Objective

The project we have undertaken is mainly to focus on development of

our interpersonal skills, develop our speaking style, accent, fluency in
English, know about different people, socialize with different people,
understand the real life problems and get to enhance our knowledge
about the world outside our school. Our project aims at getting in
touch with different people, learning newer things. So in this project
we ought to interview various people, have a friendly informal debate
within ourselves and share our knowledge. We planned interviews
through Zoom Video Conferences. We ought to discuss with them
about how they use the Social Media and the role it played in their
life. This project will help us to learn to translate other languages to
English especially for those who are not comfortable with English.
It’ll help us to speak in a fluent way and explain the information to a
third party.

The Driving Question

How can I and my team find the uses of Social Media for the
people from different walks of life?
Certificate of completion
This project work title “Why Social Media?” has been carried out by
the guidance and instructions of Mrs. Sumathi PGT English of SBOA
School Senior Secondary

Mentor and Guide

Action Plan

The entire project has been fulfilled following different steps and
consultations with teacher, experts and peers and media. The project
aims at achieving a clear understanding of the uses of Social Media
around us by visiting them via video conference and conversing with
them. We visited them through Zoom video conference and asked
them about the effect of social media in their lives and how do they
use social media. Along with that we have acquired a good
proficiency in general English speaking and methods of interacting
with people and listening to various studies conducted by our national
channels and world media. We also used social media like Quora to
connect to general public and ask them about how they use social
media. For the project we carried out several studies and reading and
interviews related with our topic and came to know about how
different people use social media. Then we analysed the data collected
from different people and found out the link between social media and
them. We also had a formal debate within our team via Zoom
conference and discussed about the positive and negative sides of
social media. We used Debates, Interviews and Surfing through
internet to collect the relevant Data and grow our knowledge.
Introduction

Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the

creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms
of expression through virtual communities and networks. While
challenges to the definition of social media arise due to the variety of
stand-alone and built-in social media services currently available,
there are some common features.

The term social in regard to media suggests that platforms are user-
centric and enable communal activity. As such, social media can be
viewed as online facilitators or enhancers of human networks—webs
of individuals who enhance social connectivity. So we thought of
comparing the usage of internet among different people. Hence we
chose this topic.
DEBATE

The debate was just a friendly talk within us held via Zoom
conference. Devkumar, Karthikeyan, Krishna spoke in support of
Social media and Niranjan, Kiran, Manickavel against it. Arthur
Balaji was the judge for this informal debate. We were able to share a
lot of information within us and could develop our knowledge. A
brief about the debate and the final judgement is given below.

Devkumar (Advantages of Social media)

In the last couple of years, social media has played a fundamental
role in assisting individuals and communities that are desperately in
need. Several groups and online social media platforms are
dedicated to social work. 
Social media is the best place to start on that journey if you want to
provide some form of assistance or aid to those in need. With this
tool, you can reach out to the groups assisting people in need for
initiatives that you can undertake from your side. 
Social media is an excellent platform to practice charitable work,
assisting people in need by making their lives significantly easier. 

Kiran (Disadvantages of Social media)

Social media has become a significant hindrance to socio-emotional
connections. The quality of conversation on social media can often
be unpleasant because it is difficult to sense interest or emotion from
another person.
Additionally, the celebration of special occasions and relationship
milestones has a limit to sharing messages on social media
platforms.
As a result, the emotional connection continues to decrease with
increased social media usage. This is primarily because emotions &
feelings are not easily expressed with simple text messages .

Karthikeyan (Advantages of Social media)

We live in a diverse global society with different types of people

from all walks of life. These include individuals from other
backgrounds, religions, communities, and countries. 
Social media is an excellent tool that has facilitated the unification
of different kinds of people across the world. 
For example, if you enjoy playing video games, you can join
communities related to the same and interact with individuals across
the world who share your interests. 
If you have a business and are looking for ways to amplify your
brand awareness, social media is one of the best ways to achieve this
objective. 
With social media, you can drive traffic to your website by
publishing on your timeline & bio and in groups. You can leave a
link to your website on these platforms, directing visitors to what
you have to offer. 
Most internet bloggers and business owners use social media for
social networking. The result is an increase in the number of organic
visitors to your website .
Social media, therefore, significantly contributes to a feeling of
oneness amongst different communities.

Niranjan (Disadvantages of Social media)

Cyberbullying is one of the worst aspects of regular social media

usage, topping the list of disadvantages associated with the same. 
Bullying that takes place online on social media platforms is
cyberbullying. It uses false social media accounts to psychologically
disturb or tease victims. 

False social media accounts are often untraceable. Bullying happens

via sending derogatory material (such as photographs and videos)
and inappropriate text messages. 
Being aware of this disadvantage is crucial when navigating an
online presence.
In addition to cyberbullying, hacking is also regarded as one of the
most severe drawbacks of social media that affect many people. 
Hacking refers to the process of gaining access to another
individual’s personal information. Often, this information can cause
harm rather than good. There have been many instances where
hackers have managed to upset an individual’s financial and social
stability. 
It is important to remember that hacking is illegal and can be
reported. Legal action is often taken against hackers with fines,
sentences, and, in some cases, imprisonment.

Krishna (Advantages of Social media)

Social media has proven to be an effective tool for facilitating the

learning of new skills and concepts. 
Different social media platforms encourage learning by bringing
together educators & professionals with students & learners from
different age groups. 
With social media tools, it becomes possible for you to connect with
instructors and learn at your own pace. Social media also promotes
significantly better flexibility in the overall learning process.
Social media is one of the best places for you to share information
with your loved ones and a larger community. Many artists and
professionals resort to social media to share their pieces of work
(such as songs, poems, artistic masterpieces, and food). 
Therefore, social media is an excellent tool to enhance your
creativity and identity as a brand. This is among the best advantages
when listing the advantages and disadvantages of social media
platforms for businesses. This allows you to interact directly with
millions of consumers, helping your artistic efforts gain
appreciation. Your creative control can significantly improve with
social media usage.

We live in a diverse global society with different types of people from

all walks of life. These include individuals from other backgrounds,
religions, communities, and countries.

Social media is an excellent tool that has facilitated the unification of

different kinds of people across the world.

For example, if you enjoy playing video games, you can join
communities related to the same and interact with individuals across
the world who share your interests.

Social media, therefore, significantly contributes to a feeling of

oneness amongst different communities.

Manickavel (Disadvantages of Social media)

People often look to social media to post content that they love.
However, they also use it for poor experiences. This makes for one
of the most noted disadvantages in our list of advantages &
disadvantages of social media. 
Therefore, if you have a business and someone has a negative
experience with your brand, social media allows them to share the
same with others. This can significantly reduce conversion,
especially if feedback is shared across different platforms . 
Negative feedback also contributes to the reviews that are on your
webpage. People often look at reviews and read the negative
experiences when becoming familiar with your brand and what it
offers.
Another negative aspect worth noting in our list of advantages &
disadvantages of social media is that fake news spreads quickly.
Individuals often create false social media posts and share them by
spreading the fake news on groups and other platforms. 
The result is the strong dissemination of fake news. Almost anybody
can create fake news on a trending topic and post the same on
different social media platforms without verification. 
Fake news can have a disastrous impact on knowledge of different
topics. Some may even prompt rebellious acts that are better avoided
with accurate information.
Finally, addiction is regarded as one of the most commonly-felt
disadvantages of social media platforms. Post the COVID-19
pandemic, there has been a surge in social media addiction,
especially with the extra amount of leisure time experienced by
many. 
People who use social media excessively develop a psychological
addiction to the same. Social media addiction has affected the global
teenage population in a majority of negative ways. 
People who use social media excessively are often cut off from
society and the natural world. This can cause significant dissociation
from what is happening in an individual’s real life.

Arthur Balaji (Judge)

All have spoken well with sharp and critical points to support your
thoughts. Okay. So now with what the “Optimistic” people have
spoken, we will be able to conclude, yes social media is a very useful
source of social interaction. They have highlighted the used form
social interaction, emotional support by virtually connecting with so
many friends. But with these could we totally hide the negative sides?
No. Their point of view was extremely sharp and the relevant data and
surveys they provided us with made us to wonder whether to
discontinue the use of social media. There has to be an actual social
interaction, not virtual, to keep up the friendship. People are losing
ability and interest in direct face-to-face interaction, especially the
young age groups. Now let’s come to the Judgement. So from both
teams we have sufficient points such that social media is a double
sided coin with both positive and negative sides. So I conclude that
“Social media is a flame; you can cook food or burn everything;
decision is yours”. Thank you everyone.

Interviews

We have interviewed eight different people from our school friends to

our neighbour regarding the usage of internet. Their responses, as
expected, were mixed. We could conclude that some found it very
useful, others a source of income and some others used it for
entertainment. Their perceptions varied to a vast extent. Below we
have given a brief of the interviews with different people.

Theme

The main theme posed to every person was this:

“Explain the effect of Social Media in your life”

“For what purposes do you use the Social Media?”

The brief responses of different people are given below

Interview – 1

Internet has played a major role in my education and mental health. I

did not have much access to internet in my childhood days but have
read a lot about the growth of the internet even in my computer
science text books. At the time of completion of my school, through
YouTube (which is a social media) I did my preparation for exams
and listened to songs to manage mood swings. Then in my college
days, social media was everywhere and with the development of
smart phones, it found wide application. I could find variety of
resources regarding job applications that led me to my first job at
Kauvery Hospitals, Chennai. Working as a company secretary,
requires lot of data transfer between the team of CS and the
management, and there stood the social media fulfilling every need of
a CS. Apart from my job, I use it regularly to listen to song, it helps
me relax and regulate my mental stress caused due to work pressure.
It’s a vital resource and like an organ in human body now.

Ms. Akshaya
Doctor
Kauveri Hospital
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Interview – 2

Just like many other youngsters in India, I am a Software Engineer

too. Asking about social media to me is like asking about sugar to
coffee. My childhood has been a green one, without much
interference from the social media, it was cool, pleasant and without
stress. My family was an agricultural family and I also had worked in
farms. Social media was introduced to me at my grade 10 in school,
through a TV show in the nearby town. Then in college days too,
social media played a major role in developing my knowledge about
computers and paved a way to my job in Infosys. Social media is a
great resource, especially for those who wish to learn something new.
And especially during the pandemic time, social media was the only
entertainment we relied on, it made ‘Work from home’ possible. In
my leisure time I would talk to my family in my home town through
WhatsApp. Though it may have negative sides, I prefer to stay with
the positive sides. Connecting with clients, conveying the happenings
to the headquarters takes up the day of an IT employee. And without
social media, it is simply impossible.

Mr. Bajan Lal

Oracle Consultant
Infosys
Mumbai

Interview – 3

My childhood was in the dawn of the internet era. I heard about social
media early at the age of 8 or 9 through my father. I used to watch
Karate in television channels and if I missed out a wrestling match, I
would watch them in YouTube and Instagram. I enjoyed those
matches. And when I was preparing for grade 10 board exams, I
found social media to be the greatest resource collector for Karate
move and attacking techniques. This ruined my preparations for the
board exams, I am a living victim for social media. By God’s grace
pandemic came and saved my life. Though information from
YouTube and Google and enhanced my attacking capacity in Karate,
it nearly ruined my life. I would like to thank Social media because of
which now I am a Karate champion. Thank you.

Mr. Kasi Vishwanathan

Grade 12
Karate Master/Champion
Madurai, Tamil Nadu

Interview – 4
“Yo guys, hello and welcome to my YouTube channel...” Confused?
Surprised? Well, yes this is me a grade 12 student and a YouTuber.I
am a person who choose single quotes over double quotes because I
don’t like choices in my life. I’m 2K kid so there’s nothing much to
say about my childhood, like bla bla bla. Just like every other teen,
my childhood was not in vintage period but more like in a techie
world. Apart from studies, I listen to good music, pop and romantic
hits. But my ID is, YouTuber Gamer. Yes, I had always loved to play
games. So I am now trying to turn it into an income source. Through
the internet, I play a lot of games like GTA series, Garena Free Fire,
BGMI, Call of Duty, Gangster Vegas, and my most favourite would
be Fortnite. While I was a kid, I have seen YouTube gamers
streaming and now I wish to do the same. I hope this would lead to
success. Please subscribe to my channel guys... Just for fun. I don’t
like self promotion.
 Mr. Ajay Vairam
Grade 12
YouTuber and Techie
Madurai, Tamil Nadu

Report

This project was comprised of our hard work and cooperation from
various people who accepted our request and agreed to spend their
valuable time with us sharing their knowledge and resources and
enhancing our knowledge.

First we started off with surfing on the internet about uses of social
media, the pros and cons as soon as we got intimation about our ASL
project. Our team members had Smart Phones, Laptops and Personal
computers and Internet access with them. We then prepared ourselves
with an appropriate action plan and then we got ready for the project.
We first created a local WhatsApp Group within us to share the
information we gain from the social media individually. We planned
for interviews with various people and got their contact numbers and
spoke with them in their language. We tried to explain about our
project and asked them for timings to join in our Zoom Video
conference and share their highly valuable knowledge with us.

To our surprise, every one of the 4 people we asked, accepted our

request and gave a suitable timing for the E-Interview. Side by side,
we also mingled with people through various social media and social
websites like Quora and collected information from various people’s
posts. At times we were also having chat discussions in WhatsApp
group within us, out of which most were informal.

Then we created a Zoom video conferencing room to host the E-

Interviews with the people.

The first interview was with Ms. Akshaya, who saw social media as a
good helper in her job as well as no less than a therapist and stress
buster when she is stressed. She did seek social media’s help
throughout the pandemic period and throughout the work from home
scenario, without which the works of a Company Secretary would
come to a standstill. She feels that it is difficult to live without
internet nowadays and it has become an undeniably vital part in our
lives. We spoke to her in Tamil, the language in which she was fluent
with.
Then in our second interview, came Mr. Bajanlal, an IT employee. He
actually was very fluent in English, so we conversed throughout in
English. As he was an IT employee he had to rely on social media
throughout his job. He never found social media as a curse and he
says social media was a great friend and with internet as aid, it is
easier to earn from home too. He shared his bond as a Software
Engineer to social media and the profound uses of the latter. He was
very friendly and had an accent of Hindi in his conversation.

The third person we interviewed was Kasi Vishwanathan, a Karate

specialist, who was the only one who described social media as a
curse in their life among the 4 who was interviewed. He said that
during his preparations in grade 10, he was carried over by karate
videos in social media. Though he was affected, he overcame
everything and is now a successful Karate champion

The last person to be interviewed was our very own and known
“Hacker Varma”,Mr.Ajay Vairam, who was also a YouTuber and
gamer. He explained his routines about playing games, and the use of
social media, and how social media tempted him to pursue to become
an YouTuber. He described the games he was good at and he spoke
about his future plans after school. Though he was fluent in English,
Tamil and Urdu, we spoke in English with him.

With all these interviews and debates, we also read numerous random
articles related to our topic and gathered variety of useful information.
With that, we concluded our work to be converted into an appropriate
project work, changing the raw data in to an organized format.

Conclusion

From all these interview, debates and research we could conclude one
thing. Social Media is vital resource for development and source of
income to others. Some use it for leisure purpose while some others
learn something new from it. Social Media helps to people to connect
people across continents, make money, find important resources and
data, grow knowledge and for many other purposes. It has played a
vital role in connecting people especially during this pandemic
situation. While most of them find it positive, they are also aware of
the negative sides. Social media cybercrimes are common nowadays.
Tracing out the criminals across the social media is also tough for the
police so much care is needed while using social media. As said,
“Social Media is a Rose with Beautiful petals, but be aware of the
thorns”.

Student Reflections

For the project we interviewed some people through Zoom video

conference and asked about social media to them, how social media is
related to their job etc. All of them shared their problems with us and
we recorded in our notes. We had a formal debate within our team to
share knowledge between us.

This helped us to understand the evolution of social media and the

wide applications of social media and also we got an opportunity to
talk with them in our target language. Debates within us would help in
sharing the knowledge of one person with the others.

This type of exposure will enrich our listening and speaking ability. I
am glad that we did this as a group work. Without our team’s
coordination and cooperation, this project would have been nothing.

Bibliography

Google

Quora

Twitter

Puthiya Thalaimurai TV

BBC

New York Times

YouTube
Photographs

Every member in our team did a lot of research to gain knowledge

about the usage of social media:

Our team members were surfing through Quora and also collected
posts about the uses of Internet in Quora:
Our team members were interviewing different people through Zoom: