Free Custom «How Students Use Social Media» Essay Paper

This formal report will investigate the current state on student use of technology and social media in specific. The discussion will focus on the current social media trends amongst the students, summarize the various types of social media available, discuss the changes in the past five years of how students receive information and finally give an explanation on any economic or technological factors that influence a student’s  decision to select particular media.

Introduction

The purpose of this report is to survey the current state of how students use social media. The report will draw its sources from journal articles, magazine articles and other internet sites to describe the different types of social media used and their effect on students.

How Students Use Social Media

The internet is increasingly part of everyday life especially for university students. It facilitates and offers ways of associating with others who may have similar tastes, values, goals and interests (Blankenship 2011). The current trends in social media amongst students include the use of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, MySpace, Tumbler, Instargram among others. According to the faculty Focus, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are more famous with students with Facebook the most popular. This is because according to Giordano & Giordano (2011), social media has replaced meeting halls and community centers for these students. The students maintain relations with other students through social media, get study information online, search for jobs through social media and literally live their lives there; hence its popularity. A study by Anderson KJ revealed that students use the internet for about 100 minutes each day with some using it more than that and interfering with their life aspects. 

Social media has gone a total transformation from what it was in the past five years. Five years ago, social media was just begging its meteoric rise and was as not popular as it is today. Some professionals avoided the use of social media but changes have seen it being embraced. Students can use social media, like LinkedIn to search for job opportunities unlike in the past when the use of social media was limited in some schools and colleges (Socialmediatoday).

According to the a report in March 2010  by the Student Leisure, the student economic wellbeing continues to be stretched with rising costs of tuition fees. This means that students replace today’s hardships with leisure-oriented activities and this includes spending their time in social sites as they are easily ‘affordable.’

Conclusion

This report has shown that the current state on student use of technology and social media in has been increasing over the years. The discussion has centered on the various types of social media used by students while giving an explanation why we have a higher percentage use of the sites than it was in the past.