Impact Of Social Media And Internet On Higher Education

Abstract

The “Virtual World” the perfect connotation for today’s scenario. In the age of 21st century, we all are so much attached or dependent upon internet, social media sites that no one can image a single day without them. It looks like these are being injected in our blood like serum. With the evolution of internet world, the traditional ways of imparting education and teaching practices are witnessing a transformation. In today scenario learning is not limited to four walls of classroom, with a blackboard chalk and teacher as instructor. The whole process is entering into the growth phase where now anyone from anywhere at any time and at any age can learn or make others learn with the help of technology and these fast communicating social media sites. The following paper is going to enlighten the impact of social media and internet on higher education.

Introduction

Education provides a strong base for upliftment of a country. Imparting of education in India has witnessed a lot of changes from days of education under a tree in gurukuls, to the classrooms in schools to education through social media sites.

The age of smart phones is incomplete without internet connection and its uses. Our day starts with the alarm on phone and good morning wishes on whatsapp, face book and ends also with good night wishes on these sites or apps. No doubt the fast commuting apps or sites helps a lot in sharing information and also helps a lot to today’s students in learning process. Student of 21st Century need not to go to library and search for books, makes notes from it. Rather the fast moving technologies has provided option of various books and libraries at one click of computer or the small computers i.e. smart phones. These e-books are easily available as well as can be easily shared by one student to other or even to the whole group member in just a second.

Social media today is not only helpful to students in education, these sites or apps are indulging in every phase of life of all age groups. But centre of attraction can be seen from the youth in universities and colleges. So many sites or apps like face book, twitter, email, Wikipedia, whatsapp, snap chat, YouTube etc. are all sources of sharing information in the form of text, photos, documents, videos etc. The technology if used only in favour than prove to be boom but if information or sharing is used wrong direction can prove to be bane. Addiction of anything always spoils. This is what is reflected while using these sites or apps by students. They get so much involved and addicted to these virtual relationships that gone are days when whole family sit together and have a dinner together. Now all the family members sit together but busy with their own mobile phones and chatting with these virtual relationships, the true essence of friendship and family is faded away.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Aleksandrova(2017). A study was conducted in University if Economics, Varna,Bulgara to study impact of social media in higher education form students perspective and it was concluded that students uses on active pace all the social media sites.

Save your time!
We can take care of your essay

• Proper editing and formatting
• Free revision, title page, and bibliography
• Flexible prices and money-back guarantee

Place Order

Chawingo (2017). A study analysis was conducted in Mzuzu University(Malawi) through questionnaire sent to 64 students in order to find out their perception towards use of blogs and twitter in classroom, where target was library and information science students. The fact disclosed that students are moving with technology and it just requires instructors to bring these technologies to classroom.

Golub and Miloloza(2010).The study was conducted to reveal the positive and negative aspect of facebook on academic performance. At the end of all research work it was concluded that like any other technology, facebook can have positive impact on one’s life and achievements, but if used inappropriately it can also have a negative impact on several aspects of one’s life.

Negussie & Ketena( 2014). The study was conducted in Jumma University with sample of 490 post graduate students and concluded that there is no relationship between time spent on facebook and student academic performance. Based on finding, blocking facebook is not a solution because students now a days can easily access facebook by their mobile phones.

RESEARCH METHADOLOGY

The paper is based on exploratory research techniques and data cited in this paper were collected via secondary sources available like statistical data available on various websites of statista, child international, Octane Research and many more literature review form journals, papers, annual reports, newspaper reports and wide collection of magazine based articles on higher education and social media. Based on analysis of above mentioned data collection sources, the objectives of study are defined and research design is drafted which is highly descriptive in nature.

FACEBOOK

• India is having world’s largest numbers of face book users with over 195 million.
• India comes in top 5 face book users countries.
• Indian Users can access FB in 12 languages.
• Most popular Indian Brand on FB is Aaj Tak.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most popular Indian on FB with 32.9 million likes.

Twitter

• Twitter accounts for only 17% of Indian social network users.
• Narendra Modi has largest audience on twitter, followed by Amitabh Bachchan.
• Most followed Indian Brand on Twitter is Reliance Mobile followed by Airtel
• Twitter accounts over 3,50,000 tweets per minute.

LinkedIn

• There are over 30 million LinkedIn users in India.
• It is fastest growing professional network in India
• Most active users on LinkedIn India are of age group 25-35.
• Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26 billion in 2016.
• India comes under category of top five LinkedIn posting countries.

YouTube

• Over 70% of YouTube viewers in India are aged below 35.
• Compared to last year, YouTube in India is going up by 90% while watch time has grown up by 80%.
• India comes under the category of top 5 YouTube users’ countries.
• YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine after Google.
• 55% of revenue YouTube earns form advertising.

Instagram

• There are 16 Million Instagram users in India.
• 30% of overall internet users are on Instagram.
• More than 90% of Instagram are below 35.
• Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra are the most followed celebrities on Insta.

Whatsapp/ Skype/ Snap chat/We Chat

• India is the top of all the countries to use whatsapp followed by Brazil, Italy, and Turkey.
• Snapchat users in India are even bigger than Twitter.
• 42% use FB messenger, 37% uses Skype, 26% uses We Chat in total market share of social media sites.

Findings

Positive impact of social media sites and internet on Education

1. On the basis of above data it can concluded that social media users are increasing on increasing scale in India, with that improving the communication and knowledge sharing system of India.
2. Social networks sites if used properly than can become blessing, because they are fastest knowledge sharing source just on one click through computers and smart phones.
3. There are so many children in India who are not having access to higher education facilities, but thank to social media sites that it has broken the four walls of classroom into a mobile phone screen.
4. Today a student not only dependant on Education system for learning, the smart world of sites and apps can make you learn anything just it requires the willingness to learn more and more.
5. Gone are the days of heavy school bags with lot of books and notes. Today’s students are surrounded with e-books with cost and time efficiency, notes forwarded at just click to many, Schools bags are replaced through mobile phone storage space.
6. The smart world has not only given convenience to students, but teachers or parents have also modeled their strategies with more interesting and strong base of learning.
7. These social media sites have changed the perspective that knowledge or education can be imparted in classroom. These sites or apps have opened a new room of learning.
8. These websites or sources are best way to share your ideas and learning with whole world. It has covered the whole world in small hand.

Negative aspects of Social Sites on Education

1. Addiction to anything is always bad. No doubt social media sites are becoming backbone of learning. But sometimes knowledge should be disclosed according to age. Social media sites have opened the room of knowledge to everyone in such a manner that some age restricted videos or photos etc are being running children.
2. Most of the teachers and parents are always complaining that they students or children are so addicted to social sites and these virtual relationships that they forgotten the true flavor of life.
3. The students or children of smart world surrounded with social media sites and apps have forgotten the essence of soil of playgrounds because game of cricket, hockey are now played on smart phones rather than on playgrounds. These habits have affected drastically the health of today’s youth.
4. Emotions like happiness, Joy, sorrow are shared on whatsapp chats through emojis forgotten the bond of love and togetherness.
5. Technology is invented to make life simple, but the fast sharing websites have made it complex and busy.

Conclusion

The two sided coin of social websites or apps have clarified that it can enlighten or destroy the student life. It all depends on the users in which direction they want to use them. This fast moving world cannot live without social media and no doubt they are necessary part of development but it does not mean running towards growth, lag behind the memories of playground, friends, family, values. These websites are becoming very important aspects of learning and education but all depends on its usage. If used properly it can fill a student life with golden color of knowledge and if only used as wastage of time than it can ruin the whole life with black paint of failure.