Social Media: How It Affects Children In Schools

Since social media made its debut on the World Wide Web, it has been a roller coaster ride.  It has taken the nation by storm and has affected all areas of life as we know it.  One of the most talked about subjects involving social media is how it affects education.  Educators have found social media to be a tremendous distraction to children in the school system.  Children who spend much of their time online find it harder to concentrate in class.  Often times they forget to do homework assignments because their minds are consumed with what is happening on Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter.  

Some educators have even blamed social media for the drop in overall grades.  Children who would normally do extremely well, when exposed to social media, grades dropped at least a whole letter grade.  Most schools do not allow kids to carry cell phones on campus, but it has been found that the children sneak smart phones on campus so that they can keep up with their social media sites.  The children text and chat all while they are in class.  This means they are not paying attention to instructions and they are not focusing on learning valuable lessons.  Social media has become so much the norm and a child feels compelled to interact so they will not be excluded in the social groups that are developed among kids in schools.  Many people think that children who spend a lot of time on social networking sites have delayed social and emotional development.  Social media is believed to be the cause of children not being able to spell or read as well as previous generation.  This is because of the use of acronyms, chat lingo, and chat slang.  

            Unfortunately, there is not much we can do about the rapid growth of social media.  However, there are steps parents and educators can take toward limiting the amount of time children spend on the Internet.  Even though social media has created some negative images in the minds of some people, the Internet is more than social media and still harbors information that is valuable to our children.

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Ways Social Media Can Benefit a Business

Social Media is a tool with measurable and predictable power when it comes to a business.  There are many benefits to using Social Media for businesses.  One of the most obvious reasons businesses should use Social Media is Brand.  A brand is what gets you recognized anywhere around the world.  When people see your brand, their mind takes a mental picture so the next time they see it, they will remember.  The more impressions a consumer gets of you business, the more likely they will remember your name in the future.   Businesses can also use social media to see how people view their business.   Regardless if a business takes part in the conversation, customers still will voice their opinions good or bad about a business.  Social media is a great way to keep up with feedback so they can take action when necessary.  This is a way to develop the trust of your customers.  It also helps you make the right decision about how to deal with clients, market, and your business.  The most important benefit is recruitment.  Social media can serve as an excellent tool for finding new customers and employees for you business.  Conversations can happen almost immediately and you can get an idea for a person’s personality.   

Take a look at the image below.  It shows you an average percentage of social media sites companies use.

        This images show the effect that social media had on their company.

   

 Today business can also use Social Media in a different aspect called employee monitoring.  Businesses have become familiar with sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.  Some companies have been using these sites to get background information on current employees as well as future employees.  Many people feel this is a violation of their privacy and it should be against the law.  I feel that if you have things that you do not want to be known to public, do not put it on a public website.  In actuality, nothing we do on the internet is private.  Social Media just gives people easier access to your personal life.

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The Pros and Cons

We often exalt the greatness of social media, but we sometimes overlook the dark side of social media. I decided to list some pros and cons of social media so that If you are engaging with it one way or another, you can have a clear understanding of the positive and the negative features of social media.

Pros:
 Social Media is the direction that society is headed. Over 80% of young adults use social networks.
 It is Global
 You can access it from anywhere, that is, anywhere you can get on the internet
 It’s open to anyone
 It builds communities and relationships
 It increases communication with friends and family
 It helps people learn valuable computer skills

Cons:
 It’s impersonal (no face to face conversations)
 It exposes children to predators
 Increased risk of getting computer viruses
 Lower worker productivity on the job
 Children in school have shorter attention spans and most of their grades drop
 It can become a host for criminal activity




       Just like anything, there are some pros and cons to social media. However, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. In today’s society, we don’t have a choice as to whether or not to use social media. It is being incorporated in just about every aspect of our lives. The question that still remains, is what steps are we going to take to familiarize ourselves with this evolution called social media? The worst thing a person could do is nothing because time and technology waits for no one!
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More than Facebook

When you hear the words social media, the first thing that may come to mind is everyone’s favorite...FACEBOOK.    You would be correct.  Facebook, along with MySpace and Twitter are among the world’s most popular social networking sites.  Did you know that social media is not just about social networking but it has other components that make it the unique technology it is today?  Social Media is defined differently for its various forms.   Social News, Social Networking, Social Bookmarking, and Social Photo Sharing are all huge parts of Social Media.  There is a difference between them and they all have a different approach and are targeted to different audiences.  Take a look at the image below and see all the different types of Social Media.

Lets explore the various types of Social Media.

Social News Sites

These sites are primarily meant as a source of news and information.  Users visit these sites for news and to exchange useful information.   Digg is an example of a social news site.   It is the largest and most popular social news site and it covers everything from politics, entertainment, technology, and general news.   Other examples of social news sites are Reddit, Propeller, and Slashdot.

Social Networking Sites

These sites help you stay connected with friends and family.  They are great for building online communities of people who share a common interest.  Communication is mostly in the form of direct mail, instant messaging or posting on a user’s profile.    There has been a recent development where you can now video chat through the social network.  Examples of some very popular social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Google+ (Google+ right now is by invite only).

Social Sharing Sites

These are sites uses as a medium to share different types of information such as photos or videos.  YouTube is one of the most popular social media sites with one of the highest number of users.  This site allows you to upload and/or share videos.  Also you can watch music videos, movies/movie clips, and instructions on how to do something.  Another social sharing site is Flickr.  It is the largest Photo sharing site which hosts more than 3.6 billion images.  This site is good for uploading and sharing personal pictures.

Social Bookmarking Sites

Social bookmarking is a way of managing the bookmarks of the web pages users save on the internet.  The bookmark can be private, public, or shared with a limited number of people.  Delicious is site used for storing, sharing and finding new bookmarks.  Blinklist is an older bookmarking site and it is mainly used form personal and social bookmarking services.

Wiki

This is a tool for creating and sharing knowledge.  A wiki is a collaborate website that lets the user create and edit the web pages and the contents.    Wikipedia is the most famous wiki and it has about 13 million articles written by users around the world.

I encourage you to check out some of these sites, if you have not already done so, and explore the different aspects of how they work.   You may just find a few of them interesting.

The New Craze That's Sweeping The Nation!

While social media has only reecently become part of mainstream culture and the business world, it really isn't new.  People have been using digital media for networking, socializing, and information gathering for over thirty years.  From the first email to the domination of Facebook, social media has come a long way.  Social media allows us to take part in new innovative ways to communicate and interact with one another.  Furthermore, it creates simplicity in our lives so that we can spend more time focusing on things of greater importance.  Social Media is being embraced by children as well as adults.  It is being used in homes, in classrooms, and in businesses.  It is the NEW CRAZE that is sweeping the nation.  Even though social media is fun and interesting, it has it pros and cons.  What are your thoughts on social media? How are you using it in your daily life?
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