The curse of social media

There aren’t many students who can admit to not being involved in some form of social media.

For most, it’s become part of the daily routine; you wake up, check Facebook, shower, write a tweet about how you’re ‘not a morning person’ or how you ‘totally don’t want to go to this lecture’ and the day goes on.

I’m a victim of this myself. I wouldn’t say I’m addicted; but of course that’s what all addicts say!

It’s now estimated that there are almost 850 million active users on Facebook and over 200 million on Twitter. Since Twitter began, there has been over 163 billion tweets sent out by its’ users. With this in mind, it’s easy to see why education can sometimes take a backseat.

You write 100 words, check Facebook, write another 100 words, write a status about how much you hate your essay and then get hooked on Candy Crush.

It doesn’t really register how much of an affect this has on your education until it’s three o’clock in the afternoon, you have an hour to complete your essay and you have 300 words written.

The only solution I’ve found to work is having someone sat beside me; shouting at me as soon as I type the ‘F’ word into Google.

Technologies are evolving, and the results are amazing; but at what cost is this having on students’ education?

When a cure for avoiding social networking is made, sign me up! Until then…”ooo a tweet…”