PROS AND CONS OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES BY HIGHER SECONDARY STUDENTS – CASE STUDY OF THE STUDY SCHOOL, PUDUCHERRY

Social media (SM) has become a part and parcel of our everyday life that it is very difficult to completely refrain from it. In order to know the positive and negative impact that the social media created on the education of the present day children, a study was conducted. The population of the study were the higher secondary students of a CBSE school in Puducherry. The study revealed various information regarding the SM use by the students and was also a medium to create awareness among the students over the effect of social media on their education. It was found that majority 90 percent of the higher secondary students access social media regularly and the most popular platform was YouTube and WhatsApp which they used for viewing and downloading audio and video and for chatting. Another important finding was that most of the students 98 percent of them believed that social media was useful for their education and 92 percent of them used it for doing assignments and projects, 80 percent to access additional study materials and 74 percent to clarify doubts. The study also revealed the negative impact of SM on the students (48 percent) and many of them felt that they did not get enough study time and could not concentrate on their studies because of using social media with 32 percent and 28 percent respectively. The study also revealed that 72 percent had more virtual friends and 82 percent of them subscribed to entertainment communities compared to 72 percent educational communities.