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The Effects of Social Media on

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IRJMSH Vol 9 Issue 4 [Year 2018] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print)

The Effects of Social Media on Students

Satinder Pal Kaur

Introduction:

Within the past decade or so, social media such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube,
Flickr, Yahoo Messenger, LinkedIn, Whats app messenger, Skype, Google talk, Google
Messenger and others have grown at a very fast pace. As per a statistics report from a website
statista.com, there are 2.6 billion social media users in the world as compared to around 1
billion users in the year 2010. It is expected that the number of social media users will cross 3
billion by 2021. This report also claims that of the total internet users, 71% are social media
users and Facebook is the leader in social media applications with 1.86 billion active users.
Social media have inevitably become an integral part of the contemporary classroom, of
advertising and public relations industries, of political campaigning, and of numerous other
aspects of our daily existence. This research paper presents the both negative and positive sides
of the effects of social media on students and their academic performance.

Uses and ill uses of Social Media:

In this technology loaded world, most people have easy access to online communities via
computers or smart phones. Most students carry smart phones today with an access to internet.
The uses of social media are vast: from chatting with existing friends to making new friends
around the world, studying online, accessing lectures from renowned lecturers from other
continents sitting at home, accessing e-books without going to library. Personally, I hold a
positive view of social media. I use Facebook to connect with peers thatshare interest in my
subject and are preparing for same kind of exams. I get all the updated information on the areas
of my interest from the groups or communities on Facebook. I have similar groups on
WhatsApp. I also use You Tube to learn new concepts in my subject. It is really helpfuland I
have learnt numerous new concepts and theories from You Tube lectures. While these are some
really good uses of social media sites, these are not without side-effects such as misuse of
information posted on these sites, cyber-bullying, private information being public, students
wasting their time chatting with friends instead of investing that time into studies-lecturers or
teachers have often reported the distraction of students due to smart phone because often times
the students are busy surfing social media sites while sitting in the class room. Not to mention,
wrong information going viral in seconds causing widespread chaos. A perfect example would
be the recent events in Jammu & Kashmir state of India where students were out of school for
months due to curfew imposed by government after the occurrence of violent acts by young

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students against army which were basically provoked by some videos that went viral on
facebook and whatsapp.

Effects of social media on the academic performance of students:

Definition of academic performance:

Academic performance or achievement is the outcome of education, the extent to which a

student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goals. Academic performance is
commonly measured by examinations or continuous assessment but there is no general
agreement on how it is best tested or which aspects are most important, procedural knowledge
such as skills or declarative knowledge such as facts (Annie, Howard & Mildred, 1996).

With the popularity of social media sites and the wide spread use of networking sites like
Facebook and Twitter, some hold the view point that students in contemporary world are
distracted from their studies and waste time using social media sites. Hence it has a negative
impact on the academic performance of the students. However, others hold a view that it is rather
constructive because students now have access to wide variety of information from around the
world and it enhances their interaction with other students with same interests and their teachers.

Research on the topic:

There is a lot of research done by scholars to prove negative or positive impact of social media
on the academic performance of students.

A study by Dictionary.com reveals that 73% of Teachers Think Social Media and Texting is bad
for Grammar and Spelling but Half Use It to Better Understand Students

 One-half (50%) of teachers agree that social media helps them better understand their
students' pop culture references. Interestingly, elementary school teachers (53%) refer to
social media more than high school teachers (48%).
 More than one-third (37%) of teachers have used memes, emojis and GIFs to help make a
point or teach a lesson in their classrooms.
 A majority of teachers (73%) think that social media and texting negatively affects their
students' grammar and spelling skills.

Study byR. Junco:

Facebook is the most popular social networking site as of 2012, with 90% of college
students using it.(Dahlstrom, deBoor, Grunwald, & Vockley, 2011; Junco, 2011a). The
most recent data showed that of the 90% of students who use social networking websites,
97% said they used Facebook daily. In one recent study of 5,414 college students, Junco

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(2011a) found that students checked Facebook a mean of 5.75 times per day. Students
spent about 1 hour and 40 minutes per day on Facebook according to two recent studies
(Junco & Cotten, 2012; Junco, 2011a).Junco (2011a) compiled various activities on
Facebook and distilled them to a 14-item list, and then used a large sample of college
students to determine activities in which they participated. This list represents the best
summary of activities on Facebook for college students at this time. For the college
administrator, understanding the amount of time and the type of activities for which
college students use them is what makes the difference with social media sites. For
example, Junco showed that time spent on Facebook commenting about, creating, or
RSVP‘ing to events is positively predictive of time spent in cocurricular activities, while
playing games on Facebook is negatively predictive. Similarly, other studies have shown
that using Facebook (Ellison et al., 2011) in certain ways leads to better psychosocial
outcomes, and that using Twitter (Junco et al., 2010) in certain ways leads to better
academic outcomes.

Research by Nicole B. Ellison Charles Steinfield Cliff Lampe:

The strong linkage between Facebook use and high school connections suggests how
social networking sites
help maintain relations as people move from one offline community to another. It may
facilitate the same when students graduate from college, with alumni keeping their school
email address and using Facebook to stay in touch with the college community. Such
connections could have strong payoffs in terms of jobs, internships, and other
opportunities. Colleges may want to explore ways to encourage this sort of usage.

Conclusion:

After a study of available work on this topic, it is difficult to come to a definite conclusion as the
research results are contradictory at times. However, most of the researchers do agree with the
fact that social media provides vast resources to the students to ease learning and it depends on
the person who is using social media that what purpose he is utilizing this resource for. A
watchful use of social sites can be very useful but at the same time addiction to social media can
be very harmful. Also, there are some miscreants in society who use these websites to serve their
immoral motives. More research is needed in this field to develop tools to measure the exact
effects of social media sites on students.

References:

 Digital in 2017-Global Overview report from We Are Social and Hootsuite.

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 Achievement and Ability Tests - Definition of the Domain, Annie, W., Howard, W.S. &
Mildred, M. (1996), University Press of America, p. 2–5
 Engaging Students through Social Media:Evidence-Based Practices for Use in Student
Affairs by Reynol Junco, John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
 The Impact of Social Media on College Students, Jeanna Mastrodicasa, University of
Florida Paul Metellus, University of Florida, Journal of College & Character, Volume
14, 2003.
 Nicole B. Ellison Charles Steinfield Cliff Lampe, The Benefits of Facebook ‗‗Friends:‘‘
Social Capital and College Students‘ Use of Online Social Network Sites, Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication.
 Dahlstrom, E. (2012). ECAR study of undergraduate students and information
technology. Louisville, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research. Dahlstrom, E.,
deBoor T., Grunwald, P., & Vockley, M. (2011). The ECAR national study of
undergraduate students and information technology. Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center
for Applied Research.
 Ellison, N. B., Steineld, C., & Lampe, C. (2011). Connection strategies: Social capital
implications of Facebook-enabled communication practices. New Media & Society,
13(6), 873–892
 Junco, R. (2011a). The relationship between frequency of Facebook use, participation in
Facebook activities, and student engagement. Computers & Education, 58(1), 162–171
 Junco, R. (2011b). Too much face and not enough books: The relationship between
multiple indices of Facebook use and academic performance. Computers in Human
Behavior, 28(1), 187–198.

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