Life Skills & Value Education – CLASS-V – UNIT-5 Social Media

Concept Explanation

Think of this example: You recently joined Instagram. You saw how many people are

There on this social media site. Things start getting interesting because this app makes

You curious about others’ lives, what they are posting, where they are going, etc.

During such times you make many online friends who are also your followers or you

follow them. For your birthday, you invite some of them to your party, but none of them turn up. However, your friends in school and the neighborhood come for sure. Who do you think are real friends-the ones on social media or the ones who came on your special day?

Of this is what social media does to each one of us. Whether you are a child in grade 5 or an adult like your parents, social media has taken over everyone’s lives. We use social media to have fun, establish and maintain friendships, share interests, discover who we are, and grow family bonds. Our in-person and offline interactions are expanded upon through it. It frequently plays a significant role in how we engage with our friends.

Social media is a place of interaction. A place where you can share your pictures and your life updates, make virtual friends, connect with those who you cannot meet physically, and more. For all these reasons, social media is not a bad thing. But where does the entire problem start? It is when we start believing that life on social media is the most important one as it builds our image or when we believe that spending time on social media is more important than life at home or school

Let us understand more about the correct use of social media.

Story

Aditya and Riya

Aditya and Riya were best friends. They were in the same school and were part of the same class. Both of them scored very well in almost every subject. Aditya was part of the school’s football team while Riya would win almost every

debate competition at school. When the results of their first term exams came, Riya had scored the highest. As a gift her father gave her a mobile phone just like he had promised. Aditya also got a mobile phone because he, too had scored well with the use of mobile phone, they discovered various social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Google. After a week, they started spending most of their time on social media.

“Hey, did you watch the latest episode of that cartoon?” Riya asked.

“Oh, yes. I finished the entire series in three days. But I forgot to do my homework because of that,” Aditya complained.

“Don’t worry, do it today. Then we can chat on social media for long,” Riya said.But because of their habit of spending too much time on social media, they started scoring less in their tests. Aditya wasno more part of the football team and Riya was not able to win any competitions anymore. “I think we must do something about this,” Riya said worriedly one day.”Yes, my dad has become very disappointed with my performance in school. From what I know, I have been spending more than 12 hours on social media, which is not healthy. I guess that is what is keeping me from concentrating in my studies,” Aditya replied.“Yes, from now on let us make strict rules about the usage of social media.

Let us not use our phones until we feel we need to contact each other. And let us mute some chats that disturb us during our studies. Also, let’s keep our phones switched off at least once a week so that we can play outside,too. I don’t even remember the last time I played outside,” Riya replied.

When Riya and Aditya started following these rules, their performance became better over time. Their rules worked well.

Let’s discuss

1. When did Riya and Aditya start deviating from their studies?

2. Do you think social media was responsible for their poor performance?

Why or why not?

3. What kind of rules did both of them come up with?

Key Values

Now that we know what kind of distraction social media can cause, let us learn the wise way of using it. As we read in the story, learn to monitor the time you spend on social media and the reasons you are using social media for. Is your use of social media helping you gain knowledge? Or is it deviating your focus from your studies? Or is the use of social media causing you to believe that life on the internet is more important than real life? Is your use of social media causing you health problems like weaker eyes, fatigue,  or laziness?

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