3 Surprising Benefits of Social Media for Students

The favourite pastime of most educationists these days is to point with a gnarled and wavering finger at social media and darkly warn of how it is corrupting and distracting our children beyond measure and apparently training them to be future brainless idiots who will be unable to even count up to 3.

Apart from these near-biblical characters who are bent firmly on what seems to be the unpleasant but righteous task of cleaning the impressively-massive but filthy Augean stable that social media seems to be, social media is also under increasing assault, by an army of researchers, reformers, journalists, and fearful parents no less. The favourite whipping boy of these people is, of course, Facebook, which they see as subtly taking over the world and the brains and minds of most of its inhabitants.

However, are such near-apocalyptic admonitions that accurate, or are things blown out of all proportion? Well, it turns out that social media can be a second classroom where students can learn about life and practically anything else on this planet in ways and means that the educational system is simply not equipped nor designed to teach them.

More, they are as well imparted skills invaluable in today’s tech-driven world that will excellently serve them once they finish school and start looking for work. Alternatively, be able to seamlessly connect with people and gain employment based on their social media activities and networking.

Need more convincing on the benefits of social media for students? Then read on, champ.

3 Surprising Benefits of Social Media for Students

1. Connecting with People

Social media enables anyone with an internet connection to extensively interact with an endlessly-varied collection of people all over the globe and in the process learn new things about the world, its cultures, languages and as well how other individuals from different locales think and how this world works.

This is especially important for students who are young and inexperienced adults that are still sadly unexposed to the ways of the world. They are thus, through the ever-diverse universe that is social media, able to impressively and geometrically broaden and expand their horizons thus gain new and superlative experiences and insight they never could in any conventional classroom.

2. Spreading Knowledge

People on social media are ardent sharers of all kinds of media and information. Sharing might range from the link to Justin Bieber’s new hit to the latest memes you need to take a look at, or the latest happenings in North Korea. Students, apart from sharing information about class subjects, school gossip and the latest XBox games also do share news and information relevant to their interests.

Such information-sharing is especially important, given that most students are not ardent fans of traditional news-disseminating means like newspapers, news websites and the like.

However, with the help of social media and their friends within that media, this kind of information is essentially presented to them in a way they can relate to, and they can thus effortlessly keep themselves informed on an endless number of topics. As well, we heavily recommend that their school tap into the present social media revolution by providing links, study materials and such other things that work to aid learning and promote personal growth.

3. Marketing

These days, as the social media scene ascends to new heights of power and influence undreamt of mere years ago, there’s practically no serious business that does not practice social media marketing to further their business and organisational purposes.

Moreover, guess who usually gets hired as social media marketers- the students turned graduates who were -and still are- enthusiastic social media users and able to understand how to leverage this oft-tricky medium in the fulfilment of both personal and business goals.

So, as a student your being a devout social media user can have lots of surprising benefits. It is up to you to ensure that your social media use does not interfere with your studies and to deliberately leverage on these benefits and become whom you are meant to be.