How Students Use Social Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

How Students Use Social Media - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that social media has emerged as an inseparable facet of modern day civilization, playing the role of a communication channel and a source of updated information irrespective of cultural, geographical, political or economic divergences. Technically, social media is often regarded as an advanced form of communication system engaging multiple participants at both the ends of decoders and message encoders. Owing to its increasing influence on the regular activities of human lives through the elements such as virtual communities, business networks, and societal contexts, children and adolescents are also becoming progressively addicted to the use of social media for various purposes. There are various features of social media that are identifiable in relation to its usage among students like, the enhanced scope of informal communication in the global context through internet and accessibility to uncountable technological features. At the same t ime, it enables simultaneous freedom to access mischievous contents which are traditionally restricted to a general platform. From a critical point of view, it can further be argued that these features act as a strong driving force to increase social media usage among the populaces. Recent studies have depicted that the utilization of social media, especially amid the youth, who can also be categorized as students, has increased by a significant level over the past few years.  ... Current Trends in Social Media amongst the Student Population Recent studies (e.g. Kwak et. al., 2010; Lenhart et. al., 2010; Valenzuela et. al., 2009; and Bull et. al., 2008) have depicted that the utilization of social media, especially amid the youth, who can also be categorised as students, has increased by a significant level over the past few years. This particular alteration in the social context can be observed due to various reasons. For instance, a majority of the schools and colleges nowadays are facilitating their students with online educational training programs, rendering due significance to the inclusion of social media. This inclusion is operating at times, as a communication channel, and at times this operates as a source for obtaining relevant information regarding an ongoing issue (Simonpietri & Rose, 2011; Mintel Group Ltd., 2012). According to the report published by Mintel Group Ltd (2012), it has been identified that currently there are 76% of internet users w ho have access to social media with the help of their host devices such as tablet computers, smartphones, laptops and desktops among others. The group comprises around 16% of students who are recorded as regular users of social networking sites through mobile devices. It was further revealed by Shafique et. al. (2010) that in the USA itself, 78.9% of female students tend to access social media sites more frequently in comparison with the male students. In the year 2009, approximately 79% of the total college students in the USA were recorded to use various social media sites such as Linkedln, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook quite frequently in their daily lives. Shafique et. al. (2010) also stated that the students use social media for myriad reasons. Among