6 Important Social Networking Sites for College Students
BY SUSAN PARKER
Humans are highly social beings. Most of us like to interact with our friends, family and those in our community. We also like to share our personal experiences, whenever we can, with others. It is part of our make-up.
This sociability causes us to meet and engage new people, develop our relationships — both new and existing ones — and engage others in interpersonal exchanges.
In a quest to express the strong social character and the desire for social belonging, man has over the years developed and adopted various social networking tools, in response to rapid changes in technology.
This desire is reflected in the number of social network users. According to research, it is estimated that there will be around 2.67 billion social network users around the globe in 2018, up from 2.34 billion in 2016.
These social networks have their strengths and weaknesses. One major drawback to them is rising privacy invasion and identity theft but with ransomware removal plan for students, that problem can be easily avoided.
Let’s talk about the positives now. College students the world over have several reasons why they use one social networking site or the other. For some, it is to connect with friends. For others, it’s to gain more knowledge; while for some others, it is for referrals, to take notes, reduce expenses amidst other reasons.
Going forward, we’ll be looking at the different available social networking sites that make it possible to do all these and how they can help you enhance your stay in college.
- Google Plus
As the name implies, Google+ is a social network from Google. Some of its features, while similar to other popular social networks, operate in diverse ways.
From “Circles” which helps you, as a student, to organize your friends into categories — “friends,” “family,” “roommates,” etc. — and makes sharing information with them easier, to “Sparks” which helps you find interesting content based on your interests, Google Plus is an essential social network for any student.
With a feature like “Hangouts” that lets you video chat with all your friends, you can communicate effortlessly with your classmates, course mates and even with your family.
- Chegg (formerly Cramster)
Need help with that assignment? Stuck on that project with no idea what to do next? This is the site that’ll make life easier for you.
With Chegg, you have the opportunity to throw questions at either a study expert or the study community. On this platform, you can also get together with other students who are studying the same subjects and share ideas about school work.
With over a billion users, this social networking site is one of the most popular around. But, apart from connecting you to the world, what else can you, as a college student, benefit from using Facebook?
You can use your account to make connections with your classmates. By adding your classmates as Facebook friends, you can get to know them more intimately. This aids your interactions with your classmates and helps you to create deeper connections.
You can also create a class group on Facebook and add your fellow classmates, since you’re already connected. On the group, you can brainstorm, bounce ideas off each other and share important information amongst yourselves.
- CampusBooks
As a college student, money management ranks high on the importance list. It’s the reasons why some college students take on part-time jobs with brands like IsaTonic, Phoenix Plumber or OB Gynecologist NYC – to make some extra cash or reduce frivolous spending to save money. No one likes to be stranded.
While Skype helps you to save money by making available free communication via the internet, another way to save money is by using CampusBooks.
On this platform, you can get cheap textbooks at reduced prices. Not interested in buying? You can rent textbooks and return them when you’re done. Amazing, right?
You can also compare different prices of textbooks and save money in the process by going for the lowest available prices.
- Stunited
As a college student looking to explore a huge database of resources and network with fellow students, you will find this one useful.
With Stunited, you can connect with other students, share ideas with a global educational network, and discover amazing opportunities. Combined together, these features will most likely facilitate an improved academic life. For instance, a friend of mine from the UK recently lost his birth certificate while studying in the U.S. Thanks to the help of a buddy he connected with via Stunited, he was able to get another one without having to travel back to the UK.
- StumbleUpon
This is a social networking platform that helps you, amidst the multitude of choices on the internet, to find or discover useful content based on your interests.
For those days when the internet seems so big, and you can’t seem to find the answers to that assignment, StumbleUpon will most definitely come to your rescue.
Whether you’re a freshman or you’re in your final year, endeavor to make the most of this list. If you haven’t been using the above-listed social networking sites the way you should, now is the best time to start.
Susan Parker is a writer and tech geek. She volunteers for local environmental conservation programs and writes stories online about things that inspire her.
