Literature Review Of Literature: Social Media

Review of Literature

Social Media For the past decade, technology has evolved immensely and with it the internet was born. The internet has been useful to us for so many reasons such as connecting us to our loved ones, search about one’s different interests, for students and professionals they can do research, to name a few. For short, the internet helps us connect and share information (Sheppard, 2014) with anyone.

In this generation, the internet has become essential, especially for the youth, when it comes to their education, job hunts, communicating and exploring themselves. When it comes to expressing themselves, the youth or what they call now as the millennials, have been using social media profoundly.

The rise and use of social media

In a report called Digital in 2017 it showed the number of hours Filipinos spend on social media platforms, such as Facebook, which is averaging from 4 hours and 17 minutes, while 15 to 24 years old Filipinos are the biggest consumers of information technology (10 Eye-Opening Facts about Social Media in PH, 2016; ‘Filipino youths are biggest Internet users’, 2014). Moreover, millenials in the age range of 20 to 29 years old followed by 13 to 19 years old age group are the top users of one of the most-used SNS today, Facebook (Castro, 2016).

Among the different social media platforms available, studies show that Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat (Lenhart, 2015) are the top three SNS most popular and most used among teenagers. Not only do teens participate in one social networking site but 71% of their population are actively participating in other SNS. While in a recent survey in the Philippines, it showed that the top 5 SNS are Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber and Google + (Castro,

With the use of social media students can easily search materials for their homeworks or projects, can contact their classmates for group works even if they are at home, and they can use it to research topics that they find difficult (Brannan, 2014). Not only is it useful for the students but it is also efficient as a learning tool for the teachers. Yet, however helpful and efficient the use of social media is, it also has its downside. As mentioned, social media and its different platforms gave way for education to be efficient for the students but some students who fail to find balance with the use of it face difficulty in their studies as it increases students’ distraction thus being detrimental to students’ performance (Jacobsen & Forste, 2011; Mythily, Qiu, & Winslow, 2008).

While these two studies have agreed on how social media and internet usage affect one’s education, both have different results when it comes to the exploration of social media’s relationship to one’s social environment and relationships. Jacobsen & Forste (2011) have noted that online communications and SNS use help facilitate social interaction rather than replace it while in contrast, with Mythily and her colleagues’ (2008) who have found out that internet use tend to be associated with less likelihood of confidants and users tendency to have difficulty communicating with