How Has Social Media Impacted Our Studying? by Carolina

How Has Social Media Impacted Our Studying? by Carolina - March 2022 Scholarship Essay

Social media has been both amazing and detrimental to studying. It is all about self-control, the issue with social media is that it’s so distracting. This makes it easy to not focus, but if you have self-control and take certain steps to block off those distractions, then that’s not a distraction to you. Social media has also helped students learn, learning videos are easily accessible now and have been a great resource to many people.
I’ll start with the advantages of social media. As a concept, social media is not a bad thing. It keeps us in touch with our loved ones and keeps us informed on the things we are interested in. It can also be a great study tool. I know for a fact that both TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram have helped me tremendously. There are plenty of accounts dedicated to helping students find the best way to study and some even upload tutorials for homework.
It’s helped me most in my math classes, there have been so many instances where I have not been able to grasp a concept no matter how hard I try. I realized that trying to relearn it with a different person was easier sometimes. It’s almost like when you have a friend explain something to you and when they do it, it finally clicks in your brain. That would happen to me when I would watch step by step on solving math problems. Having a different person explain it in their own words would help me finally understand what I had to do. That’s why I believe social media can help you study. However, it can come at a disadvantage at times.
If you have social media, you understand how easy it is to be sucked in by it. You’ll tell yourself you’re going to scroll through your feed for five minutes and then get right back to work. Those five minutes then turn into an hour and most of the time you don’t even notice. I know I struggle to put my phone aside to study. It doesn’t help when you get constant notifications as you study, and you have the urge to check them.
Anyone who has Instagram knows how many notifications you get. Anytime someone you follow goes live, or someone likes your post, or you get a direct message, you will get a little buzz on your phone indicating that you have a new notification. This can be extremely distracting when you study. This is a disadvantage that social media has had on studying, but it can be avoided. I like to turn my phone upside down and on do not disturb when I study. I’ve found that it helps me focus better and keeps me off of it because I don’t see my screen light up every time, I get a new notification.
Social media has its pros and cons, but the cons can be avoided when it comes to studying. Silencing your notifications can be a big factor in your focus! It’s also worth looking into teaching videos to help you grasp concepts you struggle with. This is a huge advantage that comes with social media because there are so many options out there. Overall, I believe it hasn’t impacted me majorly, I just had to find a way to keep myself focused. Once I did that I wasn’t worried about my phone and I was able to study better.