Facebook is not for Education

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Facebook is a popular social media which has become part of college students’ everyday life. Many instructors see Facebook’s popularity as a potential to integrate this social media as a supplemental learning tool beyond the walls of classrooms. It is estimated that over 90% of instructors use social media, mostly Facebook, in the courses they are teaching (Pearson 3). Instructors who utilize Facebook as an educational tool perceive this social media as an effective platform that could facilitate communication and engage college students in their studies. Moreover, they believe that Facebook allows active and collaborative learning that could catalyze students’ academic performance. However, these Facebook’s advantages seem to be overshadowed by the harmful impact that Facebook might have on college students. This social media could significantly distract students in studying and further impair their academic performance. Moreover, Facebook could cause the high level of depression that influence students’ personalities. Further, this depression could lead to academic and health problems in college students. Instructors should not incorporate Facebook as a learning tool to enhance college students’ academic performance as this social media could distract students and cause depression.

Facebook and Distraction
Facebook could distract students and further impair their academic performance. Specifically, extending Facebook’s function as an educational tool could cause difficulties for students in managing their focus between learning and entertaining. This is because in Facebook there is no clear boundary that separates those two fields. Therefore, placing education and entertainment in the same platform significantly diverts studen...

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...enhance college students’ academic performance. If instructors still want to embrace technology in their courses, they might want to utilize other forms of platforms that are established and aimed for educational purposes, such as Edmodo and Schoology. These kinds of platforms have clear boundaries between studying and entertainment and separate private and professional area. Therefore, instructors are still able to promote an active and collaborative learning with fewer risks to students. Yet, a better approach to enhance college students’ academic performance is still by maximizing the effectiveness of classroom learning as the natural way to educate students. Again, students’ academic success depends on how instructors choose the right method to teach, and utilizing Facebook as a learning tool is not the right choice.

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