Hello everyone! My name is Frederick and my inquiry question is, “Is social media good or bad for education?” and today, I will be researching the second part of my question today: Find what people are doing when they use social media.
I discovered that most of the time, people are not using social media for education. The top use of social media is to keep in touch with family and friends, with 48.7% of people saying this is the main reason in a recent survey. Another 37.5% say that they use it to overcome their boredom. (1)
There are some people that use social media for educational purposes, like browsing the news at 34.1%, and inspiration for things to do at 26.6%. (1) I also discovered that out of all people that keep in touch with the news, 46% of them get it from social media compared to the 40% that actually get it form news websites. (4)
People also like to discuss about topics which could sometimes be considered educational. This is the ninth most popular reason for using social media. 22% of people use social media for work research and networking, which is definitely productive and educational. (2)
I also found out that 59% of students who use social media use it for educational purposes and talk mostly about education. 50% of that 59% talk exclusively about school related subject instead of just educational topics. (3)
Finally, I discovered that the second most viewed type of videos on Youtube are product videos, which could be considered productive. This is closely followed by interview videos at third. These videos are especially educational, and provide many different views on the world along with other educational elements. These are followed by explainer, testemonial, how to, and review videos, which are all educational. The ninth most popular type of videos on Youtube are webinar videos, which are basically full lessons on Youtube. (5) With this information, we can conclude that most people use Youtube as a educational social media platform.
- https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/why-do-people-use-social-media#:~:text=The%20next%20three%20main%20uses,to%20find%20products%20to%20purchase.
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/715449/social-media-usage-reasons-worldwide/#:~:text=Leading%20social%20media%20usage%20reasons%20worldwide%202022&text=A%20survey%20conducted%20in%20the,reason%20for%20using%20online%20networks.
- https://www.edtechreview.in/data-statistics/social-media-in-education-statistics/#:~:text=%E2%80%94%2059%25%20of%20students%20who%20use,%2For%20instructor%2Drun%20blogs.
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media.asp#:~:text=Social%20media%20platforms%20allow%20people,makes%20the%20world%20more%20interconnected.
- https://creamyanimation.com/10-types-of-video-content-attract-the-most-viewers/#:~:text=Most%20viewed%20YouTube%20video%20content%2C%20as%20you%20may%20have%20guessed,of%20your%20video%20marketing%20efforts.
Thank you for reading my fourth blog post!
-Fred
Hi Fred,
Great Blog post!
I found this topic quite interesting as it is a topic which concerns us a lot as students, especially in this day and age as most people (especially teenagers) spend the most time through social media. I liked how you went through the different types of use people have for social media, as well as, stating the different types of educational purposes social media can be used for. Ex. researching, watching tutorials, following the news, etc.
I do think it would have been interesting if you talked a little bit about the pros and cons of watching educational videos (specifically on you tube) and how if they are actually good, bad, or even effective for education.
This website states the pros and cons of You Tube educational videos, which I think can be helpful:
https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/digitallearning/2021/12/03/youtube-as-an-effective-educational-tool/#:~:text=With%20YouTube%2C%20an%20instructor%20can,key%20point%20could%20be%20repeated.
All in all, great blog post!
Hello Fred,
Nice post , i like how you added a lot of statistics which really helped show the extent to which people use social media for educational/non educational reasons. I think that it could be interesting to look into how social media as a tool for education can sometimes lead to misinformation due to the fact anyone can post anything. Maybe researching how to try and avoid misinformation on social media so that it can be used to learn. I look forward to reading your future blog posts! Here are some links that could help.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1517441113
https://pirg.org/edfund/articles/misinformation-on-social-media/
-Sammie
hey Fred
Awesome blog post, I really loved all the pictures, visuals are a great way to capture your readers or audiences attention!!
your post was very interesting considering the condition of our society and how teenagers especially have become to attached and dependent on social media platforms.
it was also really cool to see the most popular ways that YouTube is used, I found that very cool, and love how u included that!!
I would love to see and in-depth break down like that for maybe more platforms, as I feel it could be very eye opening!!
here is some sources if you decide to add that!!
https://help.instagram.com/424737657584573#
https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/what-do-people-do-on-instagram#:~:text=So%2C%20what%20do%20people%20use,and%20videos%20with%20their%20followers.
Keep up the good work,
Marisa 🙂
Hi fred,
this was an amazing post! this is a very interesting topic that conserns a lot of people. i however always wanted to know if social media was really bad for eduction. i know for a fact that social media has made it easier to work but is it bad for us? well i think you did an amazing job explaining and cant wait for your future post!
Here is a link that might be helpful!
https://wcer.wisc.edu/news/detail/benefits-and-drawbacks-of-social-media-in-education#:~:text=Is%20this%20good%20or%20bad%3F%20Both.%20WCER%20researcher,benefits%20of%20these%20media%20%28also%20called%20Web%202.0%29.