7. Benefit of Social Media

The internet and social media provide young people with a range of benefits, and opportunities to empower themselves in a variety of ways. Young people can maintain social connections and support networks that otherwise wouldn't be possible, and can access more information than ever before. The communities and social interactions young people form online can be invaluable for bolstering and developing young people's self-confidence and social skills. The use of social media and networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat have become an integral part of Filipinos’ daily lives.

While many associate social media with a degradation of young people’s social networks and communication skills, a recent literature review published by the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre found that social networking services actually play a vital role for in young people’s lives - delivering educational outcomes; facilitating supportive relationships; identity formation; and, promoting a sense of belonging and self-esteem. Social networking services can provide an accessible and powerful toolkit for highlighting and acting on issues and causes that affect and interest young people. Social networking services can be used for organizing activities, events, or groups to showcase issues and opinions and make a wider audience aware of them. Social networking services can be used to hone debating and discussion skills in a local, national or international context. This helps users develop public ways of presenting themselves. 

Personal skills are very important in this context: to make, develop and keep friendships, and to be regarded as a trusted connection within a network. Social networking services can provide young people with opportunities to learn how to function successfully in a community, navigating a public social space and developing social norms and skills as participants in peer groups. Young people who use social networking services to showcase content - music, film, photography or writing - need to know what permissions they are giving the host service, so that they can make informed decisions about how and what they place on the site.

Users might also want to explore additional licensing options that may be available to them within services - for example Creative Commons licensing - to allow them to share their work with other people in a range of ways.

Managing an online presence and being able to interact effectively online is becoming an increasingly important skill in the workplace. Being able to quickly adapt to new technologies, services and environments is already regarded as a highly valuable skill by employers, and can facilitate both formal and informal learning. Most services are text based, which encourages literacy skills, including 

interpretation, evaluation and contextualization.