Use of Social Network Platforms for Spreading Education

Introduction:
The present era is of IT boom. Its being characterised by impetuously evolving technologies which is
spreading its prowess in every aspect of life. From the shopping to sharing personal thoughts or chit
chat, everywhere in every aspect of life websites through internet are helping us. In this process
multiple social networking websites helps us to decide the quality and express our feeling about
anything instantaneously with the whole globe. The education is again no exception.
Merits:
The traditional way of studying means selecting few hardcopies of books, taking a copy, pen and taking
notes on every important line. Even for recalling a specific fact, one has to browse whole text-book or
chapter. Again the notebook required lots of care to maintain for long run.
But these days, with the advent of World Wide Web and invention of new social networking, access
to any specific fact is lot easier. For example if you want to recall when earthquake hit Bhuj, Gujrat
or Tsunami hit India Just type it on google, yahoo, Bing or Wikipedia, which are all based on assigning
ranks based on popularity of content. Thus refining the search to a very narrow list which is highly
specific. These days the credibility of Wikipedia is also increasing where anyone can create any article
but with all references to credible sources. Thus the knowledge of people is getting shared within
minutes or seconds and the checks are also applied by people by reporting content as illegitimate.
Thus the knowledge is becoming free and universal.
Now lets move towards conventional, purest form of social networks i.e. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter,
Youtube, Google Hangout, etc., etc. Over these social networks, lots of youth are found wasting energy
just for chit-chatting and uploading and entangled in sharing, not so relevant superficial, ethnic or
racial contents.
But at the same time these social networks have become the research grounds for psychology, social
engineering, etc. where mass interaction is required. Further multiple pages for news updates,
multiple exam preparation are there, where a person can easily interact with like-minded people and
avail free expertise. These days all the newspapers have got listed as facebook and twitter pages along
with their own personal websites from where they have deepened their readers base. The news items
published can be read online and instantaneous reaction of people throughout the world can be
known through comment boxes provided below, which many a time also give really good critical
review of that news piece, thus giving a really wholesome idea. Another highly applauded feature of
social networking websites is professional groups, where professionals share their experiences and
updates in profession specific technologies in use. Many a times, a junior or a new professional can
also seek their help within minutes and that too all free of cost. Linkedin is especially specialised in
such professional networking.
In present scenario, the need for payment of high fee to coaching institutes has reduced. A very simple
example of it is a Youtube channel named unacademy started by Dr. Raman Saini who got rank 18
in civil services. He reaches the UPSC Civil Service aspirants and promotes them to ask queries through
facebook and Twitter. He guarantees the aspirants to clear their doubts within 24 hours or so. He
make quality videos for UPSC Civil Services preparation and his videos are in high demand now a days.
Another example is Ben Heck Show on Youtube in which the host teaches how to make multiple
electronic gadgets, which otherwise would have taken a lot of books search and fundamental
improvements. He again asks people what they want to see in the next episode and takes their

feedback on Facebook and Twitter. One can learn any professional software (say photoshop to
MATLAB) from beginner to professional level just by browsing youtube these days. These are only
two- three example out of multiple similar cases where people are really simplifying the access to
quality coaching.
Going to financial statistics, a civil service coaching costs an aspirant nearly 1.5 lakhs per annum while
the broadband service comes merely for Rs. 600-1000 per month, meaning a maximum of Rs. 10,000
per annum which is less than even one tenth of fee paid to big institutes. Even the accessories required
for the internet browsing are getting reduced day by day with advent of smartphones and free
android. Surprisingly a few apps on android also give access to latest editions of multiple otherwise
paid magazines.
Another result of Social Networking Experimentation by Premier Educational Institutes are MOOCs.
Even multiple private entrepreneurs have started to tap this market and are now challenging tradition
school/ college education. One of impressive example is coursera.org. This website uses peer reviews
and discussion forums to create a really conducive global platform for international exposure and
learning experience. The coursera.org also issues verified certificates to those who successfully
complete the course after marking candidates via proper periodic quizzes and assignments judged via
well standardised peer review system.
Further it is scientifically proven that watching videos along with instructions can enhance learning
outcome as both of our senses i.e. sight and hearing are involved as compared to mere reading or only
listening. Again the best advantage is time- flexibility and options available. Even if one feels sleepy at
afternoons, one has to attend the classes, no matter how much boring they might be or how much
one is absorbing at that moment. The online portals remove this barrier, making it much easy to grasp.
Further if one channel isnt good at certain topic switch to another. So only the best thrives over here.
Also education is not about only cramming facts and figures from books. The real meaning of
education is to become a decent, compassionate well-informed active citizen. These days, social
media has become the best place to discuss multiple real life problems on broad scale, for discussing
social reforms, etc. The way it affected our thinking is clearly evident in massive movements against
rape cases and in favour of LGBT rights, Anti-corruption, Clean India Movements. The huge success of
these social reform drives were real outcomes of social media which spread these messages to every
nook and crook of country.
Demerits
With so much of benefits, one thing must be kept in mind that it is a neutral, unbiased technology.
Obviously as every coin has two faces, it also has multiple dark faces. Along with social networking
websites, multiple file sharing platforms like torrents have also come in existence. Over these
platforms there are several breaches to IPR Regimes by illegal sharing and downloading of copyrighted
books and other materials. This is highly discouraging and detrimental to good writers and publishers.
Again, after coming out of an era of information crunch we are heading towards an era of information
overload. There are lots of fun facts and interesting videos that tempt a young mind to deviate from
the optimum use of social platform. This is the weakest spot in any social media. A person sits on the
internet for some specific task and ends up doing the whole lot rather than the required one. This
means a lot of time wastage and demoralisation.
The eye damage, stress problems and other health hazards are increasing due to high usage of gadgets
to access internet.

Also the real teacher- student, student- student interaction in real classroom scenario cant be
replaced by videos uploaded on any social network. Rather according to recent studies the social
networks are not preparing youth for real life scenarios. Various studies show that the youth in 20s is
acting like teens shredding off responsibilities which should have been taken by him. Again the social
network is promoting a culture of cheap populism for which the current students are dying. The
excessive obsession for likes and comments is leading people to do anything. The highly introvert
culture is getting promoted neglecting the importance of real life relationships.
Future Prospects:
Still the villages are devoid of good schooling facilities in India. Even in well of urban areas, the low
income groups, esp. slum dwellers are still devoid of good education for inefficiencies of govt. schools
and high fee of private schools and colleges. For the MBA in India, the usual fee required is 7- 22 Lakhs
for 2 years program. One can imagine mammoth amount involved in getting educated, which seems
out of reach even for lower middle class of society.
With the pace with which technology and start-ups are evolving in future, such mammoth fee taking
institutes can become extinct, replaced by free online course providing portals creating classroom
environment via social networking and discussion forums.
Conclusions
Recently a video got viral on youtube where a person shared his experience after going offline for one
year. He told that he missed a video sent to him by his nephew who lived much far away. Again he
missed wishing for the birthdays of multiple friends, etc. At the same time he was free to do anything
with lots of time for his family, neighbours and his hobbies, which lead to his multi-facet growth. So
summing up, in the present era if one ignores completely the internet and social networking websites,
he is sure to miss a lot of learning experience. The wisdom lies in working on will power, becoming
free of carving for bubble reputation and directing the whole energy to optimum use of the technology
for betterment of self and society. These days the internet has revolutionised the education, making
it almost free and universal. Lots of potential is yet to be harnessed with a deeper breach in to low
income groups and village peoples.