Introduction
The development of social media has affected social interactions and studies to a great extent. For instance, the advancement of technology has enabled students to use their mobile gadgets like computers, mobile phones, and tablets in numerous ways to communicate. It is possible for individuals to use the gadgets to access the social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for communication purposes. Clearly, social media has both positive and negative effects towards student’s interactions and work ethics in institutions of learning. An article by Emma Reves (2015) depicted that one in four people consumes more time in online interactions than they do in person. The study goes ahead to illustrate that more than 11% of persons prefer staying at home and communicate with gadgets even if they had an opportunity to see a friend or companion through face-to-face interactions (Reves, 2015).
It is speculated that the growth of technology with continue to advance and more inventions will be introduced. Therefore, social media is there to stay, and it will continue to affect people in multifaceted ways. As a result, it is important to formulate strategies that will protect individuals from being affected by the social interactions in a negative way. In this paper, we will address how social media technology as the use of Instagram and Twitter affects social interactions and one’s work ethics in school. Furthermore, we will incorporate the pro and cons of social media interactions in institutions of learning. In the end, we will summarize the findings of the effects of social media interactions.
Pro and cons
The ability of social media as a learning content
Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook affect the social interactions and work ethics in schools. Additionally, these platforms are associated with the user-generated content, shared items, and links. The Facebook application contains a feature such as groups that work conveniently for the learner. These groups have no limits on the number of persons that are needed to join the group. These students can share PDFs, DOCs, and HTML.txt on the learning materials. These social media companies have designed their companies in such a way that the Facebook groups can share the content quickly without any technical glitches. The student has been able to hold conversations on the progress of different academic writing assignments on time. Therefore, the academic writing projects have been completed faster, and this has saved time (Beetham & Sharpe, 2013).
The lecturers and teachers have used these platforms to share the learning materials with the student rather than using the offline means. Many college and university students have the significance attached to the social media platforms. Moreover, these platforms are associated with learning materials in the form of links which are based on the academic discipline in question. These links are copied and sent to the other recipients in other classes to use them to their advantage. A majority of thee links contain the information that is in alignment to the academic discipline (Beetham & Sharpe, 2013). Nonetheless, students from different academic institutions used the social media platforms to their advantage, and they have become socially interactive. The student can discuss matters that are significant to the academics. Therefore, the ability to use social media platforms has increased the social interactions and work ethics in school.
The social media platforms help the shy students.
The likelihood of malware infections.
Social media platforms are associated with criminals that conduct telecommunication crime. In this category of computer crimes, the hackers use the malware or phishing scams to affect the social interactions negatively. These hackers deceive the children and adults to exchange the confidential information to gain entry to a computer network. In the academic world, these hackers will necessitate that the audience must fill the personal information to be given access to the website they would prefer to access (Faghani & Saidi, 2009).
The personal information that these hackers obtain may use them to their advantage. The hackers may use the explicit content to blackmail the students to give sensitive information that harms the institution’s competitive advantage.
Analysis of the findings
According to Reves (2015), researchers have established that the word-of-mouth and in-depth conversation remains highly influential in the life of humans. Another study at the University of California established that learners with a tendency of avoiding electronic devices were better placed to detect human emotions compared to addicts of the devices. A senior researcher in the UCLA study asserted that “If you’re not practicing face-to-face communication, you could be losing important social skills” (Reves, 2015). It is, therefore, important for students to realize that spending too much time on social media sites, could destroy one’s social skills. Although social media interactions can hurt social skills of students, it is not right to put blame on that. Instead, the person who is responsible should be blamed because one has the right to make a choice. There are many factors that affect social media.
Pai, Sternerson & Gaines, (2013) indicated the rise in student ownership in mobile phones and laptops has promoted learning. Learners prefer utilizing social media technology to share course information and materials. School assignments are also shared online, and this reduces excessive for collecting assignments and course materials. Therefore, social media interactions can establish an active learning environment when used in the appropriate way. It is well known that throughout history, the growth of technology has influenced education and transformed the teaching and learning landscape. Social media interactions can induce an active and learning process in institutions of learning. When applied in the appropriate way, students maintains the work ethics without any hitches.
References
Pai, A., Sternerson, J., & Gaines, M. (2013, November 23). NYU > Faculty Resource Network > Publications > Reinventing Liberal Education > Enhancing Student Learning Through Web 2.0 and Social Networking Technology. Retrieved from https://www.nyu.edu/frn/publications/reinventing.liberal.education/Pai.Stenerson.Gaines.html
Reeves, E. (2015, April 9). Social Media Affects Human Interaction | The Student Printz. Retrieved from http://www.studentprintz.com/social-media-affects-human-interaction/
Beetham, H., & Sharpe, R. (2013). Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: Designing for 21st century learning. routledge.
Faghani, M. R., & Saidi, H. (2009, October). Malware propagation in Online Social Networks. In MALWARE (pp. 8-14).
