For a college student, social media is almost as required as a classroom textbook. We are constantly updating our Facebook status, uploading pictures, "Facebook stalking" our friends, tweeting, retweeting- the possibilities are endless. But some people seem to think this is cutting into our schoolwork and consequently making our academic papers less fluid and a series of broken paragraphs, rather than one smooth flowing essay.
At first glance, it appears to be reasonable that we are becoming too distracted with technology. If we are constantly interrupted with distractions, how can our thoughts be constructed coherently and logically into one essay? Well, there have been some conflicting reports with this issue. While some believe these distractions are hurting our writing skills, other believe these social media websites are actually helping us perform better. How? “People are more successful if we force them to move away from a problem or distract them temporarily,” observe the authors of Creativity and the Mind, a landmark text in the psychology and neuroscience of creativity.
Ok, i guess I can relate to this to some extent. It is sometimes difficult to sit at your computer continuously writing a research paper, little breaks do come handy in between. If anything, it makes me set certain goals to finish certain sections of my paper so I can reward myself with chatting and catching up with a few friends on Facebook. However, I can understand the statstic from Nucleus Research that states that an average of all company workers are on Facebook and lose approximately an hour and half of productivity throughout the workday. If you are using Facebook to avoid doing work at your job, I can see why this can be a problem. However, I think using it as an online breakroom for your 15 minutes does little to no harm.
One last thing. Many of the information we receive is relying less and less on news sources and more and more on social media. Many companies rely on getting their information for industry news, product launches, and information about competitors in one fashion or another, on the Internet. Social media, like Twitter, is exploding for providing this kind of information- you just have to follow the right people.
So is social media ruining our school papers and productivity? Yes and no. It all depends on how you use it.
You have an interesting perspective on the time consumption that social networks have. I agree that we are, to some degree, distracted by these social networks when trying to write a research paper or accomplish a tedious task.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it bothers me to find out that people are on these social networks all day while at the office or on the clock. Agreed, that a quick tweet during a coffee break or a walk down the hall won't hurt. But when you see someone with their "online" Facebook status, while you know they are on the clock is just bothersome to me!
Your post is definitely targeted to the millennial generation. It's interesting to see how we have created a new wave of interaction.
I think I saw this same video in my Communication Research Methods class last week as well. It shouldn’t come as much shock to people that with so much connectivity, there come some consequences. As for the question of whether or not social media outlets are to blame for our new shorthand writing skills, I think I half agree and half disagree. Obviously, we are not forced to use facebook, twitter, myspace or any other social media outlets that we know will probably be of any distraction to us and our school work. Everyone knows how they work best, and if you know that keeping a facebook tab open while writing your paper will only lead to you checking your newsfeed every five minutes, then you probably just shouldn’t do it. On the other side of this argument though, I suppose that our deep dive into the social media world is partly to blame for our obsession with constant updates. But we used to be able to sit at our computers and type out our essays without the interruptions that now seem to be second nature to us. And yes, I agree that a couple of rewarding facebook breaks could be motivational, and not detrimental to our schoolwork, but I think it just depends on how we are willing to manage our time. Our writing does not have to suffer because of our increased connectivity and social distractions. As long as we are using our time management skills, I don’t think we should have anything to worry about.
ReplyDeleteI feel that this is very true. Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites do take away our focus but I do not think this is a bad thing. From my experience, when I am doing a paper or a project I need to take breaks to clear my head. Last week I was writing Capstone Sub 2 ughhh and I took a break to look at my Twitter. Though this could be seen as distracting, I actually found information that pertained to my topic without even searching for it. I say that social media is not hurting us if we use it wisely.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that it depends on how you use it. In Social Media for PR we're learning exactly how to utilize these tools to benefit us in other areas. And I think once you feel comfortable exploring that new terrain, the idea that social media is more than just fun, you don't want to use it for simply leisure anymore. It's an outlet for information of all forms and at all levels.
ReplyDeleteBut on the other hand, it's so easy to get lost in it. With
Facebook it's our friends, the minutiae of the lives close to ours, and it's near tantalizing. With Delicious, and especially Stumble Upon, for me it seems like every click to a new page can lead in a hundred different directions. It can so easily get distracting...