WHAT DOES SOCIAL MEDIA DO TO YOUR CHILDREN?

The growth of social media has been known as one of the main challenges every parent faces. Social media itself is believed to facilitate users in sharing their thoughts and in building confidence as they will directly receive some feedback and this in turn, will encourage them to share their creativity more. However, the use of social media for the primary students is still debatable. In the survey conducted by BSS for the parents, 72% of the respondents stated that they will not allow their children to have the account while the rest responded oppositely.

This result was in line with the negative effects caused by the social media. According to Vishranty Raut and Prafulla Patil (2016), the prime effect of social media to students is addiction. It affects other valued activities like concentrating on studies, taking active part in sports and in real life communication, and it encourages ignoring ground realities. Academically, students were found having difficulties in spelling and grammar due to the automatic spell and grammar check feature provided. The skill in doing research has decreased too, as they get used to the ease of accessibility to information in social media. In addition, there are many anonymous articles that make students forget the need to filter what they discover, as well as discriminate between what if true and false or which is right and wrong.

It would be a wise choice to keep the children away from social media while they’re still young; but, if parents choose to let their child have the account, these following guidelines could be considered to minimise the negative aspects while improving upon the positive results.

First, moderate your child’s access to social media by setting their password and keeping it secret from them. It means they will not be able to log-in without their parents’ permission. Second, reduce the amount of time your child uses social media and provide face to face social interactions. Lastly, pay more attention to the growth or even the changes that might happen to them.

Social media will continue to grow so the sooner we can teach our children to regulate its usage and to use it wisely, the better for them and for the parents.

Sources:

http://www.ijritcc.org