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Student use of
Student use of social media, social media
academic performance, and
creativity: the mediating role of
intrinsic motivation
Muhammad Jawad Malik Received 10 January 2020
Revised 23 April 2020
School of Public Affairs, University of Science and Technology of China, Accepted 12 May 2020
Hefei, China
Mudaser Ahmad
Department of Management Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur
Pakistan, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
Muhammad Rizwan Kamran and Komal Aliza
Lyallpur Business School, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad,
Pakistan, and
Muhammad Zubair Elahi
School of Public Affairs, University of Science and Technology of China,
Hefei, China

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between students’ use of social
media, their academic performance and creativity in the digital era.
Design/methodology/approach – This research used a survey strategy for collecting primary data
required for this study from 334 students of undergraduate programs at Chinese universities who were
sampled through a non-probability convenience approach.
Findings – The findings of the study reveal that students’ use of social media is positively associated with
students’ academic performance and creativity. In addition, intrinsic motivation was found to be a mediating
reason in the relationships between students’ use of social media and students’ academic performance and
creativity.
Originality/value – This study explored an important role of intrinsic motivation as a mediator in the
relationships between students’ use of social media and their positive outcomes. Studying the use of social
media by students to their positive study outcomes is also practically important for students, educationalists
and other policymakers.
Keywords Academic performance, China, Higher education, Intrinsic motivation, Student creativ-
ity, Student use of social media
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Student’s creativity and academic performance are important aspects that have shown a direct Interactive Technology and Smart
Education
relationship with their achievements. Moses (2006) reported that creativity is an impressive © Emerald Publishing Limited
1741-5659
feature of students of higher education. Creative graduates can develop new knowledge and DOI 10.1108/ITSE-01-2020-0005
ITSE advanced resolutions of multifaceted difficulties in economies. The key question is how we can
improve student creativity and academic performance. To achieve this goal different scholars
have discovered different factors that affect the educational success of students. These include
traditional awareness with the educational methods (Deyhle and Swisher, 1997), language
skills (Lansford et al., 2009), social and economic resources (Fuligni, 2007), parental
participation in education (Fuligni, 1997), parental ambitions (Krahn and Taylor, 2005) and
family responsibility (Fuligni, 2001). In line with these past research highlights, we expect that
student motivation and the use of social media can increase a student’s attention to study by
making them more creative and high performer. Our assumptions are supported by previous
research as scholars, for instance, Turner et al. (2009) found that intrinsic motivation is
positively linked to educational achievements. Cox and McLeod (2014) argued that social media
and other online networking sites persuade communication around teachers, students and
parents. Dabbagh and Kitsantas (2012) revealed that the utilization of social networking tools
serves as a platform for educating individuals.
The current study explores students’ intrinsic motivation as a mediating factor in the
positive relationships between students’ uses of social media and their creativity and
academic performance. At present, only a few scholars have examined the relationship
between student usage of social media and creativity. Considering this point, we analyze
how student intrinsic motivation links student use of social media and their creativity and
academic performance. On the other hand, some past scholars, such as Alabi (2013) have
suggested that the utilization of online networking sites may negatively affect individuals’
psychological outcomes, such as well-being. In line with this, David et al. (2012) argued that
academic execution may be negatively affected by students’ use of social media. Liu et al.
(2017) examined the relationship between Facebook and academic performance and pointed
out a negative association between Facebook usage and students’ academic achievements.
Contrary to these research arguments, we take an opposite perspective and explore a
positive relationship between students’ use of social media and student academic outcomes
such as performance and creativity. We explain our assumption by exploring students’
intrinsic motivation as a mediating reason in our proposed direct relationships. This can be
explained as student use of social media leads to high intrinsic motivation for study and this
high intrinsic motivation is subsequently related to high performance and creativity.
Previous research also provides theoretical hints related to our proposed research model. For
instance, Ruleman (2012) stated that continuous revolution in technology and related tools
are helping the students to effectively communicating, team working, and building
relationships. Figure 1 explains our proposed theoretical model;

Literature and hypothesis development

Social media use and student intrinsic motivation
Social media innovations have transformed the scenario of both professional and individual
ways of communication (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Usage of social networking sites is

Figure 1.
Theoretical
framework
very imperative in routine life matters, such as chatting, emailing, booking of inns and Student use of
carriers, and performing different other tasks. The eminence of internet-based life can be social media
evaluated by its overall expanding use for several purposes, for example, business,
correspondence, training and entertainment (Rauniar et al., 2014). Social media appears as
online platforms that empower network, correspondence and joint effort (Zincir, 2017).
Scholars argue that in higher education field social media is effectively used for
cooperating, socializing, sharing and collaborating (Hamid et al., 2009) which may enhance
students’ motivation in research and study. Studies such as Balcikanli (2015) found that the
utilization of Facebook facilitates the interaction level between teacher-student and student-
student. social media gives a platform to dynamic correspondence among users and allows
them a facilitated sharing of new information (Burke et al., 2010). Lankshear and Knobel
(2011) view social media as a tool that enhances the interest of individuals in shared content.
Social media provides all the things that make it possible for students to learn in a deep
approach, get information and make high concentration through collaboration. Hence, an
enhanced motivation is a likely outcome of social media usage.
According to Donche et al. (2013), motivation is viewed as a psychological paradigm in
the learning procedure. Scholars argue that motivation is a key factor influencing learning
(Lim, 2004). Zheng et al. (2016) suggested that an important objective of using social media is
to enhance student retention, commitment and motivation in educational institutions. They
believe that when students are connected to social networking sites, they get more
information and relevant educational material from the internet which motivates well in
their academic life. On the bases of this theoretical discussion, we hypothesize that;

H1. Social media usage is positively associated with students’ intrinsic motivation.

Social media, students’ creativity and academic performance

Social media not only motivates students to study but also has a profound impact on their
academic performance and creativity. Social media is a platform where people and students
talk about their work, themselves and about their achievements which inspire others to do
well and to further develop their skills. Lau et al. (2017) view that with the help of social
media, students collaborate and interact with professionals which enhance their academic
performance. Today, in an online environment where students are met with the opportunity
to use different tools to access a variety of resources, which encourages multitasking
(Calderwood et al., 2014), that leads creativity. In this context, Kirschner and Karpinski
(2010) suggested that multitasking is a practical phenomenon that supports individuals to
produce additional output without errors.
A critical review of the literature reveals that past research on the topic of the impact of
social media on students’ academic performance has mixed results. For instance, Kirschner
and Karpinski (2010) found that students who use Facebook have low academic
performance and the reason is that they spent most of their time on social media than study.
Kirschner and Karpinski (2010) discovered that using Facebook had a destructive impact on
student academic success. Valkenburg and Peter (2011) also claimed students with a lower
GPA have a higher level of Facebook engagement than students with a higher GPA. On the
other hand, some studies have shown social media has a significant positive impact on
student performance (Cheston et al., 2013). However, there is another kind of research study
that reveals that the academic performance of students who use social networking sites and
those who have not to use, is the same (Pasek and Hargittai, 2009). In the same line of
inquiry, Wang and Mark (2018), has shown that students who use social media including
Facebook frequently have no negative effects on their academic performance. They found
ITSE that students who have a higher GPA in their studies are those who use Facebook for short
periods. Though general social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp are not
originally designed for educational purposes, it is up to the users for which purpose they are
using social media tools. Specifically, designed social media tools such as ResearchGate and
Academia.edu, and Slidesahre.net, are doing great in the field of education. Specifically,
these tools are very important for knowledge sharing and collaboration among students.
Scholars, for instance, Jones (2008) views that the usage of social media for educational
purposes is very important for college students. These social media platforms can enhance
students’ creativity and academic performance. Creativity in education is very essential for
students at every level of study, especially for the students of higher-level (Jahnke et al.,
2017). Chai and Fan (2018) suggested that online media and tools improve the student’s
creativity and awareness level that reinforces students’ creative practices. Another reason
is that, when students interact and work together in groups on media, their knowledge
grows up which further boosts their creativity and academic performance (Junco et al., 2011).
This discussion leads us to assume that:

H2. Social media usage is positively associated with students’ creativity.

H3. Social media usage is positively associated with students’ academic performance.

The mediating role of intrinsic motivation

As mentioned by Alexander and Murphy (1998), motivation is defined as an action to keep
people persuaded in objective-guided activities. In general, motivation is seen as an action
by which the individual’s requirements and desires are in motion. Why is it necessary to
encourage students to pursue better academic performance and creative skills? The reason
is that the motivation of students is extremely important for education (Pintrich and Schunk,
2002). All learning situations display difficulties, due to these complications, students’
capacity to encourage their motivation is imperative (Wolters et al., 2005) so that students
can easily cope with whatever problem they face in their education.
How usage of social media influences the student’s motivation and how motivation leads
to student’s creativity and academic performance? Those students who use social
networking sites for their studies are more likely to motivated, creative and successful in
their study. In this regard, Razak and See (2010) confirmed that it is very important for
students to be motivated for education because if the students are not motivated then it is
very difficult for them to show good academic achievement. Daniels (2008) argued that the
motivation of students is an essential principle for learning.
While motivation is linked to education in a way that has a positive impact on the
student’s academic performance and creativity, the results Razak and See (2010) confirmed
that the academic achievements of those experimental groups were higher who took part in
electronic classes. Gasco et al. (2014) believed that motivation plays a paramount part in
learning as it demonstrates the considerable impact on student academic performance.
Motivation may be an essential Formula of academic accomplishments as motivated
students regularly effort to attain academic achievements by joining classes and taking part
in in-class activities, which results in higher performance (Sikhwari, 2007). These research
insights lead us to assume the following hypotheses:

H4. Intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship between social media usage and
students’ academic performance.
 H5. Intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship between social media usage and Student use of
students’ creativity. social media

Methodology
Participants and procedure
The primary data required for this study was collected through a survey which was
conducted in the Universities situated in the Hefei city, Anhui Province of the Peoples’
Republic of China. The targeted population of this study was undergraduate students who
were asked to voluntarily participate in his survey aimed at measuring their social media
usage, intrinsic motivation, creativity and academic performance. Before responding to the
survey questionnaire, all participants were informed about the confidentiality of the
information provided by them and also about keeping their anonymity. Participants were
also informed that the data provided by them will be used for research purposes only and all
ethical guidelines will be followed in this regard. We followed the non-probability
convenience sampling approach as the first author of this study visited the schools and
classes in the universities situated in Hefei city of the Anhui Province of the P.R.C to collect
data. Students of graduate programs who were conveniently available were requested to
participate in the survey and upon their free-consent, they were provided with the online
link to fill in the questionnaire. We delivered 850 electronic questionnaires and received 334
questionnaires (response rate of 39.3%). It was an online questionnaire, therefore, because of
such settings, there was no missing information. Out of 334 respondents, 58.4% were female
students, 67.3% were in the age group of 18 to 20 years, and 89% were living in the college
dormitories. Table 1 reports demographic information of our respondents.

Measures
Student use of social media
We used a 14 items scale adapted from Ali-Hassan et al. (2015) to assess the social media use
of our respondents. Questions were designed on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1=
Strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree. Sample items are “I use social media to discover

Group Frequency (%)

Gender
Male 194 58.08
Female 140 41.92
Total 334 100.00
Age
Below 18 13 3.78
18-20 217 63.08
22-24 47 13.66
24-26 26 7.56
above 26 41 11.92
Total 344 100.00
Living status
Home 56 16.28
Dormitory 288 83.72 Table 1.
Total 344 Demographics of
100.00% respondents
ITSE people with interests similar to mine”, “I use social media to create content for study” and “I
use social media to enjoy my break at study”. The alpha reliability of this scale used in our
study was 0.85.

Intrinsic motivation
We used a four-item scale from Jaramillo et al. (2007) to measure the intrinsic motivation of
our respondents. the sample items include, “my opinion of myself goes up when I do my
study well”, “I feel a great sense of personal satisfaction when I do my study well”, “I do not
need a reason to study; I study because I want to” and “I feel that even if I were
independently wealthy, I would still study for the challenge of it”. Questions were designed
on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1= Strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree. The
alpha reliability of this scale used in our study was 0.79.

Student creativity
The six-item scale from Zhang and Bartol (2010) and Meng et al. (2017) was used to assess
the students’ creativity. Questions were designed on a five-point Likert scale ranging from
1= Strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree. Sample items are for example, “suggest new
perspectives to approaching study questions” and “seek new evidence to answer study
questions”. The alpha reliability of this scale used in our study was 0.81.

Student academic performance

We assessed the academic performance of our respondents through self-reports of the CGPA
(cumulative grade point average) obtained in their programs. Past research has shown that
self-reports regarding CGPA is about 80% accurate and is a valid measure of students’
academic performance (Chiang, 2013; Chiang et al., 2019). Participants reported their CGPA
by selecting one of five intervals (1 = less than 1, 2 = 1 to 2, 3 = 2 to 3, 4 = 3 to 4, 5 = 4 to 5).
The alpha reliability of this scale used in our study was 0.82.

Control variables
We included age, gender and living in a dormitory or at home as the control variables in this
study as previous studies have indicated relationships of these variables with the main
variables of our study (Table 2).

Analysis and results

Inter-correlations
The results of the preliminary analysis of our data have been shown in Table 3. Table
reports correlations among the main variables of our study. Results have shown that social

Variables N Mean S.D.

1. Age 334 – –
2. Gender 334 – –
3.living status 334 – –
4. Social media usage 334 3.41 1.62
5. Intrinsic motivation 334 3.28 0.68
Table 2. 6. Academic performance 334 2.89 0.53
Descriptive statistics 7. Creativity 334 3.14 0.32
media usage is positively associated with intrinsic motivation (r = 0.41, p < 0.01), students’ Student use of
academic performance (r = 0.47, p < 0.01) and students’ creativity (r = 0.39, p < 0.01). In social media
addition, students’ academic performance has been shown associated with students’
academic performance (r = 0.61, p < 0.01), and students’ creativity (r = 0.64, p < 0.01).
These results have provided preliminary support to our hypotheses.

Hypotheses testing
To test our full hypothesized research model, we used SPSS PROCESS macros (Model 4)
using. The findings are reported in Table 4. Consistent with our preliminary analyses
results, social media use was positively associated with students’ intrinsic motivation (B =
0.41, t = 3.15, p < 0.01), students’ academic performance (B = 0.37, t = 3.36, p < 0.01), and
students creativity (B = 0.29, t = 2.42, p < 0.05). Moreover, social media found to have an
indirect relationship with students’ academic performance and creativity through intrinsic
motivation 0.21 and 0.35, respectively), which is in line with our mediation hypotheses. We
also performed Sobel tests using the bootstrap procedure (95% bias-corrected confident
interval; CI). The indirect relationships between social media use and academic performance
(Sobel z = 2.58, p < 0.05) and student creativity (Sobel z = 5.6, p < 0.001) were both
significant. The bootstrapped CIs also did not contain zero (academic performance 0.23 and
0.41; creativity 0.23 and 0.38), which supported our mediation hypotheses. These results
have shown that intrinsic motivation is a mediator in the relationship between social media
usage and students’ academic performance and creativity.

Discussion
Using social media for educational determinations can be helpful for students learning in
many ways. The use of social media motivates the students toward education and
collaboration which leads to student’s more interest in their studies and enhances their
performance and creativity. The ambition of this study was to acquire how we can use social
media to motivate students for their academic achievement and creativity. This study has to
explore the probable relations between usage of social media, student’s motivation and
creativity as well as academic performance in the academics’ arena. The theoretical
construct was tested by using SPSS PROCESS macro tools, and path analysis revealed that
all the hypotheses we developed are accepted. We hypothesized that the use of social media
is positively associated with student’s motivation as well as student’s creativity and
academic performance. The results of our study also indicate that the usage of social media
has a significant impact on student’s motivation, student’s creativity and academic
performance. This means that when students use social media for their studies they are

Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. Age
2. Gender 0
3.living status 0.15 0.12
4. Social media usage 0.28 0.39 0.27* 0.85
5. Intrinsic motivation 0.2 0.35 0.39 0.41** 0.79
6. Academic performance 0.29 0.34 0.26 0.47** 0.61** 0.81
7. Creativity 0.12 0.47 0.38 0.39** 0.64** 0.18 0.82

Note: N = 334; Significant at *p < 0.05 (two-tailed) and **p < 0.01 (two-tailed), figures in italic and bold are Table 3.
alpha reliability Inter-correlations
 ITSE

analysis
Table 4.
Results of mediation
Mediator Dependent variables
Intrinsic motivation Academic performance Creativity
Independent variable B SE t R2 B SE t R2 B SE t R2

0.312 0.42 0.47

Constant 1.12 0.19 5.89 0.31 0.12 2.58* 0.38 0.07 5.43***
Student use of social media 0.41 0.13 3.15** 0.42 0.08 5.25*** 0.22 0.06 3.67**
Intrinsic motivation – – – 0.37 0.11 3.36** 0.29 0.12 2.42*
Effect SE LLCI ULCI Effect SE LLCI ULCI
Indirect effect of student use of social media 0.21 0.12 0.23 0.41 0.35 0.05 0.23 0.38
Effect SE z Effect SE z
Normal theory tests for indirect effect 0.31 0.12 2.58* 0.28 0.05 5.6***

Note: Unstandardized regression coefficients are shown; Bootstrap sample size = 5000; LLCI = Bias corrected lower limit confidence interval; ULCI = Bias
corrected upper limit confidence interval; Significant at: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; and ***p < 0.001.
motivated which leads to student’s creativity and better academics performance. Our Student use of
research findings are in line with previous studies, for instance, Kusurkar et al. (2013) found social media
that motivation is positively connected with the utilization of effective study strategy.
Lepper (1985) reported that new technologies might have a capability impact on students,
which thus builds the students’ motivation, which leads to creativity and academics
achievements. Consistent with this Chai and Fan (2018), reported that electronic media and
related tools enhance student creativity and knowledge levels, to strengthen the student
creativity process (Shoshani and Braun Hazi, 2007). The early study of the Junco et al. (2011)
also stated that social media develops student creativity while they work with teams and
transfer the information. Another researcher declared that, when students use mobile and
online technology in their education, they are motivated to their education which improves
their academic achievements (Hartnett, 2016). In the same line of enquiry, Zheng et al. (2016)
declared that the use of social media helps maintain and promote students’ motivation and
commitment toward education.
Likewise, we found a possible significant connection among users of social media and
student’s creativity and academic performance through student’s motivation. We proposed
that student’s motivation mediates the relationship between the use of social media and
academic performance and student’s motivation mediates the relationship between the use
of social media and student creativity. Statically results of this study also supported the
mediating role of student’s motivation between social media and academic performance, as
well as student’s creativity. The outcome of our study is consistent with earlier literature, as
an example, motivation plays a dominant role in promoting the learning process and
achievement (Ames, 1990), through social media. For the reason that online media and
related tools play an important role in the motivation of students, due to which students are
inspired to use social media for creativity and academic accomplishment. Therefore,
students need to be motivated to their education to be a creative and high performer. Daniels
(2008) illuminated that students’ motivation as an essential attitude for learning. Afzal et al.
(2010) established a significant and mutually oriented relation between a student’s academic
performance and student’s motivation. In this regard, Lepper et al. (2005) have also
discovered a strong correlation between motivation and academic accomplishments (Ryan
and Deci, 2000, 2006).
The current research has made several theoretical contributions to the literature. The
main motivation of this research was to investigate the impact of usage of social media on
student’s motivation. Additionally, we explored the mechanism of student’s motivation with
students’ academic performance and creativity. Furthermore, the current research
contributes to the existing literature by pinpoint the psychological mechanism of student’s
intrinsic motivation among usage of social media and student creativity as well as usage of
social media and student academics performance. Overall, this study concludes that social
media or social networking websites assist as a vibrant tool for student’s creativity and
academic performance by inspiring and motivating students. In today’s modern era, there
are many social and online tools being developed that are beneficial and practical for
student’s motivation, student’s creativity and better academic performance.

Practical implications
As our study has shown that when students use social media for educational purpose, they
are motivated to their studies, which in turn enhance their academic performance and make
them more creative. Even though our study has significant implications, these results
indicate that we should try to promote motivation among students to learn an approach
towards higher efforts. Our research recommends that the administration of the universities
ITSE may develop a specific purpose-built social media platform where students can get
education-related knowledge and information and where they can cooperate and collaborate
with their other fellows. This is very important in this technological era. Additionally,
different workshops may be arranged by administrators to encourage students to improve
their intercultural links, which is directly related to the motivation and collaboration, and is
indirectly related to the students’ creativity and academic performance. The outcomes of our
study also propose that experts, such as managers or university administrators, should
focus on well-designed multicultural events in the improvement and growth of student’s
creativity. The government should provide specific financial compensation to institutions
for developing software and online systems for improving social media learning platforms.

Limitations and future directions

We tested a very comprehensive model of social media usage and student outcomes in
education and ensured to bring maximum rigor in our study design and conduct, but we
believe that our findings should be seen in light of its limitations. First, the study data were
collected through the survey questionnaire and all of the measures were self-report.
Therefore, future research may use different methods in testing our model, along with
appraisal dimensions as well as experimental techniques. Specifically, future researchers
may use creative problem-solving tests for assessing student creativity. Second, this
research has been conducted alongside a particular nation; therefore, we cannot generalize
the findings of our study to other cultures and nations. Future studies can explore factors
such as self-efficacy that can upgrade the value of students’ academic performance,
creativity and motivation (Linnenbrink and Pintrich, 2002). We cannot ignore that the
overuse of social media can distract students from their study, so future studies should
discover a construct that will not only motivate students to their study but also prevent
them from misusing it. Another limitation of the research is related to its cause and effect
problem. As highlighted by one the reviewer of this study, it may be the case that motivated
students to use more social media rather than what we hypothesis regarding the
relationship between social media usage and student motivation. To clarify this point,
experimental research or a longitudinal design is highly recommended that can study the
cause (social media) and its effect on student motivation as we theorized and found in our
cross-sectional research.

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Corresponding author
Mudaser Ahmad can be contacted at: mudaser.ahmad@hotmail.com

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