Background

In today’s generation, social media has become one of the most important
communication means in recent times. However, social media exist so as to provide
communication among people regardless of the distance and making it open to people easily
share information. Every day, many students are spending countless hours immersed in social
media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. At first glance this may seem like a waste
of time; however, it also helps students to develop important knowledge and social skills, and
be active citizens who create and share content.However, despite these benefits, social media
have numerous negative effects on the students. These effects include deterioration of social
ties, laziness, and even familial breakups. This research, therefore, seeks to determine the
various effects that social media have had on the students by obtaining information from
them.

Framework
Perceived Ease of Use

First of all, variables which affect the social media use are taken from basic
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as “perceived usefulness” and “perceived ease of use”
(Davis, 1989). Perceived ease of use has positive effect on perceived usefulness and also
social media use and intention to use social media (Rauniar, 2013). Moreover, previous study
from the literature revealed that perceived ease of use of social media has positive impact on
social media use in educational concept (Wiid et al., 2013).

Perceived Usefulness

Perceived usefulness is defined as ‘‘the degree that an individual think that utilizing a
particular system would enhance his/her performance’’ (Davis, 1989). Recent studies in the
literature show that perceived usefulness has a positive significant impact on social media use
and intention to use social media (Rauniar, 2013). Moreover, previous study from the
literature revealed that perceived usefulness of social media for education has positive impact
on social media use for education (Wiid et al., 2013).

Social Media Usage

Social media usage variable measures students’ actual usage of social media for
educational purposes.
Student Interaction

Student interaction is created to measure the communication and information sharing

between students among each other. In previous studies, it was stated that social media usage
may have increasing effect on interaction between students (McLoughlin & Lee, 2007; Laird
&Kuh, 2005; Junco et al., 2013). In this study, it is claimed that social media usage increases
student interaction.

Statement of the Problem

The fast spread of social media use in the world is undeniable. Grade 11 students have
embraced this medium of communication. Despite the many benefits that have come with the
use of social media, numerous complaints continue to be aired on the negative impacts that it
had on the students. Those who oppose it and those in support of this medium have concrete
arguments to support their sentiments. It is, therefore, crucial to identify the various effects
that social media brings to the students; both positive and negative.

Research Methodology

As for the research methodology, qualitative approach was adapted to collect the
relevant data of the study, the research used Focus Group Discussion technique having 8
respondents coming from the four strands of grade 11. The researchers used semi-structured
interview having 8 open-ended questions. Subsequently, Thematic analysis was applied to
analyze therelevant data of the study.

Results

Despite of public views concerning the misuse of social media among students in the
society, most of the students were interested to use social media positively for their
education. The positive impacts of social media among the students appeared to be higher as
compared to negative impacts. Educators and students can use social media as informational
and communicational tools to ease and improve learning process.
Conclusions

Overall, social media appeared to be a very useful tool for students in their lessons as
theyuse them to improve their learning process i.e. to communicate effectively with each
other,receive university-related issues and get other necessary information (Mushtaq, 2018).
In other words, socialmedia seemed to be modern tools of learning for grade 11 students in
MNHS. However, their negative effects seemed to be very poor as compared to their positive
effects as theydescribed that too much use of social media as a concern, which leads to
distraction, cyberbullying and health problems. The results of the study shown that student’s
involvement in social media has both positive and negative outcomes based on how they used
it. The researchers wanted to clarify that technology does not lessen the student’s abilities to
learn but rather it helps them to learn different abilities which they have never known before.
Today, as we can see development happens due to technology and social media so, making
use of social media for good and positive purposes will enable to the road of progress.

Recommendations

Based on the findings of this research study, the researchers offer the following
recommendations: a.) Students should consider all the pros and cons of social media and it is
necessary to develop certain regulations over the use of such social networking sites and they
should get the choice to spend time socializing in an effective time they want to spend on
social media. It is left up to the students to decide way. Social media should not hamper their
academic performance; b.) Social media should no longer has to be an obstacle to students
and their studies, instead it should be used in helping students create and manage a study
community, and make use of study time, and find new resources to help them learn and retain
knowledge; c.) Social media could be used wisely for academic purposes, for sharing o class
room activities and information among the teachers and students. Students can use social
media platforms to share ideas and insights among themselves; d.) The teachers should also
help the students on how to make used of social media and also tell them the advantages and
disadvantages of social media so that they can be aware of what to do and what not to do; e.)
The importance of social media should be known by both the teachers and the students to
make the teaching and learning more effective and for these both have a strong role to play in
engaging in social media sites. f.) Another related study or research should be conducted to
further verify the results of the current study using a much bigger population and locale.
References

Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of
information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319–340.

Junco, R., Elavsky, C. M., & Heiberger, G. (2013). Putting twitter to the test: Assessing
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Laird, T. F. N., & Kuh, G. D. (2005). Student experiences with information technology and
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McLoughlin, C., & Lee, M. J. W. (2007). Social software and participatory learning:
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