The advent of technology and social media platforms has revolutionized our lives. However, social media platforms are both a boon and a bane to humanity. You can connect with your distant relatives in just one click, and even students can get good grades with the help of the internet. Moreover, the invention of Artificial intelligence has eased living. However, there are potential downsides to social media as well. Let us understand in detail how social media affects students.
How Social Media Affects Mental Health
There are far more negative effects of social media on young minds than positive ones. Students’ minds can easily be influenced, and research has shown that school-going children are especially likely to be prone to the ill effects of social media. The effects may vary according to the time spent. The most vulnerable group of people are pre-adolescent and high school kids. The videos and posts on social media, through engaging and exciting, over time become addictive and affect their mental health tremendously. The urge to constantly check one’s feed or be curious about what’s happening is dangerous. Many psychological disorders, like depression, anxiety, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, are likely the outcomes of social media addiction.
How does Social Media Affect Students
While there isn’t any particular age group that’s immune to the ill effects of social media, pre-adolescents, and high school kids are more prone to it. The age group is such that your kids can’t be solely blamed. Social media can affect the way the students think and behave. It is usually the topic of discussion among friends. This, in turn, might become addictive, and soon, they are obsessed with what some strangers think about them. They get into the loop of trying to impress them, finding ways to get more likes, and complimenting comments; this would always be on their mind.
They soon completely ignore their academics and other important aspects of a student’s life. Disrespect parents and teachers since they always nag them about studying. This behavioral transition is very dangerous and may soon take a drastic turn. All these factors affect students and their lives sometimes in an irreversible way.
How does Social Media Affect Students’ Academic Performance
The student’s academic performance, especially, might face the wrath. It’s not a foreign concept that social media is addictive. Once the kids get a taste of social media and all the false bliss it brings, there’s no going back. They spend more time on their accounts, avoiding their school work, all to achieve online appreciation. This takes a huge toll on their academic performances, and they slowly start to decline. Another concerning factor is that some students might stop caring about academics altogether.
How Social Media Affect Our Brains
In many social media platforms, people showcase a false picture of their life being perfect. Many of them do it for money, praise from peers, or to extract a false sense of happiness. When young minds who are naive get exposed to all these, they will only want to imitate them.
Researchers have proven that social media addiction is related to neurogenic and psycho-emotional dysfunction. The false high of dopamine (happy hormone) is a coping mechanism for many users of social media, and they use it to fill a void in their lives. The void they feel might be due to childhood negligence, stress, or problems with spouses/friends/family members. So this false sense of dopamine rush affects our brains in a very bad manner, and recovery from this is a long way and takes a whole lot of effort.
How to Protect Students from Social Media
Parents must play an active role in doing so. Here, teachers at Kangaroo International High School make sure that the students are not diverted.
Some definitive signs of social media addiction are:
- Frequent changes in moods
- Rebellious behaviour
- Asking for more pocket money than usual
- Disinterest in doing tasks that previously used to excite them
- More concerned about looking good
- Always with their phone, cut off from the real world
- Always talk about how great their online friends are
How Can We Help Students Struggling
Parents must play an active role in doing so. Here, teachers at Kangaroo International High School make sure that the students are not diverted. But you (parents) must carefully monitor your kids at home. It would help if you looked for some signs of social media addiction mentioned above.
- You must monitor your kid’s screen time
- Must have PG controls over their phone
- Must make them realize both the good and bad effects of social media
- Keep checking their academic performances
- Keep in touch with their school and their teachers or mentors and know about their behavior at school.
- Teach them about fake accounts on social media and how they can get rigged if they aren’t careful.
- Always keep a check on what they are seeing
- If there are some signs of addiction, immediately take measures.
- Encourage children to play outdoor games
- Join them in various extracurricular activities based on their interest
- Could you encourage them to read books?
- Get professional help when needed.
- Listen and spend some quality time with them.
Even social media should impose strict rules that no one under 18 should own an account on any of the platforms. Let’s all pledge for our kids’ safety, happiness, and bright future.
Here at Kangaroo Kids International Preschool, we make sure the child is supported throughout their schooling. And we also see that your kids achieve their full potential without any compromise. Contact us for more information.
