Social media is a tool whereby a billion individuals worldwide can be connected and networked together to create, collaborate, and contribute their knowledge and wisdom [Christy M.K et al., 2010].
Social media use has increased rapidly among the young between 18 and 29. According to Andrew Perrin, social media usage among young adults has grown from 12% in 2005 to 90% in 2015, consistent with the adoption of smartphone technology.
Read: Importance of student-teacher relationships
The growth and popularity of online social networks have created a new world of collaboration and communication among students to their advantage. Although social media has many disadvantages for students, there are a lot of benefits to social media.
Reasons
- It allows you to share knowledge and exchange ideas. Also, sharing information becomes easy (information like valuable documents, videos, files, links, etc.)
- Currently, 3.196 billion individuals are active users of social media in the world. This high number implies that you can access the network (student-to-student interaction) and collaborate with many people online.
- Since it is used for communication, it can enhance discussion on topics you don’t understand for better understanding.
- It increases social influence
- Prompt access to opportunities that can advance one’s career
- It is a platform of discussions for assignments and other coursework; you get feeds on class schedules, class venues receive and send information among your peers, explore coursework-related issues, and a host of others.
- It provides an avenue to earn extra income as a student while studying
- Social media has also been identified as being used to build and strengthen campus community by actively encouraging student involvement and participation in school activities
- The social media communication platform impacts student motivation to learn, effective learning, and classroom climate.
- It helps students to multitask, i.e., a digital juggling of daily activities and commitments.
