When the world was introduced to the digital age during the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the dawn of Apple and Microsoft operating systems, such as Windows XP and early Apple software, emerged to the public, no one could have anticipated the media storm that consumers now experience.
The evolution of the early mobile devices such as the Blackberry and early iPhone models and interfaces such as AOL chat and MySpace were crucial in sparking interactions online, eventually becoming the world of social media we know today. The development of more sophisticated mobile devices such as Samsung Galaxy, newer iPhones, iPad, and Apple Watch have shown noticeable progression in the social media realm. This includes features that were developed recently such as facial, voice, and touch recognitions and other forms of AI. This has now resulted in having apps such as Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok which have shaped how people connect with others across the globe, receive their daily news regardless of biases, and learn about just about any topic they desire.
The crux, however, of one of the issues the public is facing with these technologies is how they are used and implemented in early learning and schools, specifically college campuses, and what effect they have on the learning process.
It is evident that as the digital age advances, these technologies have and will become more integrated into how teachers and professors present materials and how students will consume them. The public is lightyears away from the days of presenting learning materials on a chalkboard or whiteboard or using a projector screen on a rolling cart and expecting students to memorize the material or review it from handwritten notes. The digital age has made it more streamlined using software like Canvas, which was especially useful to students who studied from home during the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020, which has benefited millions of students across the United States.
However, what role do social media apps play in the learning environment? The concern for most people is that students, especially in the collegiate environment, tend to fade away during important lectures as they doom scroll about domestic and international politics, look for new recipes to try for their meals, or find the newest and greatest viral video that is receiving millions of views.
There is a portion of the public that points to the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of students overusing social media and taking advantage of an online learning landscape. The Brookings Institute, in a 2022 article titled, “The pandemic has had devastating impacts on learning. What will it take to help students catch up?” talks about the many downfalls children in early-grade learning suffered academically; however, many factors contributed to lost learning outcomes including financial and social factors.
The Los Angeles Times reported in August 2024 that The Phone-Free Schools Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Assemblyman Josh Hoover (R-Folsom), sailed through the legislature and requires all K-12 public schools to devise a policy by July 1, 2026, to limit or prohibit smartphones during the school day. This law was later signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2024. Whether this law will affect statistics such as individual grades, test scores and college admissions will not become clear until after the law takes effect.
What is ignored, however, is the possible upsides of social media use as a college student. An article published by Concordia University, Nebraska found that some positives of social media use included helping students stay connected to people at home, keeping up with what is going on across campus, and can be a place to express yourself and your creativity, and helping future employers find you. All of these are essential for post-college success and career advancement in an ever- changing workplace.
Social media is helpful until it is no longer helpful or is becoming a hazard. An article published by Boise State University, regarding social media addiction, says,
“This addiction disrupts college students’ study time by diverting their attention due to the sheer volume of content available. The stimuli cause opportunities for distraction that result in users struggling to maintain focus on tasks and activities. This results in the time spent on a task/activity increasing while the level of productivity decreases.”
Obviously, not everyone who uses these apps, specifically Instagram as explored in depth in the Boise State University article, will develop addictive tendencies but, nonetheless, is a factor worth considering. It also could be concluded that, starting at the high school level, phones should not be taken away permanently during class time as this is helpful practice for students on how to develop into working members of society despite technology’s temptations.
Sources:
www.cune.edu/news/pros-and-cons-using-social-media-college-student.
www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-08-28/ca-lawmakers-approve-school-cell-phones-restrictions.
