Page 23 - Enchiridion 4.0 program_EN

Strategic Partnerships for school education 2019-1-PL01-KA201-065137
Project: Teacher4.0 - comprehensive method of implementation of Industry 4.0
concept into didactic practice in primary and secondary schools

Social media is computer-based technology that facilitates the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and
information through the building of virtual networks and communities. By design, social media is
internet-based and gives users quick electronic communication of content which includes personal
information, documents, videos, and photos. Users engage with social media via computer, tablet or
smartphone via web-based software or web application, often utilizing it for messaging.

Nowadays social media is widely used at school mostly for communication: staying connected with
students, fellow teachers, checking e-mail and posting news/ notifications. Also, for organizing the
educational process online.

There are many forms of social media. The most popular social media websites (2019) are as follows:

Facebook (2.27 B (billion users))
YouTube (1.9B)
WhatsApp (1.5B)
Facebook Messenger (1.3B)
WeChat (1.08B)
Instagram (1B)
QQ (803M (millions))
QZone (531M)
Douyin/Tik Tok (500M)
Sino Weibo (446M)
Zoom (10 M in December, 2019, 300 M in April, 2020)

Social media refers to websites and applications which are designed to allow people to share content
quickly. Most social media apps (Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, Signal, Telegram, etc.) allow
sharing private messages, however, it is important to make that the conversations are secure. To do
so, it is advised to make sure that the content is encrypted, which means that only the sender and
the recipient can read them. Some social media websites such as Signal and Telegram are end-to-end
encrypted, whereas email, Facebook Messenger, Twitter direct messages, private messages on
forums etc. - are not encrypted by default. That means the provider of the service (or someone
breaking into your account) can read them and could if required hand them over to law
enforcement. In order to safeguard the conversations, encryption should be turned on manually by
the users themselves. Guidelines on how to make the messenger safe, are available below:

How to make your Facebook Messenger conversations secure by encrypting them

How to make Facebook Messenger as secure as possible

One of the biggest hazards of social media is cyberbulling. Students may be cyberbullied on their
phones, computers, and other digital devices. It is difficult to identify it and intervene. Nevertheless,
every teacher should familiarize themselves with the most common types of cyberbulling in order to
protect their students from its upsetting effects.

This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the
author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any
use which may be made of the information contained therein.