Advantages And Uses Of Banning Social Media In Schools

Banning Social Media in Schools Social media has an increasing presence in the everyday lives of children and teenagers. “Social media is a term that generally refers to a set of online tools and practices with which people share personal information, ideas, and opinions for the purpose of social interaction.” (Falk, 2016) Some examples of social media include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. While some schools have begun to integrate social media into teaching plans, most schools have blocked social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, on their wireless networks. “Social media has entered all sectors of our society and the field of education is no exception.” (Lantz-Andersson, Vigmo & Bowen, 2015) According to a survey, “73% of teachers

Social media hinders face to face interaction and excessive use can diminish interpersonal skills. Social media use in school can negatively impact student’s interactions with each other. “75% of teens currently have a social networking profile, and 51% visit that social networking site daily.” (Feliciano, 2015) Students’ conversational skills can also be weakened due to overuse of social media. Social media lacks the emotional aspect of human interaction and students can become impartial to this part of communication. It becomes difficult for students to carry on in-depth conversations with others as the lack these social and conversational skills. According to Zachary Feliciano (2015), “frequent virtual interactions through social media lack emotion, and when coming face-to-face with a person, frequent users of social media may miss some social cues.” This absence of social skills can worsen interpersonal relationships that students have. Relationships based on face-to-face socializing may not be as successful and youth may become “confused on what an actual friendship is.” (Feliciano, 2015) About 34% of teens agree that social media use takes away from time spent face-to-face with people and 44% agree that using social media distracts them from the people they are with. (Feliciano, 2015) Social media can create barriers between people in some face-to-face interactions when one party is consistently

Social media can often be improperly used and can become a distraction for students in class or while studying and doing homework. Additionally, use of social media in schools can lead to a significant increase of cyberbullying affecting students’ educational performance. Finally, lack of social skills can be a product of social media use as students lose the face-to-face interaction with their peers. Overall, students are affected negatively by social media use in school. Should schools ban the use of social media this would result in higher grades, decreased cyberbullying and increased face-to-face communication between students and between students and teachers. A possible solution would be for school boards to permit access to only certain applications and sites and have other social media site blocked either on the school network or in the school