Social media has a great impact on international students studying abroad. These days social media has become a very important part of everyone’s life. It has many features like providing information, entertainment, and learning. When it comes to social media and education, some parents and teachers view these platforms as distractions that negatively influence students. But in today’s increasingly digital world, social media plays a meaningful role in higher education. When used the right way, social media can enhance a student’s learning experience and also makes it much easy for students and lecturers to connect. Today we’ll look at the effects of social media on international students.
The term “Social Media” is defined as the application that allows users to converse and interact with each other. It allows them to create, edit and share new forms of textual, visual and audio content. It also allows them to categorize, label and recommend existing forms of content. Social media, therefore, denotes to the wide collection of Internet-based and mobile services that connect people together to communicate. It also enables them to participate, collaboratively interact, discuss and exchange ideas and information within an online community. The kind of internet services commonly associated with social media (sometimes referred to as “Web 2.0”) include Facebook, WhatsApp, web blog, Skype, Twitter, Instagram Youtube, etc.
Impact of Social Media on Student’s Academic life
Source of Communication
Social media provides students with a new mechanism for a familiar exercise. It provides students with a direct medium by which to publicly evaluate and comment on their campus environments. They can also comment on institutional policies, classes, professors, and administration and fellow students in real-time. If you say absolutely no Facebook or texting, you are cutting off an important relationship with students and teachers. This is because teachers use technology use a variety of tools such as Skype, text, email, Facebook, and Twitter to communicate. Social media opens up new ways for collaboration and discussion. It offers a great deal of content posting, copying, sharing and searchability by easily using online search tools.
Sharing of Information
International students use social media to getting the right information from their mates and lecturers. The social media is a means of sharing information among international students which enhances their learning. Lecturers also take advantage of these media to pass information to the student.
Promotes Learning
Effective use of social media enhances learning among international students abroad. Students often use social media to listen to lectures at their leisure time especially for topics that are not well understood. It also serves as an environment for students to gain more understanding about academic challenges from their fellows.
It builds Relationships among International Students
The use of social media helps international students contribute to strengthening relationships with their family and friends. Moreover, relationships facilitated through social media can help people adjust to new environments and cope with challenging issues. This happens especially when they get into a new environment, culture, or country. This is particularly relevant for new college students who go through major changes in terms of their academic and living environments. In addition, college students are more likely to use social media sites for relevant social support. Clearly, there are positive effects of social media on international students.