Rationale

“Social media is the ultimate equalizer. It gives a voice and a platform to anyone willing
to engage” (Martin, 2017). Social media refers to a computer-based technology that facilitates
the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and information through virtual networks and communities.
Social media is internet-based and gives users quick electronic communication of content, such
as personal information, documents, videos, and photos. Users engage with social media via a
computer, tablet, or smartphone via web-based software or applications. Social media platforms,
like Facebook, have created online communities, which allow people to share as much or as less
information as they wish to share with friends, family, or the public. Social media originated as
a way to interact with friends and family but was later adopted by businesses that wanted to take
advantage of a popular new communication method to reach out to customers.

The social media are defined as web-based applications that allow people to create, share,
or exchange information, ideas and pictures or videos in virtual communication and networks
(Oueder & Abousaber, 2018). Now the question is what are the grade 9-Alexandrites most
auspicious social media? This text will explain the uses of social media and some ideas on
popular social media platforms. Social media is used for communicating with other people
virtually. It can provide great learning opportunities to the students. Social media is also used
for sharing ideas. Social media have become crucial tools in education.

Nowadays, a lot of students are using social media such as Facebook, YouTube,
Instagram, and so on. Since the Internet has propagated rapidly, social media have progressed a
lot. The generalization of the internet makes us live conveniently and fast. Students are almost
using smartphones, iPhones, or comfortable devices which can access the internet. This
equipment makes us social network easily. Social media plays an important role in every
student’s life. It is often easier and more convenient to access information, provide information
and communicate via social media. These are the favourite social media for students because
they can guide them in their education.

Social media portray a dominant role in every people’s life especially students and
younger people. Through the social media apps it is often uncomplicated and more convenient
to access information. But using social media is not good for younger ones. (Sumperl, 2021)
states that the best aspect of Facebook advertising is the ability to build and segment your
audience to reach those that may be specifically interested in what you have to offer. Social
media is a source of information that students use every day to gather data and information.

It was observed that social media was used mostly for commenting on others’ profiles,
reading blog posts, listening to music, making friendship requests, examining someone else’s
status and participating in various social, educational etc. Activities (Erdogan & Mustafa, 2017).
It is used for communicating with other people virtually. Social media was mostly used for
entertainment and communication. However, entertainment is not the only thing you can get
from social media. Social media can help you with your studies in different ways.
 Mobile devices and social media provide excellent educational e-learning opportunities to
the students for academic collaboration, accessing in course contents, and tutors despite the
physical boundary (Ansari, 2020). Social media can really help students learn. This can help
them in terms of researching, studying, or when looking for ideas for a certain project
homework. In social media, you can gain information from posts, video explanations, tutorials
and more. This way students can learn or find ideas from using social media.

Kubey (1998) opined that media education has yet to obtain popular support. He
postulated that far more parents, for example, will say that they want their children to be
computer literate than will say they want their children to be media literate. Parents believe that
computer expertise can equal a leg up in the job market. Social media is the term often used to
refer to new forms of media that involve interactive participation. Often the development of
media is divided into two different ages, the broadcast age and the interactive age. In the
broadcast age, media were almost exclusively centralized where one entity—such as a radio or
television station, newspaper company, or a movie production studio—distributed messages to
many people. Feedback to media outlets was often indirect, delayed, and impersonal. Mediated
communication between individuals typically happened on a much smaller level, usually via
personal letters, telephone calls, or sometimes on a slightly larger scale through means such as
photocopied family newsletters.

The ultimate equalizer (Martin, 2004). People are witnessing, and contributing to, the
largest media paradigm shift in decades. Through social media, people have been able to build a
voice in almost every matter all across and around the globe. People can not only contact to
their friends and family all around the world but also make new contacts and enhance their
social activities. It has allowed people to share a large bulk of information, which can range
from personal to public, social to political, educational to religious, informative to persuasive.
Everyone can give his views on issues and events, be it recent or old. It allows people to create
new groups and communities. People can create groups of common interests and hobbies. It
makes them able to interact better and improve their social outlooks, social networks, and
overall quality of life.

Social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Windows Live Spaces, Orkut and Hi5
have attracted millions of users; many of them have integrated their daily practices with these
sites. Social networking, web-based services to individuals, depending on the system open to
the public or semi-open to create profiles, communicate in the other list of users to express and
communicate on the system where people with other people who see connections are allowed to
have. Individuals can use social communication networks for very different purposes. There are
many social networking sites. Social networking sites, online interaction and communication at
the same time sharing the main purpose and use of specific objectives in terms of layout may
vary according to services. (Gross & Acquisti, 2005).
 The top five most popular social media platforms in the world are Facebook, YouTube,
Instagram, and Facebook messenger (McCormick, 2022). Facebook is used for sharing ideas
through posts and you can post writings/articles, photos, and videos. Youtube offers videos like
tutorials, lectures, discussions and many more. Instagram is more on photos. Facebook
messenger helps students to communicate to their fellow classmates or teachers if they have
concerns. All of the social media platforms mentioned can help students for school purposes.

As social media websites, such as Face book, YouTube and Twitter gain popularity, they
are also are becoming increasingly dangerous as they disturb and diverge the attention of the
students while trying to complete homework. Social networking sites may badly affect the
academic life and learning experiences of the student as (Kuppuswamy & Shankar, 2010) stated
that social network websites grab attention of the students and then diverts it towards non-
educational and inappropriate actions including useless chatting. But on the other hand many
researchers claim that the social networking sites are beneficial for students as it has no effect
on their academic performance. They stated that students using internet and other social
networking sites are good in reading skills and also has higher grades.

Berry (2021) states that everybody is engulfed in social media. One critical approach to
render learning is to reach students where they are, which includes locating social networking
outlets that can be used in the classroom. Nowadays most people used social media including
younger ones 5 years old and above. Especially during pandemic. Schools, teacher’s uses social
media in communicating their students.

Facebook is at the top of the social media game as its platform caters to a wide variety of
people, incorporating many different media aspects, from photos to messenger to text (Tracy,
2022). It is not as limited as LinkedIn and Twitter, which typically cater to a specific
demographic. Because of its wide appeal, Facebook has attracted a significant user base, which
translates to ad revenue, since companies desire to spend their ad budgets on platforms that
receive the most viewership. When people think of Facebook they also think of Twitter. They're
rivals, right? Well, Facebook and Twitter are two entirely different beasts, but they both have
something in common: social networking. Most people use them to socialise and network with
friends, family, fans, businesses, and acquaintances. Unfortunately for Twitter, Facebook is just
easier to use for most people.
Rosenblatt (2022) states that Facebook once the go to social media platform for many,
has plummeted in popularity among younger users. Unfortunately, instead of using Facebook
for significant purposes younger ones uses it for fun. Some posted fake news. Some people uses
Facebook to ruin people’s life. Younger people contribute a lot in dissemination of Facebook
through social media.
 Instagram, which first appeared in 2010, was launched as a photo-sharing platform and
overtime other new features such as video, texting, and story sharing have been added which
contributed to its growth greatly (Ellison, 2017). This famous social networking site has been in
the news lately, and not in a positive light. Nevertheless, Instagram’s popularity makes it natural
for teaching. Create a private classroom account, and use it to showcase lesson ideas and student
work, communicate with kids and their families, and act as a hub for positive reinforcement.
The platform is widely used by teachers to share their best classroom projects and concepts.
Instagram is a fun tool that lets students post videos, photographs, and other crucial audio-visual
content to get free Instagram followers. It also helps students interested in opening a company
earn money digitally.

Pathak (2021) states that social media is a set of applications and websites that provide
users a platform for sharing anything and increasing their social networking. Apart from posting
photos and updating status, social media also provides an interactive computer-mediated
technology where one can share various ideas. Google helps to search some documents,
influencer’s background, and world’s information. In YouTube it has a tutorial in making some
projects, funny videos and music. Through messenger people use it to communicate with
friends, teachers, and relatives from other country especially during the pandemic.

Social media is the latest technology that helps all students in gaining information and
knowledge by adopting different methodologies. The utilization and involvement of social
media in education help students, teachers, professors, and parents to get specific information.
They can connect themselves with different learning and educational group as and can achieve
success. The generalization of the internet makes us live conveniently and fast. Facebook,
YouTube, and Instagram are the most favourite social media platform for students. All of them
are helpful for students. The fast, easy access to information that is supposed to be beneficial to
society is detrimental to society. A number of studies have explored how students and users of
social media networks accessed these tools for their personal benefits. The study by (Apeanti &
Danso, 2014) found that student`s accessed social media using indicating that they did not
access social media. It was also found that students who had accounts on social media
frequently used it to connect with old friends and family members, find new friends, obtain or
share learning materials, receive update of events , post information , while away time among
others.

More than half of the world now uses social media (Chaffey, 2022). More and more
people are using social media. Social can be used in many different ways. It should be used for
learning for the reason that it can be very useful for students as it offers different kinds of
information that is useful for studying. And not just for studying, this is also very useful to gain
more knowledge and be wiser.

Content is fire but Social media is the gasoline (Baer, 2014). Social media is an amazing
invention, and, like fire, it has formed the baseline for an infinite range of possibilities .In this
process of social learning, it becomes very important for students to stay connected to peers.
Students can make friends with friends of friends and build a strong network. It's not about
keeping it real; it's about keeping it relevant.
 Therefore, social media is a tool to access information around the world. Not everything
posted on social media should be believed because sometimes social media cannot be trusted,
there must be proof before believing. Most of the students use social media to gather some ideas
and information and apply it for studies. Social media is not only used for learning, it is also
used to connect with distant relatives. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
have rapidly become a part of many people’s everyday lives, especially for the generations who
have grown up with so much technology at their fingertips (Bridgestock, 2021)
In general, the power of social media is the ability to connect and share information with
anyone on Earth, or with many people simultaneously. That's why knowing the most preferred
media is important. Social media is important because it allows you to reach, nurture, and
engage with your target audience. Social media is not a media. The key is to listen, engage, and
build relationships (Alston, 2013).