Impacts of Social Media to the Academic Performance of Grade 11 STEM

Students of Anao High School during Pandemic

 Chapter 1

Introduction

A social media is an online platform that people use to build social networks or social relations with

other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. The

impact of social networks on young people is significant. It is becoming increasingly clear that social networks

have become part of people’s lives. Many adolescent people are using their laptops, tablet computers, and

smartphones to check Tweets and status updates from their friends and family. Due to the advancement in

technology, people are pressured to accept different lifestyles. Social networking sites can assist young people

to become more socially capable. Social media is a web-based form of data communication. Social media

platforms allow users to have conversations, share information, and create web content. Social media has

different forms, together with blogs, micro-blogs, wikis, social networking sites, photo-sharing sites, instant

messaging, video-sharing sites, podcasts, widgets, virtual worlds, and more. Billions of people around the world

use social media to share information and make connections. On an individual level, social media allow us to

communicate with our friends and relatives, gain knowledge of new things, develop our interests, and be

entertained.

Social networking has become a common international trend that has spread across almost every corner

of the world. The Use of Social media sites has exploded and evolved into an online platform where people

create content, share it, bookmark it, and network at a prodigious rate. Because of its ease of use, speed and

reach, social media is fast changing the public discourse in society and setting trends and agenda in topics that

range from the environment and politics to technology and the entertainment industry (Asur and Huberman,

2010). In the last ten years, the online world has changed dramatically, thanks to the invention of social media,

young men and women now exchange ideas, feelings, personal information, pictures, and videos at a truly

astonishing rate. Seventy-three percent of wired American teens now use social media websites (Oberst, 2010).

The increased use of Social Networking Websites has become a social norm and way of life for people from all
over the world (Boyd. 2007). Teenagers and young adults have especially embraced these sites as a way to

connect with their peers around the globe, share information, reinvent their personalities, and showcase their

social lives (Boyd, 2007).

With these developments in technology social networking sites have become more and more popular

among students and a major concern have arose over how the use of social media sites among undergraduate

students affects their academic performances.

Statement of the Problem

Generally, this study aims to determine the impact of Social Media features on the educational experiences

of higher education students in blended and distance learning environments. Specially, it seeks to answer the

following questions:

1. How are the participants characterized in terms of:

a. Sex
b. Socio-economic status
c. Age
d. GWA
2. How do students perceive the impact of Social Media on their academic engagement and performance ?
3. How social media affects students time management ?

4. Is there a significant relationship of social media to the academic performance of student?

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

This study focused mainly on the Impacts of Social Media to Academic Performance of Grade 11-

STEM Students during the Second Semester of School Year 2020-2021 at Anao Senior High School, San

Francisco East, Anao, Tarlac. This study focused on two (2) major variables, namely Academic Performance of

Grade 11 STEM students, and Social Media.

Academic performance refers to the outcome of education; the extent to which the student,

teacher, or institution have achieved their educational goals. Academic performance is the ability to study and

remember facts and being able to communicate one's knowledge verbally or written on paper (Answers, 2010).
 According to Jody (2015), social media is an instrument for building a learning community. He

added that being a member of a learning community means engaging in reciprocal learning activities, soaking in

new ideas, and sharing perspectives and experiences to make meaning of the information.

This study is particularly concerned with the use of social media in Grade 11- STEM Students

and how it improves students’ academic performance at Anao National High School.

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will give the beneficiaries an opportunity to talk about what they know

and what they want to be known for.

This research is designed to have a thorough knowledge of the effects of social media on the

Grade 11 STEM students of Anao National High School. And how to them apply social media use to their

academic performance.

To the students, as it will serve as their basis as to determine the things that can do improve their

academic performance by using social media.

To the researchers, as it will help them partially fulfill their requirements for their subject Practical

Research 1. It will also help them to achieve their objectives for this study

To the teachers, because of this study, teachers can benefit from guidance on the teaching

methodologies and approach that would help student to have a good performance by doing the activities.

To the parents, it will also help them to guide their children using social media. They can also

warn their children about the importance of privacy and the dangers of predators and sexting. 

To the future researchers, this study will help them especially in conducting studies that are

related to the Impacts of Social Media to the Academic Performance of Grade 11 STEM Students of Anao

National High School.

 Chapter 2

Review of Related Literatures and Studies

This chapter provide a review literature taken from different resources. The following researchers and

studies support and clarify the study.

Related Literature

Kaveri Subrahmanyam and Patricia Greenfield noted that the use of online communication has both

negative and positive effects because the Internet can be used in harmful ways. They also noted that today,

schools are doing their best to control the way students use digital media on campus (Subrahmanyam and

Greenfield, 2008). In some schools, leaders believe that social media has a positive impact on the educational

development of students. In other schools, leaders prohibit access to social networking sites because they fear

that students will interact with them, although they are aware of the positive impact of social media on student

education (Ahn, 2010). Ahn also pointed out that examples of media platforms used by the younger generation

are: YouTube, which is used to share and stream videos, and Facebook, which has a full network of online

identities and friends. Ahn says that researchers view the personal data of social media users as part of the

process required for students to develop their identity (Ahn, 2010).

Gwenn Schurgin O`Keeffe and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson believe that social media can cause negative

effects, including access to inappropriate content and "not understanding online privacy." They also stated that

there is online bullying and cyberbullying, which are mainly caused by the risk of peer involvement (O'Keeffe

and Clarke-Pearson, 2011).

Victor Lavy and Edith Sand's research was carried out at a school in Tel Aviv, with the purpose of

determining the influence of the types of friends on social media platforms for high school students. They

divide the types of friends into several categories. A "reciprocal friend" refers to a friend who has common

ground in academics and interests. The second group are the "non-reciprocal friends" who rejected the

"friendship proposal" of another student. They found that students with reciprocal friends in class had a
significant positive impact on their three test scores: Hebrew, math, and English. On the other hand, students

who have no mutual friends indicate that they have a negative impact on the same three test scores. This tells us

that if students get in touch with friends with the same interests, goals, and educational background on social

media, they are more likely to help each other to achieve good academic performance due to motivation and

other factors (Lavy, 2012).

Jeff Cain and Katherine Chretien introduced a new term for education, which is called "interprofessional

education." This means that not everyone learns on their own, but rather that different people come together to

share the knowledge they have with each other. When they learn from the experience of others, this leads to

better results. This was first introduced in the healthcare sector (Cain and Chretien, 2013). Therefore, there is an

opportunity to use it among students. This can be achieved by using social media to create study groups on

Facebook, Skype, blogs, or any media that allows multiple contacts to talk and allow them to share their work,

and ask peers about questions they don’t understand.

Sanzhar Naizabekov concluded that social media caused delays due to its distracting nature. People who

use social media need much more time to complete tasks than dedicated people. A second negative effect arises

through procrastination, that is, lack of motivation, because the use of social networks in their studies will have

a negative attitude towards their personal work at school (Naizabekov, 2012).

Related Study

According to Deng and Tavares (2013), social networks help students think clearly, which helps them

make the right decisions in their daily lives. According to research conducted by Apeanti and Danso (2014),

students believe that if they can openly contact teachers through social networks to clarify their questions, their

grades will improve. Yunus and Salehi (2012) pointed out that the use of social networks improves students'

vocabulary and writing skills. Therefore, it is clear that social media can have a positive impact on students’

academic performance if used wisely for educational and constructive purposes. Although social media can
have many positive effects, if used improperly and vigilantly, it can also have a negative impact on students’

academic performance.

According to Paul, Baker, and Cochran (2012), the time spent on social networks depends on the

student's attention span. Attention duration is the time during which students can focus on their studies without

being distracted. They found that the more focused, the less time students spend on social media. According to

Junco (2011), the time spent on Facebook is very negatively correlated with the student's general GPA.

Kirschner and Karpinski (2010) found that excessive addiction to social media can have a negative impact on

students' academic performance.

According to Napoleon Egedegbe, different researchers and academics have concluded that social

networks have no effect on the academic performance of students (Egedegbe, 2013). On the other hand, Dr.

Paciente Rambe pointed out that social networks offer different shortcomings and opportunities that clearly

enable and disable the possibility of face-to-face interaction because it frees them from this obligation and

allows them to get everything online. He also added that Facebook, as a learning environment, allows student

voices to have multiple forms of expression and creates an "educational and aesthetic space." Considering the

opposites, the Facebook learning environment has created limitations for people to realize their "personal

interests" (Rambe, 2011).

O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson of the American Academy of Pediatrics believe that there are several

benefits to using social media. They believe that one of the most important benefits of social media is that it

improves the way people understand themselves by interacting with others and getting ideas through blogs. This

will lead to better results for your personal school assignments. O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson believe that

another important benefit is that the use of social networks provides students with opportunities to improve their

learning because they have the opportunity to share knowledge with each other and conduct group projects

more effectively. (O'Keeffe and Clark Pearson, 2011).

Al-Rahmi et al. (2014) and Karpinski et al. (2013) also support the positive impact of social networks,

stating that it is beneficial for the learning environment and creates a better academic atmosphere because it
fosters the academic performance of students. Al-Rahmi et al. (2015) and Frias and Montano (2010) explain

more specifically the role of network efficiency in the learning environment. According to the research by

Petrovic and Pavlovic (2016), male and female students have gender differences in Internet use; male students

prefer online education and entertainment content, while data shows that online video games and e-commerce

services are dominated by female students.

Theoretical Framework

Social Constructivism Theory

This theory was used by Vygotsky in the field of education. It has many benefits and prospects.

Vygotsky's work opens the door for teachers and educators. Reconsider their learning process that they

originally participated in as a personal activity (Vygtosky 1978). They claim that other people and participants

facilitated connections between ideas, and objects (Veer and Valsiner 1993). Some people think that the story of

human domination and control has two aspects. Although the human dominance over the nature of emerged

through the invention of the sand tool using technology, humans are controlled to some extent by symbols such

as cultural technology (Veer and Valsiner 1993). Applying this theory to the field of collaborative learning can

highlight the interactive experience of different students with others. Someone suggested that human activities

are just social experience to explain the importance of others in the learning environment.

Social Media Facilitates Academic Interactions

Social networks have a significant influence on higher educationa. Ewan McIntosh mentioned that this

new technology has actively changed many things in the educational environment, the ways of learning of the

students and how they educators teach and communicate with students (Mcewan 2011). According to

observations, higher education institutions are reclassified to social networks to meet their students, need such

as technology to appear in their lives. In addition to the needs of the students, as Goldfarb et al. (2011), the

interaction is the objective of motivating higher education institutions to use social networks. A 2008 study by
the University of Minnesota showed that students who use social media for educational purposes have

outstanding skills such as creativity, intelligence, and agility. This is clear evidence to support this view. These

characteristics were discovered along with the interaction and participation between students. Social networks

have outstanding features. For example, the interactivity generated by them improves the discussion and

exchange of new ideas between groups, and is regarded as an important component that must be added to the

educational environment, especially those with computers. (Horizon 2007).

Social Media facilitates Collaborative Learning

In view of the previous literature, it is recommended to use Facebook. considers to be a social media

application. allows students to perform various activities in a smooth manner during the collaborative learning

process, and faces very few. Uh, your academic work pressure. It also enables them to strengthen their

relationships with colleagues in a pleasant atmosphere. Some researchers found that students used Facebook for

academic purposes in a formal way, such as meetings, discussions (Madge et al. 2009) and queries, also

informally used for other purposes Purpose. 44 Non-academic (Lampe et al., 2011). The use of Facebook also

produced a type of collaboration that was considered useful in terms of supervision and social interaction (Gray

et al., 2013). Today, the general view of on higher education is long-term learning skills rather than knowledge,

which is a common method in the past (Fallows and Steven 2000). One of the skills considered essential to

employers is called collaboration (Johnson et al., 2012). The term has always been the focus of many scholars

and researchers. Dillenbourg (1999) defines collaboration as a process or activity in which two or more people

try to learn new knowledge.

Social Media facilitates Academic Engagement

In the transition from university to university, social media is believed to have a major impact on the

experience of students and researchers and on student performance. This effect can have positive or negative
characteristics (Dahlstrom et al. 2011). An example of the negative impact of social media is the discovery that

the use of Facebook can hinder the academic participation of students. Study also investigated time spent on

Facebook and concluded that it has a positive effect on extracurricular activities, but has an opposite effect on

time spent learning and student engagement (Junco 2011). Junco and Cotten (2012) further support this negative

impact by revealing that the use of social networks when doing homework has a negative impact on the

performance of students in higher education institutions (Al-Rahmi et al., 2014 ; Ajjan and Hartshorne 2008

Years; Chen and Bry-er 2012; Robier et al. 2014). This negative impact applies to student participation (Junco

et al., 2012; Al-Rahmi and Othman 2013) and academic performance (Dahl-strom et al., 2011). In the case of

interactive blogs, Yang and Chang (2011) pointed out that this kind of social networking application stimulates

interaction between students and academic performance, and Twitter does the same because it facilitates the

participation of undergraduates, which is reflected in Their grade point average (GPA) (Junco et al., 2011).

Definition of Terms

Collaborative- is an adjective that describes an effort in which people work together (that is, one in which

they collaborate). Collaborative is often used in a positive context to refer to two or more parties successfully

working together on a goal or shared project.

Correlated- have a mutual relationship or connection, in which one thing affects or depends on another.

Domination- the exercise of control or influence over someone or something, or the state of being so

controlled.

Engagement- An engagement is an arrangement that you have made to do something at a particular time. You

can refer to the period of time during which two people are engaged as their engagement.

Inappropriate- not suitable or proper in the circumstances.

Procrastination- is the action of delaying or postponing something. The word has origin from the Latin

procrastinatus, which itself evolved from the prefix pro-, meaning "forward," and crastinus, meaning "of

tomorrow."

Stimulates- is the encouragement of development or the cause of activity generally. For example, "The press

provides stimulation of political discourse." An interesting or fun activity can be described as "stimulating",

regardless of its physical effects on senses.

 Chapter 3
METHODOLOGY

The researchers used the descriptive correlational research method. A correlational research is a

type of research technique that includes the observation of two variables in order to establish a

statistically corresponding relationship between them. The objectives of this research were to identify the

variables that have some kind of relationship to the extent that the change in one creates some change in the

other since it concerns the description of independent and dependent variables. Particularly, the aim of this

research was to study the impact of social media platforms on the academic performance of senior high

school students in the new normal learning system.

The researchers used a questionnaire method for their primary data gathering tool. It is a standardized

questionnaire used on determining the effect of social media platforms on students’ academic performance.

The respondents of the study were composed of 11senior high school students during the school

year 2020-2021. The researchers will use convenience sampling technique.

To collect the knowledge and information for this study, the researchers will use a Likert-scale

questionnaire to know the impact of social media platforms to students’ academic performance. The

researchers will adapt Peter Osharive’s (2015) Social Media and Academic Performance of Students

Questionnaire (SMAAPOS). The questionnaire is divided into two sections (A and B). Section A consists of
7 questions and elicits demographic information. Section B consists of 22 Likert-scale questions that elicited

information about the students use of social media: Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Neutral (N), Disagree

(D) and Strongly Disagree (SD) and at the end of the questionnaire, an open-ended question asked them

whether they have any further comments on the impact of social media on your academics.

The researchers followed the following procedures when collecting the data:

An email was sent to the school principal and admin of a public school in the City of Tarlac, Anao, asking for

permission to conduct the study.

The researchers then distributed the questionnaires to the respondents through an email with the

authorization of the school principal and the admin.

The researchers collected the questionnaires from the respondents and will check if they were able to

answer all the questions given

RESULTS

Table 1:Use of Social Media Platform

Indicators Mean Interpretation
1.) The time I spend online on 0.54 Neutral
Facebook takes away from
my time of studying.
2.) Facebook distracts me 0.45 Neutral
from my studies
3.) The hours I spend online 0.63 Agree
on Facebook are more than
the hours I spend reading.
4.) My unlimited access to 0.54 Neutral
Facebook through my
cellphone has affected my
academic negatively
Performance.
5.) I engage in academic 0.63 Agree
discussions on Facebook.
6.) I make use of Facebook to 0.63 Agree
share information with my
classmates.
7.) Facebook have impacted 0.54 Agree
my general weighted average
positively.
8.) I follow the latest 0.54 Agree
developments in my field
through Facebook.
9.) I solely rely on 2.22 0.45 Disagree
information gotten from
Facebook to do assignments
my without consulting other
sources.
10.) The usage of Facebook 0.54 Agree
for research has helped 0.45 Disagree
improve my grades.
11.) Facebook has negatively 0.54 Neutral
impacted my writing skills.
12.) Engaging in academic 0.63 Agree
forums on Facebook confuses
me.

13.) Sometimes I use 0.45 Disagree

Facebook to understand what
I have been taught in class

14.) Facebook have impacted 0.81 Disagree

my general weighted average
negatively.
15.) I will not perform well in 0.45 Neutral
my academics even if I stop.
16.) Facebook is encouraged 0.81 Agree
by teachers as part of class
assignments.
17.) We have a Facebook 0.45 Agree
group courses. for some of
my courses.
18.) I use Facebook for 0.63 Agree
making new friends and
socializing more than I use it
for academic purposes.
19.) I have to use Facebook 0.81 Agree
extensively because most of
course assignments/projects
are in the forms of
blogs/online presentations.
20.) Facebook has improved 0.45 Agree
my communication skills.
21.) Once I interrupt my 0.63 Agree
study time with Facebook, I
lose concentration.
22.) I communicate with the 0.81 Agree
teacher through Facebook.
 AVERAGE 12.96 Agree

It may be gleaned in Table 1. that the impact of social media platforms on the academic performance of grade
11 Senior High student of Anao High School was "Agree "as shown by the average score of 12.96.Statement
17,20,22 got the highest mean score of 0.81 with a corresponding interpretation of "Agree "while the
1st,5th,8th,9th,12th,17th statement got the lowest mean score of 0.45 which translate to "Disagree".

This result was supported by a study which stated that social media platforms sharpen student's reading skills
and improve their general knowledge. It means students who engage in social media do better often.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Table 2.Academic Performance
Indicators Frequency Percentage
Outstanding(90-100) 8 72.72
Very Satisfactory(85-89) 2 18.18
Satisfactory(80-84) 1 9.09
Fairly Satisfactory (75-79) 0 0
Did not meet expectation (74 and 0 0
below)
Total 11 100.0

Academic Performance. Table 2 showed the frequency distribution of the students.(8) student got an
"Outstanding" performance eating with (72.72) percent among respondent.(2) students received " Very
Satisfactory" performance rating with a (18.18%) percentage.(1) was under "Fairly Satisfactory".
Effects of Social Media Platforms on Students’ Academic Performance
Findings reveal that the use of social media platforms does not significantly affect the students’
academic performance, correlation coefficient. This means that the majority of students found themselves to
be undistracted by social media platforms regarding their school activities.

DISCUSSION
In the new online learning system, students study with the use of a medium that they also use for
browsing social media platforms. Similar researches concluded that the students' use of social media
platforms does not contribute to them in their academic life, while others believe in the opposite. The
outcome shows that the use of social media platforms has no significant effect on the academic
performance of the students. However, the use of social media platforms has both good and bad results
on the students aside from school purposes. Some find it helpful in terms of communication, and some think of
it as a cause of poor quality sleep of students. Social media offers a platform for its users to share
information and spread awareness regarding various issues, including mental health problems. In some
previous studies, they stated that people suffering from mental health issues benefited from social media.
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the findings of the study, we drew the following conclusions: first, The effects of Social
Media platform on the academic performance of Senior High School students were described as "neutral";
second, the status of the academic performance of the students was shown as "outstanding"; third, the use
of social media platforms do not have a significant effect to the academic performance of the students; fourth,
social media could either be beneficial or harmful to a students' academic performance depends on how the
students use and manage it.
RECOMMENDATIONS
From the findings and conclusion, the researchers offer the following scope for the future: (1) discuss and
teach the importance of proper time management to the students and (2) use social media as a way to
improve the students’ reading skills.