Alternatives Magazine 2

ISSUE

What is \"too much\" in social media? In October, 5 2021, schools in Europe conducted a survey, in which 106 students participated from 5 countries (22 students from Bulgaria, 20 students from Greece, 24 students from Poland, 20 students from Romania and 20 students from Turkey). There were 57 boys and 49 girls. Those young people were asked about their favourite social media services, how often they use social networking sites and how using social media affects teenagers. The survey was analyzed and the conclusions were made during the Erasmus meeting in Poland in November 2021. The editorial team consists of mixed student groups from Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Romania & Turkey. Diagram 1- Which of the following social media services do you use the most? Instagram – 38.7 % is the social media portal which is the most frequently visited, Tik-Tok is used by 34%, Facebook was indicated by our respondents in the third position, it is used by 12.3% of students, Snapchat – 11.3%, Twitter – 3.8% Diagram 2 – Which of the following social media services do you use the most? 47.2% of the students indicated every few minutes as too much, every 1 hour indicated 18.9%, once a day or 2-3 times a day indicated 14.2%, 5.7% think that once a week is too much.

Diagram 3 – How often in the last year have you used social networking sites so much that it has had a negative impact on your studies? 32.1% of the students indicated using social networking sites has had a negative impact on their studies only sometimes, an equally high position was occupied by rarely, 25.5% pointed – never, only 1.9% (2 students) admitted using social networking sites has had a negative impact on his/her studies, they pointed – very often. Diagram 4 – How often in the last year have you used social networking sites so much that it has had a negative impact on your relationships with friends or family? 47.2% of the students indicated using social networking sites has not had a negative impact on their relationships with friends or family, 29.2% pointed – rarely, 17.9% pointed sometimes, 2.8% admitted using social networking sites often or very often has had a negative impact on their relationships with friends or family. Diagram 5 – How often in the last year have you used social networking sites in order to forget about personal problems?

41.5% of the students admitted that they have not used social networking sites in order to forget about personal problems, rarely or sometimes were indicated by about 20% of the respondents, the smallest group of students claimed to very often or often use social networking sites in order to forget about personal problems. Diagram 6 – Do you ever get jealous of other people’s seemingly extravagant lives on social media? The most popular answer was – not really, I don’t pay attention – 50.9%, 43.4% of the students indicated that sometimes they were jealous of other people’s seemingly extravagant lives on social media, only 5.7% of the respondents admitted that they are jealous of other people’s lives on social media all the time. Diagram 7 – How often in the last year have you spent a lot of time thinking about social networking sites or planned use of social media? 32.1% of the students admitted that they sometimes think about social networking media sites or planned to use social media, 25.5% of the students rarely think about social media sites, 17% often think about them, 16% never think about them and 9.4% very often think about social networking media sites.

Diagram 8 – How do you feel when you are without social media for a long period of time? 43.4% of the respondents argued that it doesn’t affect them in any way, 39.6% of the students feel like they might be missing out, but it’s not a big deal for them,17% of the students are anxious, depressed and lonely when they are without social media for a long period of time. Diagram 9 – How much personal information do you think it is good to share on social media? Some things, but most should be hidden from public definitely prevailed in the students’ responses 62.3% of them indicated this answer, 28.3% of the respondents claimed that very little information,7% of the students indicated - a lot, 3% of students claimed that we can share everything on social media. Diagram 10 – Too many friends on social media for a child of my age I think is more than 27.4% of the students admitted that they don’t think it’s a problem to have many friends on social media, similar number of the respondents (25.5%) indicated 20 friends as too many friends on social media for a child of their age, 100 friends pointed 21.7% of students, 500 friends pointed 14.2% of students, 1000 or 5000 friends pointed 6% of the students.

Diagram 11 – Too many posts on social media for a child of my age I think is more than 24.5% of the students claimed that too many it is 1 post per week, 22.6% of the students indicated that they don’t think it’s a problem to post frequently on social media, but for 20.8% 1 post per day it is too many, for 17% 1 post per month it is too many, for 10.4% too many it is more than 2 posts per day. Diagram 12 – Whenever a notification pops 45.3% of the students admitted that they finish their conversation or work and then they check their notifications 24.5% of the respondents check their phones immediately, 17% of the students check after a lot of time and 13.2% of the respondents don’t pay attention to notifications. The participants of the third direct meeting, as part of the Social Media for Educational Purposes project, under the Erasmus + programme admitted that nowadays social media has become an inseparable part of our lives. A lot of teenagers use social media constantly, so it is natural that these platforms have a huge impact on their lives. Although social media has a lot of positive aspects, young people admit that it also has many negative ones. With the help of social media students can easily communicate or share information quickly with each other through various social sites like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, etc. It can also lead to problems. One of the negative effects of social media is that people become addicted to it. People spend lots of time on social networking sites and forget about their duties and everyday activities. The students also realise that there are many important problems connected with social media, which negatively affect the family. They admitted that children spend a lot of time on the Internet, and as a result they do not pay attention to family, friends or even stop caring about themselves.

Another bad effect of social media is cyberbullying. This includes getting mean comments and messages about their appearance and behaviour. It can lead to a lot of teens feeling left out and ultimately ending up staying home and shutting out their real friends. One of the students gave an example of how we can manage under these circumstances: “My friend was being bullied by other people and sometimes by his friends. They were sending him jokes about his weight. In the school they were making fun of him. He went through a difficult time. His family and I were trying to help him. In the end he stopped paying attention to those comments and his problems ended”. Young people are aware of the danger of sharing too much personal information on the Internet. The participants of the meeting indicated problems connected with exposure to too much information on the Internet, especially if we have an open social media account. For example, when we go on holidays, we should not share our location and period of time on which we go away, because strangers might break into our home and we can lose our valuables. In conclusion, it must be said that most of the students recognize the positive aspects of the social media portals, but also notice their disadvantages. Therefore, we should protect our privacy online and use social media in a reasonable manner.