Social Media Essay in English With Merits & Demerits

In this post, we present the social media essay in English for students. In this social media essay for students, we explain:

  • What is social media?
  • Why do we use social media?
  • Examples of social media?
  • How social media benefits students and children?
  • What are the merits and demerits of social media?
  • What are the social media safety tips for students and children?

What is social media?

Social media is a channel through which we communicate with many people virtually. The other person may be in a different location. But, we can share and exchange images, videos, and chat messages instantly through social media with the help of an internet connection. They are available as apps or applications in the play store of smartphones. Once you download and create an account in them, you can connect with an endless number of friends and other people.

What are the different types of social media?

  1. Social networks: Through these, you can connect with other people and make new friends. You can chat with them and they expand your friend circle. Examples: Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, Instagram, and Twitter.
  1. Media Sharing Networks: These social media channels are designed for sharing your images and videos with others. Those people who follow you on these social media channels will like, share and comment on your videos and images. For example, Instagram, Snapchat, and Youtube.
  1. Discussion groups: On these types of social media, people of similar interests will talk in a group and share their ideas. For example, if you are in class-9, you can talk to other students of class-9 from other places and discuss various doubts related to your subjects. Quora, Reddit, and Digg are examples of discussion group-type social media.
  1. Bookmarking sites: On these social media, you can save your liked images and content. You can revisit them whenever you wish. For example, Pinterest and Flip board are two good examples of bookmarking-type social media channels. Battle of Chandawar Essay
social media platforms

How social media helps students?

There are many advantages of social media for students.

Huge information: Social media brings in huge information from anywhere in the world. By following science and news websites, GK websites, newspapers, and famous leaders on social media, you can receive their news and updates very quickly. Similarly, you can join groups of your interest and know a lot beyond the textbooks. 

Quick and instant sharing of the message: People are more active on social media these days. Thus, the sharing of information is happening within just a few seconds. For example, if your friend or sister is in another country, you can send her a birthday message in no time. 

Share your happiness in groups: Social media lets you create and join groups with similar-minded people. For example, if you are interested in aerospace and satellite design, you can join groups on social media that talk and share updates about this subject. 

Similarly, if you want to learn tips for drawing or painting, you can join art and drawing groups on social media. By participating in the discussions and asking your doubts, you can receive much help and many new things about your interests.

Staying connected with friends and teachers: Social media mainly lets us stay connected with our friends and dear people even when we are located in different places. Say your best friend is moving out of the current school and going to another city due to family reasons. You both can stay connected on social media, share, and talk like you do daily in real life. 

Online life: Today everything has gone virtual and online. Social media videos and live features are helping teachers to explain their doubts to students and take classes. 

Similarly, due to the covid-19 situation, we are living in social distancing and minimal partying and celebrating mode. To add more life to the events, you can make the events live and share the link on social media. 

For example, you can make your birthday live telecast on social media and share the link with your friends so that they will watch it from their houses. Thus, with social media, you will never miss your friends anymore. 15+ Ideas to Celebrate Republic Day in School

Why social media is bad for students?

Social media is advantageous like in the ways mentioned above. Similarly, there are many disadvantages to social media. Especially students and children need to stay very careful when using social media. 

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Some of the disadvantages of social media are explained below:

Threat from strangers: You should remember that social media is a virtual platform. You can never know the truth in the person’s account who is sending you a friend request. 

For example, a friend request with the name of your best friends may or may not come from them. Bad people who are targeting students, girls, and children always keep an eye on the details of the accounts of children. They send fake requests in the name of your friends or the disguise of good people. 

If you accept friend requests from strangers or any persons, they will take your pictures, date of birth and house address, and parents’ details and do many harmful things to you. 

Viruses and scams: On social media, you can see many links and ads. Not all the links and ads shown are good. Many of them are harmful both to your computer and your social media account. Even if you click any harmful link without knowing that it is bad, bad people will hack your computer or your social media account. They will also steal money from parents’ accounts and do many harmful things.

Lack of privacy: All the pictures that you share on social media are never safe. There is a hundred percent chance that anyone can use them in any way. 

Even details like your birthday, the bakery you are going to, the trip you are going on with friends, etc. give much useful information for kidnappers and other bad people. By sharing such details, you are causing harm to yourself unknowingly. 

Time waste and addiction: Social media is a vast database of users. There are millions of users sharing tonnes of data in the form of images, videos, opinions, memes, and messages every day. Going through all of them will cause an immense waste of time. The images and videos you see on social media are not truthful in most cases. 

People who want to share bad feelings among social media users create many videos without any truth in them and release them onto social media platforms. Thus, spending too much time on social media seeing and reading all shares and videos is a big waste of time. 

If you do not take care of this habit, there are high chance that this will become an addiction for you. This is very harmful in the long run for children.

Comparison: Suppose your friend shares their birthday party pictures in some five-star hotel, you will start comparing their birthday celebration to yours. This is a very wrong practice. 

Remember that people share only good things on social media, and hide all their bad and poor things in life. By seeing only the good things, you will start to imagine that your friends are all happy and enjoying themselves while you are working hard. That is the very wrong picture that you will receive from social media.

hijack account

Social media safety tips for Students and children

Set a time limit: Use social media for only 15 minutes daily. Do all the needed things on social media within this time and then close your social media. 

Do not use social media on a smartphone: Access social media on a desktop and family laptop set in the hall of your house. Login only when required and log out quickly. This way you can reduce a lot of time waste and stay safe too.

Never share personal information on social media: Strangers keep asking for your pictures, house address, or parent’s office details, etc. Never share any information with strangers on social media. 

Do not like or share unknown videos and images: Never like or share any videos that promote religious hatred, or talk bad about women or children, or anyone. By sharing such videos, you may become a part of bad people and bad citizens.

Always share all details with your parents: If you made a new friend or have seen something interesting on social media, share it with your parents. Remember, parents are the only people who will want you to be safe and happy all the time. So never hide anything from them, including what you do on social media.

Remember that books and teachers are the safest way to gain information about any subject. So, depend on good books to gather knowledge. Ask doubts to teachers in the classroom. They are a proven and trusted source of information than social media.

Use social media only to stay connected with your friends and teachers in a good way. Childhood is a time to read books, go out and play with friends. It is not meant to spend hours wasting scrolling on social media or falling into the trap of strangers in the mask of friends. Stay safe and use social media with the guidance of your parents. Top Leadership Qualities for Students

Conclusion

Social media is a good platform to connect with friends and family members. It helps us to share information, talk, and chat with them. On the other hand, we must not spend too much time on social media. 

We should not believe everything that we see on social media. Also, we should never share any personal information or pictures with strangers who claim that they want to make a friendship with us.