THE IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE ON EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS

OF THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES STUDENTS IN ARGAO NATIONAL

HIGH SCHOOL

Mary Paz A. Albios

Joyce Ann S. Datulayta

Maureen Mhel S. De los Reyes

Angelie C. Llegunas

Carot Grace G. Oraca

Jeanessia Mae B. Ortega

 CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Social Media is a wide online platform that allows people to seek information. It is also

used to communicate with others, create and share content and help people with their daily

lifestyle. Chavez et. al (2020) stated that in more than a decade, the impact of social media has

gone from being a fun addiction to being a completely integrated portion of almost every aspect

of life. Social media can take many forms, including periodicals, online forums, weblogs, social

blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, images, video, rating, and social bookmarking. Given the

world's social media revolution, it's no surprise that platforms like Facebook, Twitter,

Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, Discord, SnapChat, and others are widely used for

communication. Living in the 21st century, social media have made our lives apparently easy to

communicate effectively. According to Hashem (2021), Social Media helps people build

relationship, stay connected and improve communication skills. Social Media also encourages

students to learn and grow. Nevertheless, social media have been found to have been found to

have negative effects such as waste of time and lowering of student’s grades. Jacob (2021)

added that social media affects the ways individuals react to emotions. Social cues or non-verbal

cues, as it erases this important aspect of the basis of communication. Effective communication

is the process of exchanging ideas, thoughts, opinions, knowledge, and data so that the message
is received and understand both with clarity and purpose. For communication to be effective it

must be clear, correct, complete, concise and compassionate (Coursera, 2022).

Social media has positive and negative impacts on a student's communication skills.

According to Olowo et. al., (2020) in Nigeria, it shows that 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. Wylie (2014) added that the use of social media

is transforming and enhancing thus making people communicate with others at a great pace. This

means that the goal of social media is to create and enhance new ways to communicate with each

other. Though there are positive impacts, negative impacts are still observed. One of the negative

impacts of social media is that students often become bored during real, in-person

conversations, resorting to their phones. People have such a need for This can lead to a

decrease in the quality and number of meaningful conversations (UoPeople, 2021). A study

conducted in Texas by Mulqueen (2019) also stated that communicating through social media

reduces interactions to a few choice of words and it doesn't require us to make eye contact or

consider another person's thoughts and feelings thus leading to misunderstandings and

curtailed conversations.

Furthermore, a study by Magmanlac et. al., (2018), in a University in Batangas,

Philippines, showed that social media can help the students to engage and communicate

better. Social media is also important in improving the students' oral and writing

communication and their creative thinking skills in creating concepts and designs. This can help

them to contribute in the development of their chosen field after college in regards of uplifting

Filipino culture and contributing in the development of the society.

 The researchers have observed that local school students, including most of the Argao

National High School students use social media in their daily lives. Most of the students develop

closure and connection with each other with the help of social media like Facebook, Messenger,

Twitter and Instagram by creating group chats, students are able to share their opinions that

help them socialize with other students. Negative effects are observed as well, Excessive usage

of social media often elicits this normalized lessen social activity of face to face interactions, as

students will think that social media communication is an effective communication leading to

lesser face to face interactions.

In line with this, the researchers delved into this study to determine the impacts of

social media towards the communication skills of the Humanities and Social Sciences students

in Argao National High School. Upon knowing the impacts of social media on the students'

communication skills, the information can help students to know the use of social media in

improving their communication skills and help them become more engaged in their program, to

attain ethical and moral values and help them prepare in corporate world.