Is social media a distraction to students?

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Achem Deborah

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Jul 1, 2022
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With the aid of technology, a lot of things have taken shape in society. A few years back, we could only boast of one or two social media apps. As of today, there are over 100 social media applications. This is a huge step in the advancement of modern technology. In a recent report, it was noted that there are currently over 4 billion social media users in the world. This number of users spend approximately 147 minutes on these apps in a day. This is a long stretch from the 2012 data. An increase of 61% has been reported from 2012 to 2022, in the number of time spent on social media.

Social media is a distraction to a student in many ways. Nowadays, many apps are mainly created for entertainment and pleasure. Unlike the first set of apps which were created for the sole main of keeping in touches such as six degrees, MySpace and Facebook. The recently created apps have swayed away from this original idea to entertainment. As a student, the more time you spent on social media, the less time you spend on your books.

Here are a few reasons why social media is a distraction to students

Social media thrives on entertainment
Don’t get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with creating time for entertainment on social media platforms. Although, when you begin to spend more time watching people, you begin to spend less time reflecting on yourself. As a student who has an academic calendar to cover yearly, you should spend more time in the library and less time on social media. The library encompasses all you need to get good grades and knowledge in many aspects of the world.

Social media encourages pressure
A lot of teens today have become products of the media. They want to replicate everything they see, whether or not it applies to them. The consistent pressure to impress has led to the downfall of many social media users. A lot of people now mirror their lives through the eyes of someone else: a celebrity or influencer. In a bid to do this, they forget that these people have extremely different realities from them. The repercussions of following a person’s life strictly, especially when you are not financially buoyant enough to live their reality, can affect your mental health. You would be surprised by the number of despicable things students have resulted in, in a bid to act like a character online or be as influential as a celebrity.

Social media is addictive
It begins with a step. All of a sudden, the first thing you do when you wake up is check your socials. Why do you think you need that validation so badly? This is a result of constantly feeding your mind with the same content over and over. Studies have proven that when a person does something consistently, over some time the human brain will constantly crave that activity. If a student uses more of their energy in the library and less of it scrolling on social media applications, their grades are set to significantly improve.

Anything goes on social media
Day in and day out, we are witness to various forms of sex scandals, drug abuse, and all forms of moral decadence on social media. Everyone has an attention span and as a student, being on social media can greatly alter yours. This is why many students find it difficult to finish a 20-pages book, but can scroll on social media for 15 out of 24 hours. While the former takes little or no time at all and adds to your knowledge, the latter does the exact opposite. When it comes to social media, it is extremely hard to guard your gaze. Several thoughts are being fed into your head with every negative content you see, and this is detrimental to your mental health. Your brain should be mostly in use while in class and academic settings as a student. Although, when a lot of time is being spent online, you barely have the strength to even pay the needed attention in class. It is either your mind wanders off to some random meme you saw, or you remember to check the likes and comments on your recent post.

Social media affects self-image
With the rise of many social media apps, a lot of students have become victims of low self-esteem and inferiority complex. Social media has been known to create unrealistic standards of beauty in various forms. This has in turn ruined the perspective of normal bodies and created a false illusion of “normalcy” to the world as a whole. As a result of this, students who do not portray a certain social media image have been reduced to constant bullying and depression as a result of this faux representation.

No student who has significantly high grades is currently spending hours on social media applications. You can take notes from world geniuses and leaders. How have they changed the narrative? How did they spend their time? And how have they attained such great heights? They spent more time developing themselves and less them on social media. As of today, many students find it difficult to navigate their grades and social media applications. They seem to forget that social media will always remain even after their academic calendar has ended. There will always be time for pleasure, as a student, you must remember this. For now, focus on what is important; getting good grades and graduating with excellence. In the future, you would be happy you made this decision.