What are the Positive Effects Social Media has on Teens?
As with a product that is created or event that occurs, social media can have effects on the population, mainly teens. As technology and social media improve over the course of years, it has positive effects on teenagers today. Some of the positive effects of social media are that it can increase engagement in their education and allows them to work on skills needed for adult life.
One of the more recent effects is the increased engagement in a teen’s education. As social media becomes a greater part of the daily lives of teens, schools have begun to implement the use of social media in the classroom. The results, according to Christine Greenhow, the investigator on a study on the impact social media has on education, include make schools even more relevant, connected, and meaningful to kids (Fine). As a result, more students are able to connect what they learn in school with something that is enjoyable for them, allowing them to help them succeed in school.
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"...[The students] grades had gone up by 50 percent"
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An example of how social media has increased engagement in schools comes from a seventh grade class from Portland, Oregon. In this example, a year after their teacher, Elizabeth Delmatoff, implemented a social media program in her class. The results included 20 percent of her students were turning in extra assignments with no credit and their grades had gone up by more than 50 percent. In addition, chronic absenteeism, or the practice of staying away from school regularly without a good reason, has decreased by about more than a third (Fine).
Another effect of social media on teens is that it allows them to improve on skills necessary in adult life. According to Larry D. Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University, social media can act as to what he calls “training wheels for life" (Turgeon). This means that social media is able to help guide teens through these skills and help them improve. These skills can include communication and social skills and virtual empathy.
"[Teens] literally get to practice. They get to say 'I like something you said'...and it is done in a pseudo-safe environment"
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Communication and social skills Communication and social skills are important skills needed as an adult. For teens, even though they are open to different ways to work on these skills, such as clubs and being social with friends, there is room to improve. Social media can help with this. Different sites like Facebook and Twitter allow teens to be outgoing and to not be shy when it comes to communicating. Even though the communication is to a screen and not a real person, Rosen states that “they literally get to practice. They get to say ‘I like something you said’...and it is done in a pseudo[ or not actually, but has the appearance of]-safe environment (Turgeon)” Because they are able to practice these skills, similar to how talking to a mirror can help with talking in public, they can practice what they want to say, but never have the courage to and help them take the next step in saying them face-to-face. |
Virtual Empathy
Another skill social media helps improves is virtual empathy. To have virtual empathy means to have the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person through the internet and social media. In the research done by Rosen, he found that people who are more engage in online activities, mainly Facebook, display more virtual empathy than others. This could be done simply by replying to someone who posts that they are having a bad day (Turgeon). What this could lead to is being more empathetic in the real world. Like communication and social skills, the ability to practice this skill without someone judging you in your face can enable a teen to improve in this skill. If someone is able to show their empathy to the screen, they can work up the skill to the real world. |
"What this could lead to is being more empathetic in the real world"
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