media, people has the chance to combine work and relaxation. However, did you ever encounter the question. What are the benefits a student can get by using Social Networking Sites? Here are some points: Get in touch with your loved ones, relatives, and friends
Get to know the latest news and issues
Participate in online discussions
Communicate with your classmates
Be reminded of assignments, projects, and quizzes
Conduct group meetings for group projects and announcements
Get the latest status and messages of your friends through the News Feed Obviously, social sites have a lot of uses for people with their exceptional functionalities. Even without meeting in person, people can now interact with each other and make a productive gathering. However, despite the fact that Social Media are extremely helpful, it is still not perfect because there are still some negative points we can encounter while using it.
Some of the bad effects are:
It invades your privacy
It distracts you in everything you do
Too much attachment to it may lead to spending too much time in it without doing your tasks There are some wrong information released by unauthorized people that causes fear The mentioned good and bad effects were only partial and it also varies depending on the person involved. Though some people still makes the best out of Social Media, we can’t still forget the negative side of it. Maybe, we should just ask ourselves on what is our current position in the Social Networking World. The ever-growing technology helps us make our life easier and better but we must be sure that we should treat it with moderation.
LOCAL:
ONLINE social networking sites affect the comprehension skills of the young generation, thus proper guidance from parents is very important, a city librarian said. City librarian Nora Fe Alajar said she observed the popularity of social networks like Twitter and Facebook has become an added distraction to children. “Copy-paste na lang. Short term na ang comprehension (skills),” Alajar said Monday.
She said even though all are now into the social media, one should always go back to the basic and that is to read books. “Mao lang na akong na-observe, importante gyud ang bata sa formative years ma-love gyud niya ang books (It is important for children to learn to love reading books in their earlier years),” she said. Aside from the comprehension skills, spelling, vocabulary and line of reasoning have also been affected, said Alajar. She said though she is not putting the blame entirely on the social networking sites since there are also some who update and feed their minds through downloaded books, the love for reading should be maintained. “It’s more of guidance from the parents.
Instilling the love for reading. Dili lang man gud na sa school lang. Dapat gyud sa formative years gikan sa balay, then sa eskwelahan (Reading is not learned in school alone. It must start in the formative years from the home to the school),” Alajar said. She said social media is a “great help” to toddlers and teeners if being guided properly. “If you just balance things, makatabang man gyud ang technology. Retrieve books na gusto mabasa. Depende lang gyud sa guidance sa mga anak sa usage (technology is a big help. You can easily access books you want to read. You just need to guide your children on its proper use),” the city librarian said. Meanwhile, Alajar said the City Government of Davao continues to reach out to children who live in far flung barangays, deprived of reading materials. The mobile library goes to a specific barangay every Tuesday and Thursdays. Review of Related Literature
Social Networking Sites: Good or Bad?
This study mainly tackles about the advantages and disadvantages of social networking sites. The advantages of social networking sites are advertising communication and research help to students and the disadvantages of it are cyber bully, cybersex and short attention span. Social Networking sites have been a good help to everyone in the community, especially amongh the students, businessmen and other members of the Society. People can enjoy the features of the social networking sites but misusing or over-using them can be harmful.
Talking of Social Networking Sites, we may define first the 5 most popular Social networking and the bad ones.
Facebook is said to be the most popular social website where one can share and upload pictures, videos, message, chat and many other features (Sales, 2010). Next is the Twitter, which is a social networking site for tweeting posts, sharing ideas, for easy connections of celebrities and other personality and for the trending topics (Dorsey, 2009), while Tumbler is a social networking site for blogging pictures, information and an easily sharing of pictures and other stuffs (Martin, 2008). Then Bing is a social networking site that allows people to search information, pictures, video clips and files that can be downloaded throughout the Internet (Tyler, 2006). And lastly is the Myspace known for a good social networking site that allows the users to view someone’s profile, and picture and comment (Anderson, 2008).
We all need to realize that social networking communities are there to stay considering the millions of users that they have (Armstrong, 2010). In addition, there are students today have begun to stay on the accessibility of information that is available on the social media platforms specifically as well as the web in general in order to get answers and to please themselves through playing games. Now, high school students, social websites are to help them, giving them knowledge for thesis, journals and others, but misusing them could deprive their focus on studies. Social Networking started as a place to connect with your friends in an easy and convenient way (Jackson, 2009). Social networking sites allow the individual in the family to share their daily lives in a sure but public forums. Family members are able to organize events. Relatives abroad can communicate and share things every time in their own free time despite the fact that their geographical distance.
Celebrities are now more in contact with their fans, giving them recent updates to what is currently happening, picture, videos and articles related to them (Parrack, 2008). Celebrities can easily tell the public on the future events and post something regarding to other things. With the advent of social networks, social scientist and media experts have wondered about the benefits of social networking brings to communication (Jeffrey, 2009). The ability to stay in connect with the friends allows us to maintain closes ties to our loved ones across long distances. People are able to update what is currently happening in the social media. Updating status is the most frequent thing done by people.
A Social networking site can be a good way to make connections with people with similar interest and goals (Steve, 2008). Communications is one of the main things why social networking sites to gather information to broaden their knowledge. Since social networking sites is a huge place to gather information to what is trending nowadays. Trending topics regards to celebrities, politics, sciences, technologies, discoveries and amazing facts (Green, 2008). Other things in the social are a great chance to gather ideas since those articles are specified (Green, 2008).
Businesses have noticed the value of social networks in our life, and they are using different techniques to promote their products (Salta, 2008). There are number of customized applications being made in the social platforms whose main purposes is to promote the products or brands as social marketing is cost effective and brands have a huge audience, they are shifting more towards to social marketing.
Social Networking sites is not only good for us, because others are having inappropriate content, such as pornographic sites and nude photos, and other sites can tend people to be addicted in a specific social networking sites and most of this are cyber games. Good sites like Facebook cannot always be said to good because some people use it badly and worst such as cyber bullying and any other inappropriate action.
Since the arrival of the internet and of social networking sites in particular, we have noticed our attention spans shortening in recent years (Gerald, 2011). There is so much information to assume that we rarely spend any time explaining any of it, in great depth. Many studies have shown that the extensive use of social media can actually cause addiction to the users (Mayer, 2012). Students tend to focus on cyber games that block the focus on their studies. A person gets lazy of works dues to over usage of social networking sites and online games.
