What we do on social media! Social representations of schoolchildren's activities on electronic communication platforms

Abstract

Researchers might be wondering whether the use of social media by students raises any ethical issues? It is my opinion that with the astronomical increase in the use of social networking websites or platforms by students, ethical issues are progressively important. The astronomical increase in the use of social networking platforms by minors raises ethical questions in school ecologies. This study investigated the ethical issues in social media usage among secondary school students in a developing context. A semi-structured questionnaire that elicited information on the school children's home background, social media operated, and mode of connection to the social media was used to collect data. The questionnaire gave the students the opportunity to write their responses to the interview questions freely. Mixed methods such as constant comparative techniques and descriptive statistical methods were used to analyze data from the one hundred and thirty school children that participated in this research. The results indicated that Facebook is the most operated social networking website by the selected schoolchildren. Most of the schoolchildren operating the popular social networking accounts signed up before the age of thirteen with the help of their biological sisters and brothers. Themes such as cyber pornography, sexting, cyber stalking, cyber bullying, cyber hacking, and abusive language emanated from the individual qualitative interviews. The concluding part of this article answers questions on the impact of new communication technologies on psycho-social adjustment of school children in developing countries.

Teachers' attitudes towards social media (SM) use in online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic: the effects of SM use by teachers and religious scholars during physical distancing

“…In response to preventing students' deprivation from learning, schools in developed societies have moved to online learning, as reported by the World Economic Forum (2020). However, SM use has not been well established despite its electronic communication and learning capability, as argued by Ige (2020). Schools in developing countries, like Pakistan, have been struggling to switch to online learning due to their incapability and non-supportive infrastructures such as ICT resources, internet connectivity and teachers' incapacity (Adeogun, 2003;Adnan and Anwar, 2020;Ismail et al, 2020).…”

The Influence of Personality Traits on School Bullying: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…School bullying has been defined as "a specific form of aggression, which is intentional, repeated, and involves a disparity of power between the victims and perpetrators" (Olweus, 1993a,b). In addition, some studies found that sexual violence (McMahon et al, 2019;Madrid et al, 2020) and cyberbullying (Livazović and Ham, 2019;Ige, 2020) were two emerging forms of adolescent violence in today's society. Bullying is an extremely damaging type of violence present in schools all over the world (Zych et al, 2019).…”

The Use of Social-Media and IT Application Tools for Teaching in Ghanaian Universities: Case of University of Cape Coast, Ghana

“…In facilitating diverse means of equipping teachers pedagogically via ICT (IT application tools) and achieving maximum learning output in educational settings, institutions of higher learning in developed countries have moved to online learning, as reported by the World Economic Forum (2020). However, the use of SM to facilitate teaching and learning has not been well established despite its electronic communication and learning capability, as argued by Ige (2020). In light of the vast opportunities, the need for the teaching staff to be accustomed to the skills in the usage of SM and IT application tools as defined in the context of this study cannot be over-emphasized.…”