The Relationship Between Social Media And Elearning

Social networking sites (referred to more broadly as social media) are a collection of websites and applications that enable users to swap ideas, post updates and comments, and participate in activities and events while sharing their interests with other users. From general chit-chat to propagating breaking news, scheduling a date to following election results, gentle humor to serious research, social networking sites are used for a variety of reasons by various user communities. Nowadays, nearly every person who has access to a computer and Internet indulges in some kind of social networking on a daily basis. The introduction of social media has changed the entire dynamics of our lifestyles: the ways we live, work, and maintain our friendships. Despite its numerous advantages, social media does yield some negative effects. However, the benefits of social media greatly outweigh its negative effects.

Currently, people are living in a virtual world that is dominated by social media; the influence of emergences of social media platform, such as Facebook, YouTube, has far beyond the imagination of people（Pennsylvania, 2011）.There are an increasing number of people who are willing to use social media to manage their identity, which offers a large amount of opportunities for those audiences who want to standing out from the crowd.(Matthieu; Serge et al, 2013) But because of information overload, to some extend, social media are probably making it harder for them to differentiate from the counterpart .In view of the fact, how to manager personal identity has been view as a vital

Chawinga, W. (2017). Taking social media to a university classroom: teaching and learning using Twitter and blogs. International Journal Of Educational Technology In Higher Education, 14(1), 1-19. doi:10.1186/s41239-017-0041-6

The author started her article by recognizing and classifying several different types of Internet-Online tools such as social network sites (e.g. Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter), media sharing sites (e.g. blogs, wikis, and podcasts), and advance messaging applications (e.g. SnapChat and WhatsApp). Milton declared that these tools assist its users to link, cooperate with each other, and interconnect online. Therefore, topnotch universities were able to construct a teaching-learning experience that crafted to accomplish top academic outcomes.

According to the video “ A vision of Students Today “ by Michael Wesch and “How Higher Education Uses Social Media” by Matt Silverman “ their is a link between social media and modern education system”. They both examine how social media and education relate to author other; in todays world people use social media for different purpose. In addition, the video and article by both authors mentioned before how we (students ) can use social media in higher education and how social media help us .

“Social media allows people to connect with each other to create and share information. It is people-powered communication, an authentic dialogue motivated by a basic human desire to share information” (CIPD, Social Media and Employee Voice Report 2013). ‘Click’ and my message is on its way to my friend’s Facebook inbox hundred of miles away. The astonishing speed of how quick we can communicate in today’s societies, all thanks to social media. The invention of Facebook simplified everything we know about communication. We can connect to people whenever and wherever, sharing information has never been more convenient and exciting. In Shane Hipps’ Article, “ Is Facebook Killing Our Souls?,” he has no intention to impede technological advancements, instead he wants users to understand technologies with insights. According to my research, although Hipps ' points has some merits, I disagree with him because he overgeneralized the impacts that Facebook and other social media has on users’ behaviors and identities.

Are we becoming less human with the passing of each day? Have we become too dependent on technology, specifically social media? In this day and age, people have different views on social media. They question its true purpose and its effect on society as a whole. With that said, although there are many thoughts concerning the topic/trend of social media something that is undoubtedly true is that social media plays an active role in the lives of the majority of people. Whether in a positive or negative way, social media influences the lives of all people. However this paper focuses on the effect of social media on college students. It addresses both the positive and negative effects of social media on those in college; focusing on a student’s academic efficiency, social interactive skills, and overall productivity.

Social media has gained immense popularity, following increased access to the internet and technology devices including smart phones. Social media is used to denote platforms in which people build and share social connections; thus enhancing information sharing and interaction. Major examples include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram. Through social media, people can connect, interact and exchange information such as pictures, videos and other digital media by registering as users in these platforms and updating information affecting their lives on their profiles. When social media applications came into existence, these were mostly used for interacting and sharing with friends, relations and new friends acquired through these platforms. Social media has however been constantly abused, as people turn it into a ground to vent, lie, insult, bully or threaten others. The social networks no longer serve their intended purpose in the society and users have taken advantage of the free space to say whatever they want with no regard to how it affects others. People have used such domains to brandish their selfish acts and gains.

Jon Russell once said, “Social Media presents a huge opportunity for schools, universities and other educational organizations to reach out and connect with students and prospective students”. With no doubt, social media has influenced the way students are educated today. For those of you who do not know the exact definition of social media, the social media means ways of sharing information, opinions, images, videos using the Internet, especially social networking sites. Because of the Internet, people started finding ways to socialize through social websites and exchange information. Popular social network on the Internet such as YouTube became a sensation for me ever since I became a student in college. Today social media can be used for educational purposes. The ways social media is changing education has affected how the students express themselves, behave, and interact with each other.

Social media has taken off like a rocket throughout the years. The annoying sound of a modem connecting has turned into a soundless transaction. The wait time to connect is instant, opening a global world of interactions for people. You can now connect with anyone, anywhere at anytime at least once a day. Social media defined by Goyal is “Any platform,which provides the facility of sharing ideas, exchanging information and sending messages over an electronic medium, is considered as social media.” (Goyal,222). This is to include online magazines, Facebook, Twitter, Newspapers,Email, Blogs, YouTube and many more. Advertisers have taken notice to these platforms, utilizing social media to promote their brands, develop trust with the consumer,save money and target audiences faster than ever before.

Social media are the most ordinarily used media to connect with the world because of its many advantages and benefits. Many students are already involved in social networks and using it their daily activities including educational purposes. Social media have changed the ways of learning and providing pieces of information on education. It has been used in education nowadays more than ever and showing beneficial results out of that. Uses of social media are increasing continuously in education and both students and educators are becoming dependent on it. The reason behind this is, it is simple to access, effortless to use and easy availability. Among many of the advantages of social media in education, applying it for communication purposes, sharing class materials, files etc. for classroom projects as well as uses of QR codes are some of the leading ones.

Social media is a technological tool that allows users to share information (Business Dictionary, n.d.). Other common features include the ability for visitors to create personalized profiles or accounts where they can post information for others to view and the ability to link their accounts to others (Nations, n.d.). Within the term the “social” component means sharing with others and the “media” component refers to the technology that allows for the sharing (Nations, n.d.)

Social media can be defined as websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or participate in social networking. As a phenomenon of only the past couple of decades, it has certainly changed the way we live our everyday lives. Whether socially or professionally, it opens the door to incredible amounts of information; most of which is freely shared.

In addition to this Poore (2013) argued that the new social media has reformed the traditional media resources such as the usage of newspapers, books and magazines have reduced due to the availability of information on online resources such as Moodle and WebCT. Hence, it also provides intellectual benefits such as children can learn how to analyze, interpret and synthesize the information. Okoro (2012) acknowledge that integrating social media technologies into higher education can enhance ongoing communication between teacher and student which helps in promoting collaborative learning activities. His findings laid stress on effectiveness of teaching and student learning outcomes with an appropriate example of understanding the usage of electronic media in making strategies and practicing skills in business

The power of the internet has grown rapidly and so has the use of social media. Vanessa Denice provides us with some quick facts about social media and it’s literally millions of users. So many people are online in today’s world that Facebook, in a single day, hit 1 billion active users (Denice). This proves that social media is a rapidly growing platform and with any growing platform comes change. This change is debatable as to whether it is for the better or worse.