There are plenty of beneficial consequences of students’ social media use. Existing studies (Al-Khateeb and Abdurabu, 2014) indicate a positive correlation between integration of SM into education and students’ attitudes toward acquiring knowledge and improving their skills. (Drulă, 2014) mentions that SM use determines an increase in public engagement and citizenship, and (Agheorghiesei Corodeanu, 2015) shows that SM are more and more seen as beyond-doubt information sources and propagation channels for efficient, good, and correct news/facts, and also as means to penalize un-ethical behavior.

On the other hand, there is evidence of negative long-term consequences for society arising from Gen Y’s SM use, such as a deterioration of civic engagement, a loss of privacy and public safety, an increase in cybercrime, a bad influence on adolescents’ school activities and sleep, and decreasing the participation in important offline activities (as shown by Bolton et al., 2013, after a serious literature review). (Santos and Čuta, 2015, Ernek and Eyuboğlu, 2012) mention the loss of time in SN, the security risks, and addiction, mentioning that the students compulsively check social network profiles and updates, lose focus and become demotivated.

Some of the authors fear that these new media may cause irreversible damage to young people’s brains, eventually causing psychological disorders, as mentioned in (De Bruijn, 2014). In the beginning of 2010, the American Psychiatry Association (A.P.A) nominated new forms of addiction to be introduced in the fifth edition of DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), among which the Internet addiction, and especially, the Facebook addiction. The doctors’ observations say that the persons (in our case the students) who use the SN become infantile in real life. According to the psychotherapist Cristiana Haica, “the rules are very different in the two worlds, and the increase in communication abilities and in relationship frequency in one of them makes the relationship in the other one become less significant.” This unilateral view on depression, loneliness and social anxiety, affirmed by (Yoo et al., 2004, Toma, 2010, Carr, 2010, Immordino-Yang et al., 2012) is counterbalanced by (Kittinger et al., 2012), who, in a recent study of college students, found that only a minority reported frequent or occasional problems due their online behavior.

Agheorghiesei Corodeanu, D.T., 2015, Consumer's Protection from the Generation Y's Perspective. A Research Based on Scenarios, Procedia Economics and Finance, Volume 20, 2015, Pages 8–18, Globalization and Higher Education in Economics and Business Administration - GEBA 2013, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212567115000416

Al-Khateeb, A. A., Abdurabu, H. Y. (2014), Using social media to facilitate medical students’ interest in research, Medical Education Online, October 2014

Bolton, R., Parasuraman, A., Hoefnagels, A., Migchels, A., Kabadayi, S., Gruber, T., Loureiro, Y. K., Solnet, D., 2013, Understanding Generation Y and Their Use of Social Media: A Review and Research Agenda, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 24 Issue 3 pp. 245 – 267

Carr, N. (2010), The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, Norton & Company Inc, New York, 2010

De Bruijn, S. M. (2014), Challenge for 21st Century educators: Build a 1st Century attitude, in Horváth, G., Bakó, R. K., Biró-Kaszás, E., Ten Years of Facebook. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Argumentation and Rhetoric, held in Oradea/Nagyvárad, Romania, 4-6 September 2014, Partium Press – Oradea (Nagyvárad), Romania, Debrecen University Press – Debrecen, Hungary

Drulă, G. (2014), Facebook and the Ecology of News, in Horváth, G., Bakó, R. K., Biró-Kaszás, E., Ten Years of Facebook. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Argumentation and Rhetoric, held in Oradea/Nagyvárad, Romania, 4-6 September 2014, Partium Press – Oradea (Nagyvárad), Romania, Debrecen University Press – Debrecen, Hungary

Ernek, A., Eyuboğlu, E. (2012), Generation Y Consumers in Turkey: Are They Really Social Media Nerds or Pretend To Be?, 11th International Marketing Trends Congress, 19-21th January 2012, Venice-Italy

Immordino-Yang, M. H., Christodoulou, J. A., & Singh, V. (2012), Rest is not Idleness: Implications of the Brain's Default Mode for Human Development and Education, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 352-364

Kittinger, R., Correia, C. J., & Irons, J. G. (2012), Relationship between Facebook use and problematic internet use among college students, Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, Vol. 15 No. 6, pp. 324-327

Toma, L. (2010), Pericolul din spatele Facebook, 3.08.2010, at http://www.romanialibera.ro/exclusiv-rl/documentar/pericolul-din-spatele-facebook-195456.html

Yoo H., Cho S., Ha J., Yune S., Kim S., Hwang J., Chung A., Sung Y., Lyoo I. (2004), Attention deficit hyperactivity symptoms and Internet addiction, Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, vol. 58, pp. 487–494, at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1440-1819.2004.01290.x/epdf  2

Now a days, social media is playing vital role in making decision whether students or business. Some are becoming additive of social media and killing their productivity while some take advantage to learn and be innovative. 

thanks for your precious thoughts ,Rajeev,  highly appreciated.

There are plenty of beneficial consequences of students’ social media use. Existing studies (Al-Khateeb and Abdurabu, 2014) indicate a positive correlation between integration of SM into education and students’ attitudes toward acquiring knowledge and improving their skills. (Drulă, 2014) mentions that SM use determines an increase in public engagement and citizenship, and (Agheorghiesei Corodeanu, 2015) shows that SM are more and more seen as beyond-doubt information sources and propagation channels for efficient, good, and correct news/facts, and also as means to penalize un-ethical behavior.

On the other hand, there is evidence of negative long-term consequences for society arising from Gen Y’s SM use, such as a deterioration of civic engagement, a loss of privacy and public safety, an increase in cybercrime, a bad influence on adolescents’ school activities and sleep, and decreasing the participation in important offline activities (as shown by Bolton et al., 2013, after a serious literature review). (Santos and Čuta, 2015, Ernek and Eyuboğlu, 2012) mention the loss of time in SN, the security risks, and addiction, mentioning that the students compulsively check social network profiles and updates, lose focus and become demotivated.

Some of the authors fear that these new media may cause irreversible damage to young people’s brains, eventually causing psychological disorders, as mentioned in (De Bruijn, 2014). In the beginning of 2010, the American Psychiatry Association (A.P.A) nominated new forms of addiction to be introduced in the fifth edition of DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), among which the Internet addiction, and especially, the Facebook addiction. The doctors’ observations say that the persons (in our case the students) who use the SN become infantile in real life. According to the psychotherapist Cristiana Haica, “the rules are very different in the two worlds, and the increase in communication abilities and in relationship frequency in one of them makes the relationship in the other one become less significant.” This unilateral view on depression, loneliness and social anxiety, affirmed by (Yoo et al., 2004, Toma, 2010, Carr, 2010, Immordino-Yang et al., 2012) is counterbalanced by (Kittinger et al., 2012), who, in a recent study of college students, found that only a minority reported frequent or occasional problems due their online behavior.

Agheorghiesei Corodeanu, D.T., 2015, Consumer's Protection from the Generation Y's Perspective. A Research Based on Scenarios, Procedia Economics and Finance, Volume 20, 2015, Pages 8–18, Globalization and Higher Education in Economics and Business Administration - GEBA 2013, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212567115000416

Al-Khateeb, A. A., Abdurabu, H. Y. (2014), Using social media to facilitate medical students’ interest in research, Medical Education Online, October 2014

Bolton, R., Parasuraman, A., Hoefnagels, A., Migchels, A., Kabadayi, S., Gruber, T., Loureiro, Y. K., Solnet, D., 2013, Understanding Generation Y and Their Use of Social Media: A Review and Research Agenda, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 24 Issue 3 pp. 245 – 267

Carr, N. (2010), The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, Norton & Company Inc, New York, 2010

De Bruijn, S. M. (2014), Challenge for 21st Century educators: Build a 1st Century attitude, in Horváth, G., Bakó, R. K., Biró-Kaszás, E., Ten Years of Facebook. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Argumentation and Rhetoric, held in Oradea/Nagyvárad, Romania, 4-6 September 2014, Partium Press – Oradea (Nagyvárad), Romania, Debrecen University Press – Debrecen, Hungary

Drulă, G. (2014), Facebook and the Ecology of News, in Horváth, G., Bakó, R. K., Biró-Kaszás, E., Ten Years of Facebook. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Argumentation and Rhetoric, held in Oradea/Nagyvárad, Romania, 4-6 September 2014, Partium Press – Oradea (Nagyvárad), Romania, Debrecen University Press – Debrecen, Hungary

Ernek, A., Eyuboğlu, E. (2012), Generation Y Consumers in Turkey: Are They Really Social Media Nerds or Pretend To Be?, 11th International Marketing Trends Congress, 19-21th January 2012, Venice-Italy

Immordino-Yang, M. H., Christodoulou, J. A., & Singh, V. (2012), Rest is not Idleness: Implications of the Brain's Default Mode for Human Development and Education, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 352-364

Kittinger, R., Correia, C. J., & Irons, J. G. (2012), Relationship between Facebook use and problematic internet use among college students, Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, Vol. 15 No. 6, pp. 324-327

Toma, L. (2010), Pericolul din spatele Facebook, 3.08.2010, at http://www.romanialibera.ro/exclusiv-rl/documentar/pericolul-din-spatele-facebook-195456.html

Yoo H., Cho S., Ha J., Yune S., Kim S., Hwang J., Chung A., Sung Y., Lyoo I. (2004), Attention deficit hyperactivity symptoms and Internet addiction, Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, vol. 58, pp. 487–494, at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1440-1819.2004.01290.x/epdf  2

Dear Daniela, 

I am impressed by your thorough analysis  of the negative and positives of the issue.

Thanks markovic and mehree, financial incentives and squandering students' attention as well as distracting their attention are significant worrisome issues.