Running Head: Social Media Controversies

Social Media Arguments: A Review of Literature

Erica Boakye
RWS1302/English 1312
Teach

Introduction
Research has made it very clear that social media is one of the most addictive instrument
on communication that occupies youths, as a matter of fact students minds that keep them from
studying their books. Sources say that it is so addictive that youths nowadays cannot go a minute
without checking their phones to see what is happening on the social media network sites.
According to sources, social media sites have caused students to not do well at school with
their school work. This essay is aimed at young college students who are at the ages from 17 to
23 years and are very much addicted to checking their social media sites all the time, including
when they are in class and a professor is teaching. These students are African-American, White,
and Hispanic and live in the United States and also go to the University of Texas at El Paso. Its
purpose is to inform these students the causes and effects of social media sites on their GPA. In
doing so, two questions must be considered:
1. According to sources, what are the effects of excessive use of social media on students
GPA?
2. Why do some say social media is the cause of students lack of studies?
According to sources, what are the effects of excessive use of social media on students
GPA?
Research has come to a conclusion that social media has taken over the lives of young
people, precisely students, who are now seeking education to have brighter futures to live up to.
There are so many social media sites that not only allow people to communicate with others, but
also allow them to make comments about others as well as share information. As said by June
Ahn, an Assistant Professor of the University of Maryland, College Park, Teenagers are among
the most prolific users of social media networks sites (SNS). Emerging studies find that youth
spend a considerable portion of their daily life interacting through social media. Then again, this

explains why social media has taken over the lives of young people. Because of SNSs, students
do not have much time for their books; they spend almost all their time being on SNSs, which
cause them to fail their classes. She continued, Subsequently, questions and controversies
emerge about the effects of SNSs have on adolescent development It brings together work
from disparate fields that examine the relationship between SNS and social capital, privacy,
youth safety, psychological well-being, and educational achievement. This means that the
outcomes of the excessive use of SNSs are different; instead of helping students do better at
school, they rather adrift students from concentrating on studies, ultimately, causing them to fail
their courses.
Asdaque et al (2010) argue that The internet is of the greatest recent advancement in the
world of information technology and has become a useful instrument that has fostered the
process of making the world a global village. According to them SNSs do well to students
rather than harm them. They claim that a survey research that was conducted at the University of
Pakistan showed that the use of SNSs have had and still have a great impact on students
academic and social life in the sense that, whenever they have question but no one to answer
them, they look them up on SNSs, which technically, give them the answers that they are looking
for. To Asdaque, Khan, and Rizvi, SNSs have helped so many students around all over the world,
especially college students. This is good because if they help students pass their classes, why
then should they stop using them?!
What do Cao, Ajjan, and Hong say then? Well, according to them, SNS are good because
The use of social media application in college teaching has theoretical basis from pedagogical
theories and technology adoption theories. Pedagogical theories support that social media
applications can enrich students learning experience and improve educational outcomes.

Meaning, students should continue to stay on SNSs because they improve their learning
experiences, which practically make them more brilliant and excellent students. For instance, if a
professor teaches something in class and one student does not understand, he or she can find
other ways to understand it by going on SNSs and asking other people what they know and
understand about the subject the professor taught, which will also help such student.
Meanwhile, a survey that was conducted on this same SNSs, specifically Facebook and
Twitter show that the SNSs users agree to it that social network sites are the main cause of their
lack of studies. According to one user, Sylvia Akenten, social media network sites have caused
her to not study at all these days. She said, I used to not play with my books at all. Every time I
got home from school, I immediately did my homework and studied a little, before I even ate
dinner. But now, ever since I got a cell phone and an iPod, I forget about my homework, unless I
did them right after school before I got home. There were 50 people that responded to this
survey; 43 out of 50 agreed that SNSs have taken over their school lives and now they are
addicted to them more than ever, since the SNSs have been updated. This means that it is true
that SNSs are the cause of students not studying their books. So, if these same students are
admitting to it that SNSs have being destroying their academic lives, what else then can someone
say?!

As Global Studies Manager at Genentech, Kim Doan discusses the effects of SNSs on
students essay scores. The ubiquitous use of technology has precipitated the integration of the
Internet into students research and writing processes. In a study by the Pew Research Center, 94
percent of teachers surveyed indicated that their students were very likely to turn to online
search engines as a resource for gathering information (DeSilver, 2013); the numbers increase to
99 percent of teachers when somewhat likely was added to very likely. Different Pew
Research Center reports with teens as participants confirmed this63 percent go online at least
once a day (Madden, Lenhart, Duggan, Cortesi, & Gasser, 2013). After this research was done,
it came in as a result that those students that write from their memory do much better than those
that use the internet. Because the students that write from their memory practice to write as many
times as they can before the main paper, they remember almost everything that they learned,
while the others dont because they preferred using the internet rather than studying on their
own. This is an easy way for students to fail their papers because they do not necessarily know
anything about what they are doing.

Why do some say social media is the cause of students lack of studies?
BA students Ferzetti et al reported that The advent of the internet has led to the rapid
growth of the variety - and amount - of information that is now available. While online
technology has benefited a great number of people, it is also felt that the internet might replace
other activities that could be more beneficial or productive. In other words, Ferzetti, Jaap, King,
Tench, and Jen mean that SNSs serve as distractors that keep students away from studying,
which in this case cause them to fail their courses and have low GPAs. For instance, if a student
is doing homework and someone texts him or her, he or she immediately stops everything and
respond to the text. By the time he or she realizes what he or she was doing; the time would be
fast spent, which is a waste of time.
During the early 2000s, social media did not have the strong presence that currently
exists, though it was on the horizon. Finding answers was possible, though messy. Answers were
available, but required numerous trial-and-error strategies to decide what was logical for my
music classroom. When social media moved to the forefront between 2006 and 2008, I
immediately became connected to a collection of music teachers -- individuals in various
teaching scenarios with teaching strategies in technology and beyond -- and acquired a filter
system for ideas, Robin Giebelhausen, assistant professor of music education at the University
of New Mexico stated. So, as Robin claims, SNSs are not necessarily the cause of students lack
of studies. Rather, it improves their connections with others from long distances. This means
that, not only do SNSs may have good impact on students academic life, but also their social life
as well; because music could sometimes speak to a person in a good heart and music can be
found on SNSs. Therefore, it is good that social media network sites exist so people can speak
with others they havent seen or spoken to in a long while.

Catherine Steiner-Adair is a clinical psychologist, school consultant, author, and teacher

whose professional life is devoted to working with children, parents, and school. She said that
The digital-age transformation of our homes, schools, and families has opened a new world of
opportunity for learning, and a new world of challenge as educators come to terms with the 21stcentury realities of students' lives online and on social media. This means that she in a way
agrees with the others that SNSs are favorable circumstances that help students to learn a lot of
things in this world full of challenges. However, she blames the SNSs for the bad things young
people inhabit such as gaming, cynicism, sexual exploitation, social cruelty, and a general shockand-awe standard. So, even though she agrees with the SNSs being or serving as sources of
learning tools for students, she still has a great concern about the damages that the SNSs do to
students, especially the gaming that students get so much addicted to that they totally forget
about their books.

According to Wang, Hsieh, and Song, Data were collected from a sample of 247
Chinese university students via an online survey. The results suggest that perceived enjoyment,
perceived social presence, and perceived usefulness are key user satisfaction. Perceived social
presence and perceived media richness are positively associated with perceived enjoyment. This
means that students engage and enjoy in online activities more than regular activities. To them, it
is very bad to be engaged so much in online activities because its a total waste of time or
useless. For example, if a student has a test the next day at school but he or she rather chooses to
spend time online playing games and doing other things rather than study for test, he or she will
fail because at the end of the day, a question about the game will not be on the test; not a single
one. This means that the lots of games that are found on SNSs are the main cause of students
refusal to study their books.
Last, American author, essayist, and journalist Michael Wolff said that Of course, net
neutrality advocates have been arguing that the Internet is increasingly controlled by big
broadband holders like Comcast, and hence, to restore balance, it needs to be controlled by
government regulation. That may well be true. But the larger and more important effect is not
about balance or restoring the status quo, but that the Internet passes into some new, more formal
arena wherein the powers that be -- all of them -- get to flex their muscles and try to beat the
others. This means that even though some do not agree to the help SNSs offer to students, it has
now found established and orderly ways of helping them. This may be true because nowadays,
people use SNSs to discussed very important issues like business meetings and of those sorts.
From the judgments of all the sources, one could tell that the social media networks
sites are not entirely responsible for students lower grades and lack of studies. This is because
from what some of the sources say, students have the chances of making their own decisions

whether or not to spend so much time on SNSs. While source one agrees that SNSs are the main
reasons for students failure at school, source two disagrees because it believes SNSs provide
rather good academic information for students than harm their habits of studying. Also, other
sources have it that SNSs do both to students; do them well as well as harm them. This is
because students can find very important information from others (friends, groups, teams, etc.)
from long distances while also adapting bad habits from SNSs. After reading this essay, some
students may change their minds of their addiction to SNSs and work on becoming better
individual as responsible students. Others may also not care about it at all because they probably
have in their minds that they will always have help from others, especially their parents,
whenever they need them. But, it is better to create something for oneself to be proud of, rather
than always depend on others. So, to those who will learn to make better choices, it is for their
own good. And for those who would not care at all, it is also their own choice.

Reference

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Ahn, J. (2011). The Effects of Social Network Sites on Adolescents Social and Academic
Development: Current Theories and Controversies. Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology.
Akenten, S. (2015). Reason Why Students of Today do not Study their Books. Boakye, Erica. El
Paso Texas.
Asdaque, M.M., Khan, M. N., & Rizvi, S. A. A. (2010). Effect of Internet on the Academic
Performance and Social Life of University Students in Pakistan. Retrieved from
www.academia.edu/1000534/EFFECT_OF_INTERNET_ON_THE_ACADEMIC_PERF
ORMANCE_AND_SOCIAL_LIFE_OF_UNIVERSITY_STUDENTS_IN_PAKISTAN
Cao, Y., Ajjan, H., & Hong, P. (2013). Using Social Media Applications for Educational
Outcomes in College Teaching: A Structural Equation Analysis. British Journal of
Educational Technology, 44, 581-593.
Doan, K. (2014). The Effects of Browse tine on the Internet on Students Essay Scores.
TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning.
Ferzetti, P., Jaap, T., King, T., Tench, E., & Thomas. J.L. (n.d.). The Effect of Internet Use on
Students GPA. Retrieved from
www.psu.edu/dept/medialab/researchpage/newabstracts/gpa.html
Giebelhausen, R. (2015). What the Tech is Going On? Social Media and Your Music
Classroom. General Music Today.
Steiner, A. (2015). The Biggest Disconnect. Independent School.
Wang, W., Hsieh, JJ. P., & Song, B. (2012). Understanding User Satisfaction with Instant
Messaging: An Empirical Survey Study. International Journal of Human-Computer
Interaction, 28, 153-162.

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Wolff, W. (2015). Internet Regulation Hardly Neutral. USA Today.