When Social Media is Life

When Social Media is Life 

By, Shamonique Speight

Every student, teacher, principal, security staff, and beyond in schools across the country are users of social media. The students within University High School are huge fans of the social media world. On any given social media sight you can find photos of students at school event, lunch, to greeting their friends in the hallway. These updates are posted to Facebook, Instagram on the users’ ‘Instasnap’, or on their ‘Story’ on Snapchat.  Students don't just use social media for the foolishness. They also use it for various reasoning that may seem more or less important to others.

Social media users young and old, use their social media accounts for various reasons. It can be used for promoting, club/activity posts, business, spreading a political agenda and of course for entertainment.  Social media is used for staying connected to others, anywhere at anytime. People all around the world are account holders of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. These sites enable them to connect with anyone they please, for any given reason. That is pretty amazing if you think about it. I could post something from my home our school in Newark, New Jersey that can be seen and shared by someone in Dubi.

Social media connects us with people who otherwise wouldn't be connected. When opening the Facebook app, it greets you with the phrase,"What's on your mind?" This gives you the opportunity to share whatever you want with the people you have befriended online. Now that you’ve posted “What’s on your mind”, you’re friends will most likely comment on your status or like it. They will “connect” with you by giving an opinion on your status or agree with you. Usually, this starts conversations, the rest of the conversation is held in the Facebook Inbox. As the conversation gets deeper it needs to be held in a private forum.

Social Media sites such as Facebook and Snapchat has reimagined the way we use telephone services. When a user's phone service is interrupted and they cannot use the internet, text, or make phone calls, the features on Facebook Messenger and Snapchat enable you to make free phone calls and video chat with anyone. This feature is available to the users only if they are connected to WiFi, and there are most likely WiFi servers, everywhere.

Senior: Danielle Robinson in her 7th period English class distracted by her electronic device observing her Instagram page. She has been told several times to put it away and finish the assignment as seen on her lap. 

But is all of the connected access to our benefit or detriment. Cellphones really affects students in the classroom or in school period. They tend to sneak to be on their phone or use excuses like,“I need to listen to music to do my work.” When really they will be on their phone scrolling through their news feed on various social media sites. 

Social media has had a huge impact on society in both positive and negative ways. It is up to us users learn how to use the sites and don't let the sites use us. Everyone wants to spread love and admiration online. But you can't get caught up in the rabbit hole in a way in which makes you completely unproductive most of the time.

It will be incredibly amazing to see how future generations will use social in an out of school. If teachers are smart, they will bring the social world into the classrooms to expand student learning. It may be the only way to keep them fully engaged.