Hello, my name is Frederick, and my inquiry question is, “Is social media good or bad for education?”. I chose this question because I throughout my years of education in school and in extracurricular activities, I have always received assignments that have involved researching on social media websites or utilising them to learn. I also frequently use said social media platforms and have seen the good and bad sides of using them in your daily life.
People spend a lot of their everyday lives on social media. Here is a survey that shows useful information on social media platforms.
As you can see, many people use social media for multiple hours a day. It could be doing something productive such as work, or it could be wasting time scrolling through posts.
Many informative organizations or educational organizations use social media as their go to platforms. For example, there are many educational videos on Youtube, and there are many educational platforms such as Khan Academy or AOPS ( Art of Problem Solving).
However, social media has its downsides such as spending too much time scrolling through feeds or watching videos. People also frequently waste time by texting their friends posting about every moment of their lives. Another reason why social media is unhealthy is that there are tons of fake news and fake educational videos, as well as unhealthy or potentially deadly “challenges” on platforms like TikTok. There may also be inappropriate content on the platforms that is either disturbing or unsafe.
This is why I have chosen the question “Is social media good or bad for education?” as my inquiry.
Hi Frederick,
This is such a great topic that is very current in our society! I personally think social media does more harm than good, but it’s hard to ignore all the positives it brings like you mentioned! I also use many videos on youtube to help me understand certain concepts, and it’s so much easier to access information now online. For your future posts, maybe you could also look into how social media affects the attention span of students in school? I just think it could expand on your topic and be an interesting thing to research!
Overall your inquiry sounds great, and here are some resources that may help you in the future:
https://csic.georgetown.edu/magazine/social-media-reshaping-todays-education-system/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/tween-and-teen-health/in-depth/teens-and-social-media-use/art-20474437
Good luck!
-Shaila
Hi Fredrick,
This is a really relatable topic because now it is rare for people to not have social media, and most rely on it to get information, but at the same time that information is not always the most productive, and could be fake as well! If you wanted, you can look into how false information from social media can impact someones opinion/how it can effect their research if they were using the internet to find their information!
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fake-news-lies-spread-faster-social-media-truth-does-n854896
Heres a link that has some info about that!!
good luck on your inquiry question!
– Negar
Hello Fredrick,
Your inquiry question was interesting for me since it connects with one of the inquiry questions I did last year. I researched about society’s standards and social media links with this. From my research, social media contributes negatively on beauty standards. It gives a negative impact on people and causes stress. Maybe you can link beauty standards or society standards with your inquiry question? I personally think that social media is a big distraction for education. You make a good point about how social media can help you understand better by watching educational videos like Khan academy. But there are alternatives rather than watching videos. Like reading textbooks or workbooks. A question I have is: How fast does our generation adapt to social media? For example, I notice how much faster young kids get social media every year. I got my first phone in grade 6, but I know kids nowadays get their phones at like the age 6. Maybe you can talk about the dangers of social media at a young age? Here are some resources that can help: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/well/family/child-social-media-use.html
https://allaboutcookies.org/social-media-and-kids
-Kiara
Hi Frederick,
I love how you included that youtube has many educational videos that deepen our understanding like Khan Academy or the Art of Problem Solving. Furthermore, I liked how you included that social media may be a distraction from studying, include inappropriate content or even include fake news. This was a fantastic approach, because it gave me the pros and cons of social media, so that I know to be open-minded about this project. I originally thought social media was all bad for education, but now I know that it may help due to the educational videos. This eliminates the misconception that social media is only harmful to education. Some questions I have for you are: how much time on social media is considered healthy for education for high school students? What is the appropriate age for kids to get social media? What are some strategies to use social media to only help us with our education? Is there a certain social media platform that is more beneficial for education than others? Is the screen time limit helpful to use less of social media?
Here are some resources to further your research:
https://csic.georgetown.edu/magazine/social-media-reshaping-todays-education-system/
https://www.jbcnschool.edu.in/blog/social-media-in-education/
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED574268.pdf
https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/social-media-smarts.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8910481/
Keep up the great work,
Sarah Kim
Hi Fredrick,
Your inquiry project was awesome to me because social media is one of the things that people in Africa depict as success snatcher. It is important for people to know whether it is good or not. on my own side of view I think good and bad in social media goes both ways. Example social media can help one with work just like u said but at the same time it can take ones focus. Not many people can concentrate on what they are doing when there is social media.
I think that maybe you can research on how social media can be used as a source of information rather than virtual pleasure.
Here are some sources that can help
1.https://www.oswego.edu/cts/how-use-social-media-good-safely-creating-positive-presence-online#:~:text=Keep%20it%20clean%20and%20positive,media%20accounts%20before%20hiring%20you.
2.https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2019/06/three-ways-to-use-social-media-positively/
3.https://bloomerang.co/blog/how-can-social-media-be-used-for-social-good-especially-in-times-of-social-distancing/