Aloto H Aye
M.Ed, Nagaland University, Meriema
In this 21st century, globalization and technological change processes have accelerated in tandem over the past few decades. Modern Technology in communication has undoubtedly transformed the entire world into a “Global Village” powered by technology, fueled by information, and driven by knowledge. The emergence of this “New Global Village” has major consequences for the nature and educational institutions. It enables us to be more informed, enlightened, and keeping abreast with global events. It exposes mankind to a better way of doing things. But as it is, technology like two sides of a coin, has both negative and positive aspects.
Social media is currently one of the most revolutionary inventions that allows for the unfettered exchange of ideas. Websites like Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Instagram, and others, which have risen to prominence in the social sphere, establish online social networks and have transformed the thought of global village into a reality whereby billions of people communicate through social networking sites. Numerous benefits have been obtained through distant communication through the use of social networking sites as it illuminates the lives of thousands of people by spreading knowledge internationally, thereby making us global citizens.
According to Global Digital Overview and analysis from Kepios, there are 4.65 billion social media users around the world as on April 2022, equating to 58.7 percent of the total global population. Social media user numbers have continued to grow over the past 12 months too, with 326 million new users joining social media since last year. According to the most recent statistics, almost 9 out of 10 internet users currently utilise social media at least once a month. That equates to annualized growth of 7.5 percent, at an average rate of more than 10 new users every single second. The analysis also shows that people spend an average of close to 2 ½ hours per day using social media. It assumes that people sleep between 7- 8 hours per day and roughly spend 15% of the waking lives using social media. Added together, the world spends more than 10 billion hours using social platforms each day, which is the equivalent of nearly 1.2 million years of human existence. However, keep in mind that social media user numbers may not reflect unique individuals, and owing to issues like duplicate accounts, social media user numbers may outnumber internet user numbers – or even the overall population.
As per the reports published by Statista Research Department, Hamburg March 8, 2022, 17 social media platforms have at least 300 million active users, Facebook has 2.9 billion, YouTube 2.5 billion, WhatsApp 2 billion, Instagram 1.4 billion users and so on. Tik-Tok accounts 1 billion monthly active users. As of January 2022, India had a total of 230.25 million Instagram users, the largest Instagram audience in the world.It took Instagram 11.2 years to reach the milestone of 2 billion monthly active users worldwide. WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, took 11 years, whilst Facebook took 13.3 years and YouTube took just over 14 years.
But the question here is, how these social networks is affecting and influencing the lives of students towards their mental development, today?
One of the most interesting things to look at is the increasing number of student users on such social networking sites. As per the survey conducted by Research Centers, 72 percent of high school and 78 percent of college students spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok, YouTube, online gaming, etc. These numbers indicate how much the student community is involved in this virtual world of social networking.
According to a collaborative survey conducted by Campus2Careers and Study Breaks on the usage of mobile devices by students, the average undergraduate spends 3.6 hours per day on their cell phones and smartphones. According to Morahan- Martin and Schumacher (2000) states that social media addiction as the excessive use of the internet and the failure to control this usage seriously harms a person’s life. Itodo (2011) writes in the Daily Trust that there appears to be an alarming incidence of social networking obsession among students today, a trend that could significantly impact their academic, social, and spiritual lives if not properly controlled.
Students today have unrestricted access to the internet and social media, which is an irrefutable fact. They are far more than anyone else, the most victims to social media. They typically utilize social networking sites for a variety of reasons, including study and entertainment, because they give any data they require in a matter of seconds. It engages them in a variety of activities some of which may be potentially addictive and has become a major distraction, causing the overall performance of students to decline. Today students' primary sources of information are online Wikipedia and blogs, as their attention has shifted away from library research and toward general dependence on these social networking platforms. They spend more time on Facebook, Tik-Tok, Instagram and other social media through smartphones that are now in abundance among today’s youth. Many students cannot go for two-three hours without checking and updating their profiles on these social networks even at the detriment of other activities such as educational and career pursuit. They mostly waste time on social media for non-educative information. They are extremely busy in accessing number of sites other than educational site for long hours which create a very negative impact on their mind as well as creates ample of health issues and also creating slit in the family. Many parents often expressed grave concern when they seat together, that they could hardly get the attention of their children and wards, as they seem to have been carried away by the fascinating world of social networks. The darker side within technological evolution has resulted in dilemmas such as the setback of real values of life especially among students who form the majority of users interacting through the use of social networking sites. With so many social networking sites displayed on the internet, students are tempted to abandon their homework and reading times in preference for chatting online with friends. Some students are such social freaks that they have now carved out for themselves a world of fantasy and illusion for detached from reality.
Attention has been shifted from visible to invisible friends, while important ventures like study and writing are affected in the process. They are glued to their phones all day making them loose sense of time. They seek pleasure on social media and playing with their smart phones in a bid to be with current events. They mostly believe that social media increases their learning ability and widens their knowledge towards information access. In higher institutions it has been observed that most students are busy pinging, Facebooking, while lectures are on thereby distracting themselves from the day’s lectures. Some are so carried away that even keep chatting as they walk along the high way. Some of them will even plug their earpiece and hum out the songs to when studying which reduce their rates of assimilation. But it is an undeniable fact that most of these students cannot use simple spellings, instead they abbreviate every word they intend to communicate with their friends. Most of them that were able to spell correctly are now unable to spell due to over involvement in social media and social networking sites. This can be visible in their examination scripts.
No doubt, the current generation students are highly equipped with multi-tasking abilities as they live in a fast-paced technological world with many different types of communication happening all at the same time. But they are no more learning through reading and this has reduced the vast use and development of the brain. In fact, they read just to pass an examination and not for gaining knowledge. Even reading of books have decreased drastically. Times that ought to be channeled towards learning, academic research and innovating have been crushed by the passion for meeting new friends online, and most times busy discussing trivial issues. Now, they are so addicted to the online rave of the moment, and are so engrossed in social media that they are almost 24 hours online. Hence most students’ academic performance suffers a setback as a result of distraction from the social media. It is to be estimated that even those students who pass their HSLC or HSSLC or graduates, one out of three does not possess the knowledge and skills that would lead him or her to the next level. Though there have been many social, economic, and environmental factors that have added to the pressure of students in the past years, the drop-out rate for students and unemployment is still a major concern.
Considering all of the above pros and cons, this phenomenon is to be considered a source of worry if we believe in knowledge and skill acquisition. If this dangerous trend of social media network “obsession”, if left unchecked, could further affect an already collapsing education system. Educators, administrators and institutions needs to question what can be done to help students improve their life skills for a successful sustainable future. They should consider it as necessary to develop certain regulations over the use of such social networking sites, especially for high school and college students. But still, students should get the choice to spend time socializing in an effective way. It should not hamper their school or college performance, and it should be kept in mind that social networking sites create virtual worlds that drastically differ from reality. Students need to develop cognitive and intuitive ability to analyze how much time they want to spend on social media. It is left up to the students to decide what really matters in their life and how much of this virtual life translates to real life.
Educational Institutions therefore, cannot remain as mere venues for the transmission of a prescribed set of information from teacher to students over a fixed period of time rather it must promote “Learning to Learn”- the acquisition of knowledge and skills that make continuous learning possible over the lifetime. “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”. (ALVIN TOFFLER)
