Social Media: A Fine Line Between Education and Addiction by Daniel

Social Media: A Fine Line Between Education and Addiction by Daniel - March 2022 Scholarship Essay

Whether we like it or not, social media is something that is here to stay in our increasingly connected world. Over the past decade, it has had a massive impact on the way we communicate, present and receive information, and build relationships. However, there is another field that social media has affected just as much, but which is sorely overlooked, and this is the field of education.
Social media has orchestrated a large revolution in what today’s kids spend their time on, and given the fact that a large portion of our time is also spent on education, there is naturally going to be overlap, and along with it, conflict. Speaking from personal experience, I can attest to the fact that in my case, social media has brought with it far more harm than good, especially when it comes to learning. Surprisingly, this was a difficult thing for me to admit, as it is very easy to make excuses for social media. This essay prompt, however, truly forced me to reflect on the question: What has social media really done for me?
Ultimately, social media has provided me with an easy escape from reality at times when I’m stressed with a lot of homework and learning obligations, and this comes with a dangerous downside. Social media has wasted a lot of my time. As a halfway reward for progressing on an assignment, I will think that I will hop onto Instagram and scroll around for a few minutes. Suddenly, an hour has passed, leaving me guilty, ashamed, and bitter at the fact that I’ve wasted so much time, yet gained nothing in terms of knowledge or productivity. A case in point is this very scholarship essay. In the course of working on this essay, I have stopped multiple times to aimlessly look at my phone, despite knowing full well that I will only feel mad at myself for wasting my own time. The irony, given the topic of the essay, is not lost on me. To simply stop, however, is not so easy, and therein is the danger of the social media addiction that so many teens are falling into.
The presence of social media has ultimately impacted the way I learn by shortening my attention span and causing me to take much more time on working on things that should only take a fraction of that time. Social media is cleverly designed to serve as an easy distraction for any time that one experiences even an instant of boredom or struggle, and this is precisely why it has taken such a strong grip on students around the world. Knowing that my phone is on my bedside table, where I can look at a slightly humorous post that will make me laugh for two seconds, makes persevering through a tough problem in my calculus homework far more difficult than if that distraction wasn’t there.
It must be said that social media has had its share of positive influence on education. Its use can allow teachers to connect with today’s teens in a relevant manner, and opens the possibility for unique learning experiences such as using Twitter for a class discussion board, or setting up a blogging site for students to share their essays. Social media also can help break down many of the barriers which for decades have made it difficult for disadvantaged families to gain access to education, making it possible for low-income students, or students with special educational needs, to engage in distance learning or modified learning tailored to their constraints and needs. In its most ideal sense, social media is an incredibly powerful and innovative tool which can revolutionize education and restructure its attainability for all.
Unfortunately, along with the realm of possibilities that stems from the use of social media in the classroom, come the downsides that I previously mentioned. Along with proving to be a distraction when doing work, and being detrimental to the attention spans of developing students, continued reliance on social media as an educational medium can detract from the face-to-face interaction which is vital for growing children. Continued use of games and social networking sites in classes has been shown to limit the social skills of kids.
Ultimately, we must carefully weigh the pros and cons of introducing social media to kids during the progression of their education, as it is vital to not potentially burden the children of tomorrow with a crippling habit that will make it difficult to focus on learning and to persevere through problems. Social media holds the key not only to improving learning, but building equitable access to education. This is why, to gain access to the good without succumbing to the bad, it is crucial that we continually assess what the real long term impacts of social media use are, and to manage its use in schools carefully.