Influence of Social Media on Youngsters: A Case Study in GC Women University Sialkot, Pakistan

Social media have become prominent part of life for many young people today. Social networking sites provide a platform for discussion on hot issues that have been overlooked in a day to day basis. The use of information technology in social media has increased its popularity among the youth, especially among the students of universities. Most people engage with social media without stopping to think what the effects are on our lives, whether positive or negative. The current study is conducted to monitor the impact of social media on youth. It is survey-type research where for analyzing the effect of social media on youth the questionnaire study is designed and by using simple random sampling 375 students are selected from GC Women University Sialkot. In this study, it is observed that 59% of respondents strongly agree that social media is helpful to create awareness among youth whereas 89% respondents agree that it helps to search jobs for youth. Whereas, 96% respondents agree that social media is helpful to get knowledge about current affairs of country. On the other hand, considering disadvantages of media, 93% of respondents agree that too much use of social media causes health problem and 94% respondents agree that unwanted information creates confusion in the minds of youth, 91% respondents agree that irrelevant and anti-religious posts and links create hate among people of different communities. The results revealed that social networking sites have the positive as well as negative impact on youth and it is suggested that government and private institutions both should have to work to promote social media’s positive activities among youth.