Final Speech Social Media and Academic Performance

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Social Media and Academic Performance
Introduction
To the modern young generation, the increase in technology dependence during communication is of a significant importance. Young people born after the late 1980s spend countless hours using technology in their daily lives for entertainment, communication, and even for fun. While some may be in full-time employment and others in academic institutions, they will still spend some time engaging in social media platforms. The young generation has become skilled at the art of multitasking and taking advantage of electronic communication (Mays, Pazur, and Samuels). It largely thrives on social media such as Instagram and Facebook. The use of Internet technologies in schools provides the demanded access to the right information about their different departments, schools, faculties, and institutional rules and regulations. Social media has been found to be the best channel to circulate information faster to not only students but also the entire institutional community and the public. Today, students in learning institutions massively talk and text using their phones, but a few know how a camera that is not integrated into their phone functions. On the positive side, social media and the Internet that powers it has created global citizens who communicate and freely share information and thoughts, a possibility that was hitherto restricted by geographical boundaries. In the modern world, barriers such as long distance and nationalities will not deter students from exchanging information and knowledge.
Overindulgence in social media has been found to result in addiction that breeds bad behaviors in student learning. Kolan and Dzandza (3) argue that there is a heavy presence of social media usage among tertiary institutions. Students often prefer chatting with their friends for long hours and this will lead to wasting valuable time that could have been spent for studying or learning new skills. Apart from wasting time, many students get distracted as they stick to their devices without paying attention to their studies (Badri, Al Nuaimi, Guang and Al Rashedi 1433). While there is a belief that long-term relationships are developed as people meet and spend timesharing their experiences, this form of communication is virtual and lacks personal contact. This implies that virtual communication will not generate healthy relationships. This is an example of how social media can cause serious social problems. Many students today would prefer online communication to one-on-one conversations (Kemp and Grieve 1278). The unfortunate incident that occurred to a teenager in 2009 shows that social media could have serious negative and sometimes fatal impacts. The teenager who was killed by her rapist after he pretended to be a teenager (Croteau and Hoynes 100). Since 2009, many such cases have occurred but have gone unreported thus making the statistics unclear. Social media has generated a system where young people want to create as many new friends as possible; regardless of how congenial and well natured, they are (Lenhart). Online conversations lead to students becoming introverts and will not relate well to others in society.
As the debate co...