Social Media

Mariano Marcos Memorial High School
2090 M. Carreon Street, Sta. Ana, Manila

A Research Paper on

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media to the Selected Students of MMMHS
S.Y. 2014-2015

Mrs. Elvira M. Limbo
Angela E. Dela Cruz IV-1 (EINSTEIN)
November 5, 2014

Chapter 1
The Problem and its Background: Social Media Outbreak

Introduction Social Media has been going through an extensive outbreak around the world. It has been a good tool for social interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. It just came out in the early 90’s but as the year of 2000 it was improve because many programmers were able to discover and design a new and more helpful tool for many people around the world. Now, many families that have long distance communication use social media to keep a strong communication with their family members especially in abroad. It has been also used to help students to interact with their fellow classmates even they were far away from each other especially when they are working on an immediate requirement and other Social Media can be used for a research. Although Social Media was proven a good tool for many people, Social Media was also abuse by many users to make crimes. In Social Media, everyone can post and say everything whatever they want in public, so some people use it for saying bad words to someone they hate even in public. Also, people were able to post many embarrassing pictures without even asking for permission to that person. Based on a research conducted from a University, they have proven that Social Media can be also used for cyber bullying, child pornography and harassments so many universities and many other schools were worried if they were to continue requiring their students for using Social Media. Since 2010 until now, the number of people using Social Media is continuously increasing and helping many people but the number of crimes using Social Media is also continuously increasing. Motivated by the fact that the users of Social Media is continuously increasing, this study is made to verify what are the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media on selected high school students for the fact that teenagers are the most widely users of Social Media.
Statement of the Problem Generally, this proposed study would try to determine the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media to the selected students of Mariano Marcos Memorial High School (MMMHS).

Specifically, the researcher wants to answer the following questions:

1. What is the main advantage and disadvantage of using Social Media?

2. Why the number of students using Social Media is continuously increasing?

3. How using Social Media does affect a student?

Significance of the Study This study is significant because nowadays, the number of people using Social Media is continuously increasing for its many applications for people’s daily lives. But because of this reason, many crimes were also reported by using Social Media. Nowadays, the rapid growth of crimes using Social Media is very alarming. This study is very useful for many people for them to be aware and avoid becoming a victim of this crime.

Scope and Delimitation The scope of this study focused on issues and problems surrounding students of MMMHS. This research is limited and conducted at the school campus, school year 2014 – 2015. The respondents of the study are the 40 selected students from different sections. The study is conducted on 1st- 4th year students because of the fact that the teenagers are the wide users of Social Media. Using a questionnaire with 10 questions, the researcher surveys the advantages and disadvantages of using Social Media to many teenagers. The research is conducted wherein students with different status in life are asked to answer certain questions with regards to the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media.
In particular as the main issue of influence. The study aims to establish whether using Social Media can make student a better leader or a troublemaker.

Chapter 2
Review of related Literature
Foreign Studies

Benefits and Drawbacks of Social Media in Education
By: Mark Connolly
Every day, about 250 million people log in to Facebook.
Twitter has 15 million regular users; they send 65 million messages each day.
People watch more than 2 billion video clips on YouTube daily. Every hour, users upload an average of 24 hours of video content.
Every day, more than 90 percent of college students visit a social networking site.
That’s a lot of information bombarding students. Trying to keep up with it all can change the way the brain functions. Is this good or bad?
Both. WCER researcher Mark Connolly acknowledges that these social media show value in educational settings—as long as they are used prudently. Many have pointed to the educational benefits of these media (also called Web 2.0). Social media tools and networking sites encourage students to engage with each other and to express and share their creativity.
Connolly suggests an additional benefit: establishing enduring relationships with real people. This means going beyond seeing others simply as peers who trade digital content. For example, connecting with fellow dorm residents through Facebook can help a student overcome the kind of isolation that otherwise might lead her to leave school. A Twitter account can provide a shy student with information about events that facilitates face-to-face encounters with other students. Such personal interactions are vital to creating and sustaining a sense of belonging.
These relationships can be fostered on the community level too. For example, Chicago’s DePaul University sponsors a “This is DePaul” contest for students to contribute short YouTube videos that best capture the DePaul experience. In 2009, the winning videos drew nearly 20,000 viewers. Social networking sites also can help students develop leadership skills, from low-level planning and organizing to activities that promote social change and democratic engagement.
The Drawbacks of Social Media
Along with the benefits, Connolly cautions that students who use social networking tools might pay significant hidden cognitive costs. Facebook, Google, and other web services simultaneously seize and fragment our attention. They can subvert higher-order reasoning processes, including the kind of focus, concentration, and persistence necessary for critical thinking and intellectual development. Some researchers have correlated heavy Internet use with greater impulsivity, less patience, less tenacity, and weaker critical thinking skills. The need to rapidly shift from object to object online can weaken students’ ability to control their attention. Prolonged Internet use exposes students to interactive, repetitive, and addictive stimuli that produce permanent changes in brain structure and function. The more one uses the Internet and social media, the better the brain can skim and scan. But research suggests that these gains degrade the capacity for concentration, reasoning, and reflection—in fact the very sort of critical thinking and evidence-based reasoning needed to honestly appraise the full costs of using social media.
Considerations in the Educational Use of Social Media
Students must learn to distinguish the skill needed to locate information online from the ability to understand that information. Using social media to cultivate and demonstrate deep learning is possible, but that requires overcoming the persistence of distraction, the surfeit of irrelevant information, and the temptation to wander.
Students can develop a capacity for practical reasoning when using social media. Educators and students should have multiple, purposeful discussions about social media’s pros and cons. Social media can enhance and impede student learning, and educators can use realistic case studies to help students identify trade-offs. For example, the use of social media in educational settings may incorrectly suggest that learning should be easy and quick. If so, students should be shown the value of reinvesting the time and effort saved by technology into higher-order tasks that really matter to their learning, such as writing a complex argument, reading difficult texts, and debating ideas with others.
Social technologies are here to stay. Connolly says that it is important to help students learn how to use social media in an instrumental way, learn how to think deliberately about their use, and consider the sorts of outcomes for which using social media are proper.
In the real world, students will find themselves facing a difficult situation involving social media that rules alone cannot resolve. Connolly says the problem will require their best judgment—a kind of practical wisdom that cannot be taught, but instead is learned through practice accompanied by guidance and support.
Knowing when, where, and with whom to use social media, Connolly concludes, may be the most important learning outcome of all.
This material appears in revised form as a chapter in the book, Contested Issues in Student Affairs: Diverse Perspectives and Respectful Dialogue, edited by Peter M. Magolda & Marcia B. Baxter Magolda (Stylus Press, 2011).
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Media to Bring Attention to a Product?
By: Gina Poirier, Demand Media

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have transformed the way some businesses think about advertising. Some businesses direct customers toward their social network pages more than they direct them to their own websites. There are certain advantages to marketing via social media, but there are a few related drawbacks as well.
Targeted Marketing
Social networking websites provide advertisers with the ability to target audiences based on site users' personal interests and what their friends like. For example, list country music as one of your interests on a social networking site, you will most likely be seeing ads about country music concerts and artists. Some sites' advertising will also highlight which country artists your friends like to provide a personal connection. With such "smart" marketing, advertisers effectively reach the people who are most interested in what they have to offer. Furthermore, social networking enables word of mouth to promote products beyond what advertising alone does.
Web Analytics
Some social networking services provide analytic services to their advertisers. With analytics, you have the ability to track which type of advertisements are attracting the most web traffic and demographic information such as the age of people most interested in your product. This type of information equips you to make your products and your advertising more effective.
Interactivity
One benefit of social network marketing is that it lets you interact with potential customers with conversations threads and forums. Engaging people in conversation makes them more likely to take a deeper interest your product, but it can be a disadvantage because keeping up with your followers' questions can be time-consuming. If you can't keep up with the conversations and meet your followers' needs, they lose interest.
Speed of Information
The speed at which social media transmits news about your business can be an advantage or disadvantage. One well-placed, slanderous comment has the potential to damage your business's name quickly. The good news is that with instant updates you have the opportunity to announce your defense quickly. Social networking also gives you the ability to notify your followers instantly about product updates, new releases and even recalls. Live, current content through social media makes your advertising feel less static and makes your products more attractive.
Privacy Violations
One of the controversies with social networking is that some claim that advertising violates users' privacy policies. Different social networks have different policies, but in general they must release some of users' personal information in order to provide them with targeted marketing. While many people don't mind personalized advertising, they agree to it when they sign up to use these websites and some social networks keep the released information anonymous anyway, there is nonetheless much debate about whether the practice is ethical or legal.

Local Studies
The pros and cons of social media classrooms By: Charlie Osborne
The debate surrounding social media as a learning tool is unlikely to abate any time soon. Is it just a distraction, or do the interactive educational tools available outweigh any disadvantages?
Social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, are becoming steadily more integrated within a variety of apps targeted at learning. Real-time news feeds and instant accessibility make them a tool that can be used quickly and efficiently -- but due to its changeable nature, it can be difficult for school systems to keep up and compensate.
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using social media in the classroom?
The pros of social media as a learning tool.
1.) It is a familiar tool.
Most of your students are on social networking platforms, and these services are already tools that students are generally comfortable with -- and they can probably show you a thing or two in return.
2.) Improve your own knowledge and skills as an educator.
By learning how to use these platforms as a teacher, you are making yourself more aware of issues surrounding students today. If a student tells you a classmate is harassing them over Twitter -- doing something called 'tweeting', how can you investigate the situation unless you know how to search profiles and send messages yourself?
3.) Resource availability.
From current news feeds, following public figures, learning a new language or improving software skills, there is an endless range of free resources available through social media -- both linked and hosted. If you are looking for a debate, a video or commentary based on a recent news report, Facebook and Twitter's search functions make them a valuable and free set of tools.
4.) Improvement of research skills.
Being able to find information online is a skill that is now important in the workplace -- and one that can be taught through lessons designed around social media platforms.
5.) The improvement of communication.
If conducted within a controlled environment, then social media can be a way for students and teachers to communicate effectively. This could include sending out reminders, posting homework notes and organizing projects or events such as revision classes.
6.) Relevant, real-life learning.
Teaching students how to use social media in order to improve their job prospects can be extremely valuable. How do you find a job through Twitter? Who do you follow? Why do I need a LinkedIn profile?
7.) The promotion of digital citizenship.
Students have to learn about how to conduct themselves appropriately online. Not only do they have to face the consequences if they behave in ways that are considered cyberbulling, but it is also necessary for them to understand privacy policies and the transfer of data online. By using online platforms, these lessons can be integrated within a more traditional school curriculum.
8.) Engaging your students.
Gen-Y and younger generations are stereotypically portrayed as being glued to their gadgets, and are known for using such devices for social networking, games and entertainment purposes. Use this to your advantage.
9.) The ability to share learning material.
Social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are full of user-generated content, links and shared items. This can be used to your classes' advantage. Why not create a Facebook group dedicated to your class, or set a task to research something across these networks?
10.) The potential to appeal to different learning styles.
Whether a learner naturally prefers kinetic, audio or visual learning, the varied types of media and information found on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can appeal to a wide range of learner styles.
11.) Ease of access.
Social networking requires no expensive equipment or modern upgrades -- all you need is a computer or mobile device with an Internet connection.
12.) Assisting shy students.
There are some students that find social interaction or contribution difficult -- and engaging students through an online project can make this easier for them.
The cons of social media as a learning tool.
1.) The gimmick factor.
Unless the use of sites such as Facebook and Twitter are incorporated into a class plan in order to contribute towards an objective lesson aim, then it could become nothing more than a waste of time.
2.) Distractions.
Unless teachers properly supervise their students -- and maintain control if the novelty of YouTube makes them too excited -- it can be difficult to follow through with a lesson based on Internet research.
3.) The risk of cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is rampant on social networks, and it is something teachers need to be aware of. Social media projects may not be confined to a classroom -- and if this is the case, teachers (and potentially parents) need to monitor student activity for any signs of bullying.
4.) Limiting face-to-face communication.
If a balance is not maintained, then too much technological input can have a detrimental effect on social skills that children need to learn.
5.) The need for schools to research, understand and implement.
Educational establishments are slowly making their presence known on social media for advertising and information-based purposes. However, it requires a good level of technical understanding to use and maintain social media effectively.
6.) Continual social media change.
There are constant changes to platforms themselves and their security settings -- of which schools and teachers must keep up to date with and act accordingly.
7.) The need to manage multiple sites and keep updated.
If schools decide to make use of these platforms, pages and profiles should be updated in order to prevent them becoming stagnant.
8.) The possibility of malware infections or phishing scams.
Social networks are now a breeding ground for scam artists to lure both children and adults to exchange personal information or in order to gain access to a computer network. Educational establishments need to be aware of this risk and monitor their usage accordingly.
9.) The need to filter and plan.
Schools have a duty of care to their students, and as such, the use of social media platforms has to be planned and executed appropriately in order to protect children from inappropriate communication, images or video. Several options are available, such as YouTube for Schools.
10.) Inappropriate content sharing or exposure.
It is important for children in school to be protected from inappropriate content; but it is also necessary for teachers to monitor what they are sharing between themselves. It is not only a matter of duty to students -- but protecting yourself as the teacher responsible for them.
11.) Controlling device use in class.
Teachers have to grow eyes in the back of their heads -- and when mobile devices are used in class, the need for continual monitoring and regulation increases.
12.) Exposing the 'haves' and 'have nots'.
Once you introduce social media use in to a classroom, then unless the school has the facilities to supply each student, it is sometimes the case that students are asked to bring their own device. This in turn can highlight divides between students who can afford certain devices, and those that cannot.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing By: Tracey Sandilands, Demand Media

Social media is the modern tool for marketers who try every means to get their message out to their target markets. The medium has many advantages and disadvantages, and companies struggle to find the right way to use it. The average business owner does not fully understand the risks, and the field is still so new that it is difficult to evaluate the qualifications of social media “experts” who offer their services.
Social Media Platforms
Facebook and Twitter are the social media platforms most commonly used for marketing. Facebook offers the option of creating a fan page for a company or product, while Twitter makes use of 140-character posts that users follow. Blogs are online journals written by users, which can be influential in spreading news and information. YouTube is a repository for podcasts and video clips, with a viewership of millions around the globe. Social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us and Digg enable users to share links to information with friends and followers. Some sites offer display advertising options, but the majority are simply a method of sharing information with others.
Advantages
The main advantage of social media marketing is cost-related. The majority of social media sites are free to access, create a profile and post information. The advantage of reaching your targeted market for little or no cash investment is substantial, and the audience wanting your information voluntarily joins or follows you. Pay-per-click advertisements on sites such as Facebook are "geo-targeted" according to specific criteria, to reach the correct audience. The viral nature of social media means that each person who reads your posts has the capability to spread the news farther within his own network, so information can reach a large number of people in a short time.
Disadvantages
Updating your social media accounts takes time and effort. A senior person with knowledge about the company and products should handle your social media presence, and the cost in time means the media is not completely free. It is ongoing work to find new angles about your products continually and to post and re-post information. The information is only visible for a short time before newer posts replace it. In addition, publishing obvious advertising copy is unacceptable in the social media world, therefore you must present the information in the form of conversation or you will lose followers.
Risks
Social media marketing carries several risks. Unless you have someone check your social media accounts several times a day, disgruntled customers or employees can publish negative comments that are not always removable. For example, every post on Twitter is public and you have no control over what people say. Bad news can go viral as easily as good news and can do your business irreparable harm. IT governance group the Information Systems Audit and Control Association released a report in June 2010 ranking viruses and malware, brand hijacking, lack of control over corporate content, unrealistic customer expectations and non-compliance with record management regulations as the top five risks of social media.

The Advantages and Disadvantages to the
Selected Students of MMMHS

The researcher wants to know your awareness about using social media.

Fill in every blank in this form.

Year Level_________________ Gender_________________
Age__________ Date_________________

A. Place a check mark (/) in the column that corresponds to your answer.

1. Do you know what is social media?
2. Do you use social media?
3. Are you fond of using it?
4. Does it affect your studies?
5. Is it helpful for you?
6. Does it affect your behavior towards many people?
7. Does using social media can cause addiction?
B. Encircle the letter of your answer.
8. What do you think is the main advantage of using social media?
a. Helpful for studies b. For Fast Communication c. Awareness to current issues d. None of the Above
9. What is the main disadvantage of using social media? a. Use for bullying b. Addicting c. Can cause crime
d. None of the Above
10. Why do you think people were so addicted of using social media? a. To talk with their friends b. To lose boredom c. Many applications Others: __________________________

_____________________ Signature