International Journal of Psychology and Counseling.

ISSN 2278-5833 Volume 11, Number 3 (2021), pp. 98-112

© Research India Publications http://www.ripublication.com

The Social Media Usage and Its Impact on the

Filipino Learners' Academic Performance
Amidst the Online Education
Jhoselle Tus1
1
Social Science Subject Coordinator, St. Paul College of Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines

Jenalyn Conquilla2 Nicole Anne Espiritu3 Niña Ercie Paras4

Stephen Ryan Garcia5 Kate Erika Rodriguez6 Shainalhyn Gado7
Ma. Rovelyn Escoto8 Shealtielle Blaise De Jesus9 Rhoyet Cruz10 Lhyza Perante11
2–11
Psychology Students, Jesus is Lord Colleges Foundation, Inc., Bulacan, Philippines

Abstract

Social media use has become prevalent and nearly inevitable, changing the way students

interact, connect, and socialize; it has become an integral part of their social and cultural

fabric. As a result, students spend a significant amount of time on social media. Thus,

this study investigates the impact of social media usage on students' academic

performance amidst the new normal of education, specifically during the COVID-19

pandemic. Based on the statistical finding, the respondents' perception of their social media

usage significantly affects their academic performance (p=.000) with an associated

probability value of 0.05 alpha level of significance.

Keywords: Social media usage, Academic performance, Filipino learners,

Online education

INTRODUCTION

Social media have infiltrated the everyday life of Internet users, and the rising

pervasiveness of cellphones is justifying this situation. Nowadays, these two technologies

are interwoven, as smartphones are becoming more and more prevalent, especially
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among the student population. Thus, it has grown pervasive and virtually unavoidable,

altering the way students communicate, connect and socialize; it has become an essential

part of their social and cultural fabric. Consequently, students are spending a large

percentage of their time on social media.

Between students, social media is used to communicate with their classmates. It is

also used when academic performances are conducted. The social media platforms help

improve the students' academic performance and increase their knowledge through

gathering data and information. Students visit various online platforms to gather

information to solve their assignments (De La Cruz, 2017). Students primarily use these

social media platforms: Messenger (for communicating), Wikipedia (for references),

Facebook (for updates), Instagram (for photo sharing), YouTube (for video tutorials), and

many more.

Furthermore, the Department of Education (DepEd) is banning "like-based"

outputs on social media sites wherein students are asked to post their works on social

media, and their grades will be based on the likes that they will receive (Mercado, 2019).

Likewise, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT,

2019) said that students are more likely to be bullied (cyberbullying) when asked to post

their works on their social media sites. Students will feel more pressure because of the

likes they are achieving. They added that comparing their results with others who will not

be satisfied with the outcome will be more likely to cause depression among young

people. They also suggest the productivity of the students: teachers should engage their

students in doing performance tasks that include their interests and likes; teachers should

also avoid using social media sites on spreading information, e.g., assignments and

school updates.

Celestine and Nonyelum (2018) stated that there is a strong relationship between
100 The Social Media Usage and Academic Performance of Filipino Learners
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the use of social media and students' academic performance. However, Koranteng,

Wiafe, and Kuada (2018) indicated no significant relationship between the two.

Moreover, the main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of social

media usage on students' academic performance amidst the new normal of education in

the Philippines.

Research Questions

The study investigates the impact of social media usage on students' academic

performance amidst the new normal of education. Specifically, this study sought to

answer the following questions:

1. What is the level of the respondents' perception towards their social media usage?

2. What is the level of academic performance of the respondents?

3. Does the usage of social media significantly affect the respondents' academic

performance?

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Based on the Smartphone Addiction Scale (Kwon et al., 2013), studies using

smartphones on students to understand the link between addictedness and usage usually

divide them into two groups (potential addicts and non-addicts). Lee et al. (2014) tested it

on 95 students before asking them to install the SmartLogger software, which records

particular events linked to their phone activities, such as touch, text input, and

active/inactive events. The extracted patterns show that addict risk groups spent more

incredible time on their applications, with a preference for those that provided

momentary pleasure, such as entertainment. For example, Lee et al. (2017) had 35

students download an app that tracked their smartphone usage for six weeks. According
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to the findings, while chat apps were the most popular across both categories, addicts

overwhelmingly favored social media apps.

In reality mining, students are also the primary sample (Eagle & Pentland, 2006).

In terms of social media, the Copenhagen Networks Study (Stopczynski et al., 2014)

gathers data on 1,000 students by combining smartphone data with face-to-face

interactions and Facebook usage; however, these data are not correlated with academic

success. In terms of academic achievement, the SmartGPA study (Wang et al., 2015) used

data from the Student Life study (Wang et al., 2014), which looked at the impact of

workload on several mental and physical aspects of students' lives, such as mood and

sociability, in a class of 48 students over a ten-week term, to show that there is evidence

of a link between grades and behavior. Even though this type of data was acquired, Wang

et al. (2015) did not consider social media usage while analyzing their impact on

students' careers.

According to sociological research, there is a destructive relationship between

social media use and academic performance. For example, Rosen et al. (2013) looked

into the behavior and study environments of 263 students from various educational

levels, such as middle school, high school, and university. Students were observed for 15

minutes, and their on-task and off-task conduct was recorded every minute. Students

become distracted in less than 6 minutes on average before turning to technology

distractions like social media and texting. Junco (2012) investigated the relationship

between Facebook use and academic achievement by polling 1839 college students about

their Facebook usage and compared it to their grades. According to the findings, there is

a negative relationship between time spent on Facebook and grades. In comparison to

other activities such as studying or attending classes, it appears that social media provides

students with immediate enjoyment (Jacobsen & Forste, 2011).

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Using cell phones, like social media, has a negative impact on academic

achievement (Al-Barashdi et al., 2015); in fact, social media is becoming increasingly

synonymous with smartphone usage. Because of its pervasiveness and connection, social

networks can be utilized to predict smartphone addiction in users, according to (Jeong et

al., 2016). These capabilities of smartphones encourage multitasking (Lepp et al., 2015)

or using social media while doing something else, which reduces the amount of time

available for academic tasks. Lepp et al. (2015) conducted a study of US college students

to assess their self-efficacy and self-regulation, i.e., how well they believe they can

achieve their objectives and how well they can regulate and manage themselves when

using smartphones. Students with poor self-control were found to have the most harmful

effects from smartphone use on their academic performance; in terms of demographics,

Al-Barashdi et al. (2015) claim that gender and field of study can be used to predict

addiction. According to their evaluation of the literature, male and humanities students

are more vulnerable to smartphone addiction.

However, some research suggests that the surveys used to generate these links may

be incorrect, resulting in an estimate of actual usage (Lee et al., 2017; Boase & Ling, 2013;

Andrews et al., 2015). One problem is that surveys rely on aggregate data from "stylized"

questions (Juster & Stafford, 1985), such as "How many times do you check your

smartphone on average per day?" " (Gokcearslan et al., 2016), which requires users to

recollect activities and select a suitable averaging method (Kan & Pudney, 2008). On the

other hand, works relying on smartphone data for analyzing usage tend to focus on

addictedness on their own (Lee et al., 2017, 2014) or do not correlate usage patterns to

academic performance (Wang et al., 2015).

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design

The study used a descriptive – correlational research design to investigate the

impact of social media usage on students' academic performance. Social media usage will

serve as the independent variable, while academic performance will be the dependent

variable.

Participants

The study respondents were 879 senior high school students from public and

private schools in the Philippines.

Instrument

This study utilizes a questionnaire – Social Networking Usage Questionnaire to

assess the respondents' perception towards their social media usage. It has 19 items, and

the scale ranges from one to five (1 to 5), namely: Always, Often, Sometimes, Rarely,

and Never—furthermore, the Cronbach's alpha .83 (Gupta & Bashir, 2018).

Procedures

This research has taken an effective procedure to come up with reliable data.

Primarily, the researchers customized a survey that has been checked and undergoes

content validation to verify its reliability. And to obtain the vital results of this study

among the respondents, the researchers used an online survey utilizing Google form to

gather the data. Also, take notice that participation in this study is voluntary. Answering

the survey may take 20 minutes. Furthermore, participants were given assurance that

their responses would be kept with strict confidentiality and would only be used for

academic and research purposes. After the respondents finished answering the survey, the
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results were immediately recorded, and the researchers organized and computed all the

gathered data.

RESULTS

In this section, the data presentation, analysis, and interpretation of the study

results are being discussed. The gathered data are presented using tables, and each one

represents specific information. In addition, the general mean was measured by getting

the total mean of each statement.

Social Media Usage in terms of Academics

Table 1 presents how students use social media in concern for their academic

performance. With the least mean of 2.54, students rarely use social media to approach

teachers to help them and get the highest mean of 4.08, indicating students use social

media to communicate with friends and classmates for preparation of exams. In addition,

students use social media by sharing ideas using tutorial videos as a way of collaborative

learning with a mean of 3.51. By doing this, students are helping themselves to gain more

knowledge about a specific topic using social media. Furthermore, the scale shows 3.49

as the general mean of 7 questions related to academics. It indicates that social media

usage in terms of academics was high.

Table 1
Social Media Usage in terms of Academics

Statements Mean Verbal Interpretation

3. I use social networking sites to seek help

2.54 Low
from my teachers.
9. I use social networking sites for online
3.51 High
academic group discussion.
12. I use social networking sites to do
3.82 High
research work.
13. I use social networking sites to learn
3.36 Average
about my curricular aspects.
14. I communicate with my friends via
4.08 High
social networking sites for preparation of
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exam.
17. I use social networking sites for
3.51 High
collaborative learning.
18. I use social networking sites to solve
3.57 High
my academic problem.
3.49 High

Social Media Usage in terms of Socialization

Table 2 shows how students use social media sites in terms of socialization. With

the least mean of 2.78, the students prefer to attend a social gathering rather than spend

time using social media sites. With the highest mean of 4.16, the students usually use

their social media platforms to get current social events.

Table 2
Social Media Usage in terms of Socialization

Statements Mean Verbal Interpretation

1. I use social networking sites to become more
3.9 High
sociable.
2. I use social networking sites to keep in touch
3.96 High
with my relatives.
6. I use social networking sites to create my
3.29 Average
social identity.
7. I prefer using social networking sites to
2.78 Average
attending social gathering.
8. I use social networking sites to get
4.16 High
information regarding current social event.
3.65 High

Moreover, the scale shows that the general mean of the five questions related to

socialization is 3.65, which indicates that social media usage in terms of socialization is

high.

Social Media Usage in terms of Entertainment

It can be gleaned from Table 3 how social media usage affects the entertainment

performance of the students. Most of the students often use social media to share

pictures, with the smallest mean of 3.68. In contrast, students who use social media for
106 The Social Media Usage and Academic Performance of Filipino Learners
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watching movies have the highest mean of 4.33. Furthermore, the range shows 4.11 as

the general mean.

Table 3
Social Media Usage in terms of Entertainment

Statements Mean Verbal Interpretation

11. I use social networking sites for sharing 3.68 High
pictures.
15. I use social networking sites to get the relief 4.32 Very High
from academic stress.
16. I use social networking sites for watching 4.33 Very High
movies.
19. I use social networking sites to look at 4.12 High
funny sharing.
4.11 High

The result proves that social media usage in terms of entertainment is high.

Furthermore, most of the students use social media to relieve everyday stress caused by

academic performance and express themselves with social media sites. Students also use

it to watch movies to divest themselves of the stress caused by their academic

performance.

Social Media Usage in terms of Informativeness

In table 4, it was seen that students use social media for getting information

minimally about job-related information, with the least mean at 2.54. At the end of the

table, it was seen that students frequently use social media for reading news at the highest

mean of 3.44. Therefore, students also use social media for gathering information in

terms of political norms. They can express their concerns about the government to widen

their validity.

Table 4
Social Media Usage in terms of Informativeness
Statements Mean Verbal Interpretation
4. I use social networking sites for getting jobs 2.54 Low
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related information.
5. I use social networking sites to share new
3.18 Average
ideas.
10. I use social networking sites for reading news. 3.44 High
3.05 Average

This proves that social media is not only for academic concerns but also used in

logical means for the real world. In addition, with the general mean at 3.05, social media

usage in terms of informativeness is average.

Academic Performance of the Students

The level of academic achievement is shown below. The highest percentage

shown above was 53.36% which means that most of the respondents' academic

performance was between 80-84.

Table 5
Academic Performance of the Students
Grades Frequency Percentage Verbal Interpretation
90-100 56 6.37% Outstanding
85-89 315 35.84% Very Satisfactory
80-84 469 53.36% Satisfactory
75-79 39 4.43% Fairly Satisfactory
74 and below 0 0 Did Not Meet Expectations
879 100%

Furthermore, the average percentage of 35.84% shows that most of the students'

academic performance was between 85-89. In addition, having the rate of 6.37%, the 56

students' academic performance was between 90-100. Moreover, the respondents'

academic performance that got the lowest percentage of 4.43% was the scale between 75-

79.

Regression Analysis of Social Media Usage on Academic Performance

In assessing the impact of social media usage on the students' academic

performance, the researchers used the Regression Analysis. The researchers also used
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0.05 as the alpha to determine the significance of each subscale. It was shown in Table 6

that social media usage impacts the academics of the students. Contrary to this, social

media use in terms of Socialization, Entertainment, and Informativeness did not affect the

students' academic performance. Furthermore, the study accepted the alternative

hypothesis because social media usage and academic performance have significance with

the p-value of 0.003.

Table 6
Regression Analysis of Social Media Usage on Academic Performance
Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized t Sig.
Coefficients
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) 88.865 1.961 45.316 .000
Academics -1.775 .605 -.285 -2.932 .004
1 Socialization .823 .639 .128 1.289 .199
Entertainment -.672 .506 -.118 -1.328 .186
Informativeness -.019 .513 -.003 -.037 .970

R-Squared = 0.082
F-Value = 4.137
P-Value = .003
Alpha = 0.05

The researchers found out that the usage of social media significantly affects the

student's academic performance. Tamayo and Dela Cruz (2019) studied it to prove that

the two variables have a significant relationship. In addition, it shows that social media

usage for academics has the highest mean than other subscales.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The study investigates the impact of social media usage on students' academic

performance amidst the new normal of education. To get the impact of social media

usage on students' academic performance, the researchers calculated the mean of each

subscale given by the questionnaire itself. According to the general mean of each

subscale, it can be concluded that social media usage positively affects the students'
109 The Social Media Usage and Academic Performance of Filipino Learners
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academic performance.

Meanwhile, the level of social media usage that showed up primarily in

academics is high, which means many of the respondents use their social media platforms

to do their academic works. Even though the social media usage in terms of

informativeness is connected to academics, the general mean that showed is average

which means that the respondents rarely use their social media platforms in researching

for current situations. Contrary to this, the level of social media usage that showed up in

terms of entertainment is also high, which means that many of the respondents use their

social media platforms for their pleasure. Somehow, social media usage in terms of

socialization is also increased, meaning that the respondents use their social media

platforms to socialize and communicate with other people.

Furthermore, most of the respondents are using their time for academic purposes:

doing research work, an academic discussion with their classmates, and preparing for an

incoming examination, which means that the respondents are more interested in studying

using social media to gather more ideas from their recent lessons. Moreover, the students

use social media to gather news and share ideas. The respondents are wisely using their

allotted time for social media to study.

The study finds the impact of social media usage on the academic performance of

students. It shows that the students use social media to do academic works, get

information about current events, read the recent news, and many more. Furthermore,

students also use it for their enjoyment and pleasure, such as watching movies,

communicating with their friends and relatives, and looking at funny media. It is also a

way to unwind themselves from academic stress.

This study concluded that social media usage has a positive effect on students'

academic performance. This proves that social media has a significant impact on the
110 The Social Media Usage and Academic Performance of Filipino Learners
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environment, especially students.

Moreover, based on the findings of the study, the following are recommended. In

social media usage, the students used it as a convention to avail their reasonable

satisfaction. Therefore, social media may be used for practical things such as learning. It

shows that students know how sharing or watching educational movies can be used as an

alternative to using social networking. And since students use devices like mobile

phones, tablets, or laptops to captivate themselves and get relief from the stress they are

experiencing in their academic performance, it is also used as lecturing for their lessons

and talking about academic matters. Hence, parents are the ones who are continuously

monitoring them. They may guide their children in using social media to manage it

properly without invading their child's privacy. Also, teachers navigate the students to

use social media. It would be best if teachers could use social media to enhance the

students' academic overall performance. Social media sites can also help students seek

help from them; Lastly, Schools obtain the highest standard for academic performance.

Appropriately, schools may use social media as a platform for learning to help them

focus on their academic performance.

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