The Use of Social Networking Sites by Students - Research Paper Example

Abstract The study examines the manner in which social networking sites like Facebook is having an impact on students. A study was conducted over a random sample of 445 students to find out the manner in which social networking sites have an effect on their academic performance and personal development. The data which was collected is a random sample which was administered in the college. The findings show that female students spend a considerable high time on social networking sites than the male students. The result also highlighted that with age the time spent by both male and female students on social networking sites decreases. The result also showed that the academic performance of younger students was considerably affected due to social networking sites which thereby influenced their personal development. This impacted the rank of students as students who was less involved in social networking sites showed positive results. The result also highlighted positive correlations between the usage of social networking sites when students used social networking sites like Facebook to communicate with friends, relatives and others. Opposite correlation i.e. negative correlation was seen when students used social networking sites to search information which would improve awareness. The overall findings thereby revealed a positive linkage between the performances of students which includes personal development as students who surfed more on social networking sites were not able to perform as per the required standards. Table of Contents Introduction 3 Literature Review 4 Research Objective 7 Methodology 7 Ethical Consideration 8 Proposed Time Table & Budget 9 Result 10 Conclusion 15 References 17 Introduction The recent years have witnessed a growth in the use of social networking sites like Facebook; Twitter and so on, out of which Facebook is most widely used. The social networking sites are being used by over 90 million active in 2009 users out of which 85% of the user are student and college students going to different universities (Hendrix, Chiarella, Hasman, Murphy, & Zafron, 2009). The number of users is growing at a rapid pace and has more than 115 million users of Facebook and the pace at which it is growing the proportion is bound to increase year after year (Judd, 2010). The prime reason for which students are using the different social networking sites are for news feed, personal updates, events, notes and messages. The same has been replicated from a study which shows that in UK 49% of the students in the age bracket 8 to 17 years have developed their own profile and uses social networking sites (Dowdall, 2009). This raises concerns and questions regarding the manner social networking sites have an impact on students’ academic performance? It also raises questions regarding the manner social networking sites have an impact on the development of the students and the manner in which communication takes place between the students, friends and families. The report thereby looks to present the manner social networking sites have an impact on students’ academic performance? Apart from it the report also presents the manner in which social networking sites impacts their personal development and the differences that is seen with students who don’t use social networking sites. This will help to understand the overall impact in the development of the student and provide strategy for the future based on which their performance can be enhanced in the future. Literature Review The use of social networking sites by students has received mixed reactions from different studies which have been conducted in the same direction. A research conducted by Baran (2010) shows that the use of social networking sites like Facebook has a negative impact on the performance of the students but using social networking sites like Facebook is gaining prominence as it helps the teacher and students to socialize and discuss different issues with each other (Baran, 2010). This helps students to share knowledge in educational context and thereby helps to provide some positives through which development of a student takes place. This has been backed by another study which states that the use of social networking sites which uses different networking or blogs has helped to facilitate an environment through which education improves (Churchill, 2009). To achieve growth in education students have to use social networking sites for purposes which will help to improve the overall efficiency through which message is communicated and gives the educational edge. It is even identified that students using different social networking sites have a wide range of information in their profile pertaining to intimate, candid and other public information which covers a range of different social issues. This at times results in the students to be obsessed with their Facebook home page and spends a considerable amount of time on it (Bassford & Ivins, 2010). This has a negative impact on the performance of students and results in having an adverse effect on their personal development and studies. This has been supported by another study which states that students between the ages of 13 to 18 experiences a range of psychosocial crisis which creates identify and role crisis (Boon & Sinclair, 2009). The adolescents thereby focuses more on sexual identify, peer relations and other social pressure which thereby makes the students spend most of their time in this direction. This has an effect on their overall development and also results in students staying away from school and missing school with the objective of improving their social life (Boon & Sinclair, 2009). This has an effect on the development of a child and thereby has an impact on the overall development of a student. Haridakis & Hanson (2009) has highlighted that students spend a considerable amount of their time on social networking sites and are the heaviest user of computers and internet. This has an impact on their performance as the time which could have been used for their personal development and studies is instead spent on areas which will not provide the same productive result (Haridakis & Hanson, 2009). The growth and development of social networking sites which has different applications has increased the use of Facebook as students use the different applications and spend a lot of time in that direction (Bosch, 2009). The time which has been spent could have been used in a different direction and could have helped in the development of a student by bringing a change in their personal development which would have helped them for their future development (Gunawardena, Hermans, Sanchez, Richmond, Bohley & Tuttle, 2009). Facebook which is a social networking site has seen a rapid rise and growth in the number of people using the website and has raised questions which require to be researched to find out the deeper impacts it has on students. Since, its start in 2004 the use of Facebook has grown considerably and is being used by people all around the globe. Facebook has over 800 million users and with the growth in the number of users it has become a medium through which it is used as a marketing tool by marketers and audience to target different segment of the society. The statistics as shown above highlights that (a) 50% of the users are logged in all the time of the day; (b) a user has around 130 friends in his friends list; (c) there are over 900 million objects and applications which the user use; (d) Facebook is also available in different translations and is over 70 in umber; (e) the use of mobile which enables the use of social networking site has seen more than 350 million user using it which means that they are online all the time. The growth in the younger generation especially students between the age of 18 to 24 years is growing rapidly and accounts for more than 26,075,960 users in 2010 (Corbett, 2010). The rapid increase in the number of people especially students using Facebook clearly suggest that it has some impact on the performance of students with regard to academic, personal development, and lifestyle. Further research will help to understand the manner in which it impacts students Research Objective The study carries out the following research to find out the impact of social networking site on students Research Question 1: Is there a relationship that exists between social networking site usage by students and their academic performance? Research Question 2: Does there exist a relationship between social networking site usage and the personal development of the students which looks into different facets of the students development Methodology The research methodology conducted a survey which was done in the college through a non random sample of 445 students to find out the effect social networking site had on students. The sample size which was selected for the research included all type of students like freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students of all ages. The research was further administered through a questionnaire which had 11 close ended questions and 2 open ended questions. The entire survey for each individual student who formed the sample space was conducted at once and was done on the spot. The research also described the different variables which were used during the administered questionnaire so that the students taking part had no doubts and were able to answer the questions properly. Social networking site usage rate: This rate was determined as the amount of time that students spent social networking site for various activities like chatting, updates, browsing, photos or videos feed and so on. Students were asked questions regarding this by stating the amount of time they spent on social networking site during different time period and were determined by the time the students spent on the logged in profile. Academic Performance: This was determined as the students CGPA/GPA in the last semester and the expected result in the future. Personal Development: This was related to the different facets of a student like speaking skills, face to face communication, internship programs, and so on which determined the manner in which the student was getting shaped up for future responsibilities. Ethical Consideration The research which conducted over different respondents ensures that the ethical aspect was looked at. While drafting the questionnaire emphasis was laid on ensuring that students were selected on a random basis. Care was taken to ensure that no questions which could have an impact on the overall research objective were used. The research was carried in such a manner that it provided complete description regarding the manner in which decisions were taken. The overall aspect looked to ensure that ethics were given a priority and while looking to find out the manner in which decisions were affected so that proper analysis could be made. The ethical aspect also looked to provide the different directives through which the data was properly monitored and the data was not rigged. This helped to validate the result as it ensured that the data which was used helped to evaluate the data based on different areas. The data which was collected was also ensured that students of all age group were collected so that the validity of the research can increase. This will require the use of data through which different variables were tested and checked so that the overall research could help to achieve the objective which has been assigned (Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010). This will thereby help to increase the manner in which the research provided better results. Proposed Time Table & Budget The research was to be conducted through an administered questionnaire which would evaluate the manner in which the performance of students gets affected due to the usage of social networking site. The research was to be conducted within a period of 1 week after which the results will be examined. Further, the research was timed for being conducted after the results of the semester were out so that better analysis and the effect social networking site had on students’ performance could be analyzed (Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010). No proposed or defined budget was determined for the budget as the budget involved questionnaire which had to be filled by students and didn’t require any specialized person to carry out the research. The research would also be analyzed using SPSS which has been taught in the class and can be used by all. Further, the research was to be conducted in the college campus which would also ensure that no amount would be spent on travelling. Thus, the proposed budget would be very low due to which no budget was determined. Result To analyze the result for the data which was gathered through self administered questionnaire Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used. The entire survey was completed by around 90% of the respondents. Out of the total sample size 53.3% were males whereas the remaining 46.7% were females. A break up of the students based on experience showed that 20.4% were freshmen, 10% were sophomores, 23.6% were juniors, 26.5% were seniors and the rest were post graduate students. The result of the survey was as The survey highlighted that 191 were males who used social networking site where as 171 females used social networking site. Out of it 187 males used Facebook whereas 170 females used the same. A break up for males further highlighted that 43.% of the males devoted less than one hours for social networking site whereas the same for females was 24.4%. In a similar manner the different number of hours which students including both male and female students have been highlighted above The usage of social networking site between male and female showed significant differences between the number of hours devoted by them. A look at the time spent by both males and females on revising the academic related substance outside the classroom also showed significant differences. It was seen that around 44.8% of the male respondents spent around 1 to 2 hours for revising the academic related substance outside the classroom whereas 41.8% of the females pent around 3 to 4 hours on the same academic related revisions. The research further showed that both male and females spent a considerable amount of time for academic related studies outside the classroom and spent around 5 to 6 hours on it. To improve the validity of the research the entire respondents were broken into 2 groups which consisted of students belong between 20 years and below and the other having students above the age of 20. The result showed that 96.3% of the respondents belonging to students below the age of 20 years used social networking site while 94.8% of the respondents belonging to the age of above 20 years used social networking site. The result also highlighted significant differences between the usages of social networking site based on the time spent by them. The result showed that the time spent by students gradually decreases with age as younger students were found to spend considerable amount of time on social networking site. As students grew in age the time of spent on social networking site decreased considerably. The research also explored the manner in which the time spent by students had an effect on the academic performance which was evaluated on the basis of CGPA that the student had got in the last semester. The research showed that 370 valid respondents filled the item correctly out of which 34.7% of the respondents who spent one hour or less on social networking site got a CGPA of 3.01 on 4. In a similar was 4.4% of the respondents who spent around 6 hours or more per day on social networking site received a CGPA of 3.01 on 4. This thereby didn’t provide any significant relationship that existed between the time spent by students on social networking site and the effect it had on their academic performance. In a similar manner students who had got a low CGPA or failed in the semester didn’t highlight any significant relationship which will help to understand the manner in which the academic performance of students was affected due to social networking site. The result further highlighted that a relationship existed between the class rank of students and social networking site. This was examined based on different factors which showed that students who were able to use the social networking site productively to generate better social relations and support their academic performances were benefitted due to it. The use of social networking site for students in a positive manner helped to improve the overall performance of students and brought the required changes through which the academic performance improved. The research brought forward that social networking site helped juniors and seniors more compared to freshmen and sophomores as they were able to use the social networking site to develop proper networking and relationship which helped to improve the overall performance of the students. It was also indicated that freshmen were involved in more cuber bullying activities as compared to others which had an impact on their personal development and thereby had an effect on the overall development of students. This thereby highlighted that there existed a strong relationship between the field of study and the time devoted towards social networking site. This thereby had an impact on the performance of students and resulted in a change in personal development of a student. The research findings also highlighted the manner social networking site usage rate was used in the direction of networking with friends, relatives and others in comparison to searching relevant information to be used in the field of volunteers. This highlighted that the time spent by social networking site by students were mostly dominated by building positive relations and was aimed at networking. The objective of using social networking site was mostly for networking compared to other purpose which thereby had an impact on the performance and development of a student. Data also revealed that students had proper knowledge about the manner social networking site was impacting their personal development and the manner it will have an impact on them. Out of the total data which were researched 45.2% of the respondents believed that social networking site had a negative impact on their personal development whereas 29.7% of the respondents showed that the use of social networking site has a positive impact on the personal development of a student. On inquiring about the different manner in which social networking site had an impact on their personal development showed different reasons to be as time consumption on social networking site, distraction, relaxation, communication, knowledge, assistance, and so on. The different factors revealed that the students had different reasons for using or not using social networking site which thereby impacted the personal development of a student. The overall analysis thereby highlighted the manner in which social networking site had an effect on the performance of students and bought forward the different areas and direction based on which the performance of a student gets altered. The overall perception that students have is negative which shows that social networking site impacts the students negatively and thereby brings a change in the attitude of students. The growth and development of social networking sites which has different applications has increased the use of Facebook as students use the different applications and spend a lot of time in that direction. The time which has been spent could have been used in a different direction and could have helped in the development of a student by bringing a change in their personal development which would have helped them for their future development Conclusion The study thereby examined the manner in which social networking site has an effect on the performance of students. Results highlighted that female students spend a considerable amount of time on social networking site compared to male students. It was also analyzed that both male and female students spend time on social networking site. Significant differences were observed with regard to the use of social networking site with regard to age as students who became older reduced the use of social networking site like Facebook. The perception of the students regarding the manner social networking site affected their personal development showed a negative perception as students believed that their performances were impacted due to the increase use of social networking site. Correlation was observed with regard to the age and the use of social networking site which was further strengthened when gender was considered. The result didn’t highlight any significant impact on the academic performance of students using social networking site in comparison to those not using it. This was primarily due to the fact that the research was based on results of one semester and ensuring a wider data which uses results from different semester for the same sample space will further help to understand the manner in which the performance gets impacted. The entire research thereby answered the research questions which were posted and looked towards strengthening the fact that the performance of students gets affected due to different factors along with social networking site. It shows that the students have a negative perception on the use of social networking site which thereby impacts their personal development. References Baran, B. 2010. Facebook as a formal instructional environment. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41 (6), E146-E149. Bassford, M., & Ivins, J. 2010. Encouraging formative peer review via social networking sites. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(5), E67-E69. Boon, S., & Sinclair, C. 2009. A world I don’t inhabit: disquiet and identity in Second Life and Facebook. Educational Media International, 46(2), 99-110. Bosch, T. 2009. Using online social networking for teaching and learning: Facebook use at the University of Cape Town. COMMUNICATIO, 35(2), 185-200. Churchill, D. 2009. 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