Social Media Encroaching on Academic Engagement and Achievement

Social Media Encroaching on Academic

Engagement and Achievement

One of the newest forms of communication, social media, has shown its addictive nature. This addiction has impacted the culture of the 'Millennial generation' the most, those born after 1982, the current college going generation. However, they are not the only ones affected from this form of media, is now a part of nearly every life and business in America and there is no future hope in the votaries in kicking the need to use. Everywhere I look I see users; needing to be noticed, the yearnings to belong and blend in, to find people and consumer goods that are relevant to their own life...to connect. Mark Edmundson wrote his article "On the Uses of a Liberal Education" that was published in 1997, more than five years before the first notable social networking site was launched in 2003, MySpace. Edmundson states that "[m]ost of my students seem desperate to blend in, to look right, not to make a spectacle of themselves...The specter of the uncool creates a subtle tyranny," social media offers a solution to the students' need to remain cool and connected (281). So I asked: is there any solution to increase the declining engagement that students are faced with the specter of social media looming in the forefront of their minds? The simple answer is no; there is no universal remedy that will release college students of their need to be updated on the information that floods from social media and competes with academic engagement. The only answer is self-regulation conducted by each student and less use of platforms that are similar to social media that are in use at schools.

As I walk through any computer lab on campus I can't help but notice that well over half of the students have some sort of social media up, whether it's Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or some new site that I am unaware of. However in the background there is, more often than not, some sort of academic program running. Or vice versa a social media behind an academic program but still on the mind of the studying student, attempting to multitask but decreasing their academic engagement. Long ago I noticed that social interactions are pushing out the drive in students to achieve academic success. Victim of this myself, I can say that multitasking between work and pleasure is a losing battle.

Humans are social creatures by nature. We strive to form relationships, communicate, and socialize. Since the advent of the World Wide Web connecting with others has become easier than ever. As the internet is relatively new it is only reasonable to assume that the newest generation, the Millennial Generation, will be the first to learn to fully utilize it for their personal use. They have not disappointed this assumption. A study that was geared to the new marketing frontier of social networking sites (SNS) for higher education is reported in the article "Potential of the social media as instruments of higher education marketing: a segmentation study," conducted by Efthymois Constantinides and Marc C. Zinck Stangno. Research from 2010 shows that 83 percent of Americans ages 18 to 33 years old are already users of SNS and "91 percent of Dutch youths between 16 and 25 were active on SNS in 2010" (Constantinides and Stangno 8). Not only are college marketers taking not notice but all companies are attempting to publicize their products before all these possible consumers that are connected to social media. Stangno and Constantinides predict that 88 percent of American businesses will be using social media to market by the end of 2012 (8). This extravagant trend is only going to increase as people continue to surge to cyber communication. Bombarding college students with unnecessary consumer goods to teach, as Edmundson states "[a] lesson that consumer hype tries to insinuate is that we must never rebel against the new, never even question it, if it's new - it must be good," only increasing the need that students have to appease the tyrant of the cool (281).

With the ease that people can communicate there are a few potential positives of college and future college students using social media. One such positive is the ability that upcoming freshmen students have to connect with other future students and the university before moving; and then staying in touch with old friends after moving. David M. Eberhardt discusses such possibilities in "Facing Up to Facebook," using multiple experiences of students he states that Facebook, the current leading social media site, is more helpful than it is harmful. Ederhardt states that "[o]nline networks essentially establish parallel realities and extensions of the social environment that allow students to interact virtually," making students in the new environment more likely to find and establish themselves; increasing the likelihood of student engagement and therefore success (19). The transition that students face can be staggering; although "social networks also assist students' transition by allowing them to maintain links with individuals from their past" lessening any feelings of homesickness (Eberhardt 20).

This positive is undeniable. However, the ease that students can communicate with past individuals can make the transition even more difficult. Student that are shy or have hard times adapting to the new way of life that is college will tend to spend excessive amounts of time on the past. "Rather than investing in relationships with the new peers who are physical around then," they turn to the social networks to feed the human need of social interaction (Eberhardt 21). This can become a slippery slope for students that tend to be anti-social; it can retard or even detour young students from their own academic advancement. To add to the difficulties that a few students face, colleges have turned more to informing students of college activities via social media. Some internet-based companies suggest that about 85 percent of undergraduates use Facebook, which means that 15 percent of college student bodies have a difficult task to learn about campus actives (Eberhardt 18). Studies have shown that increased campus involvement correlates to better all around enjoyment and therefore increasing classroom engagement.

A sad fact to state is that social media is a major portion of the Millennial Generation's culture. This tech savvy culture is using these sites and applications to not only supplement real world but are attempting to replace it. Therefore "students will expect their learning to mirror their interactive lives. As more Generation Y or Millennial students come to the classroom, they will be connected" as stated by Albert L. Harris and Alan Rea in their