Students deal with how social media affect their daily lives and academic performance. Every day at school, online, in public, they are affected by different platforms that influence their grades, mental health, attentive focus, etc.
Social media have become a major part of students’ lives. The majority of our students use different platforms, like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and others that aren’t used for just entertainment anymore. Now they are also used to interacting with friends, learning about recent news as well as educational information. While the majority of students claim that social media help them keep in touch with friends and remain informed, parents as well as administrators question how much it affects their academic performance and their daily lives outside of school. Some students claim that social media help them with their school work by being able to plan study groups with their classmates, remind them of homework due the next day, and seeing advice from content creators who help break down confusing subjects into something that students can understand.
Using social media like this can help students in a successful learning way, with support from their classmates as well as easy and quick access to resources. Ava Kleuy, a senior, wants to share what she thinks, “It could better students’ academic performances by watching and following educational content creators.” Kleuy exclaims, “As well as asking my peers for help if I don’t understand something we learned in class.” Online communities could provide our students with a sense of belonging, especially if they’re struggling to make friends or feel alone at school.
Although these platforms are also very distracting, text notifications, trending memes, face time calls, non-stop scrolling, are all things that distract students from finishing their homework and sleeping at a reasonable time. Vanessa Ramirez, a senior, exclaims that, “I think they could set up a screen time on settings during school hours,” Ramirez says, “Or put their phones on, do not disturb, and keep their phones in their backpacks.” There are many students who have exclaimed about often staying up late on their phones, which gives them a hard time concentrating in class due to how exhausted they are.
Overall, how social media affect students’ daily lives and academic performances is subjective and depends on the person. While these platforms could be used for many good things like communicating and gathering information, they can also distract students from their responsibilities at school and at home, including affecting their mental health. As our school and families figure out what to do about this, it could easily be fixed by learning how to balance both social media and school work.
