Excessive Browsing on Social Media and Effects in the Teaching Learning Process. Case of Study Some Selected Secondary School in Yaounde
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
The specific objectives of the study were:
- To identify social media platforms and their usage by the students in Yaounde.
- To ascertain the reasons or purposes for the students’ use of social media.
- To determine amount of time the students spend on social media and the amount of time they spend studying.
- To examine and compare social media usage rates across faculties.
- To explore the effects of social media use on students’ academic performance.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
Creswell (2014) defines literature review as “a written summary of journal articles, books, and other documents that describes the past and current state of information on the topic of your research study. It organizes the literature into subtopics, and documents the need for a proposed study. In the most rigorous form of research, educators base this review mainly on research reported in journal articles. A good review, however, might also contain other information drawn from conference papers, books, and government documents”.
Social Media
According to Leyrer-Jackson and Wilson (2018), social media are “websites and technological applications that allow its users to share content and/or to participate in social networking”. According to Feuls, Fieseler and Suphan (2014), some of the web services that can be categorized as social media include “wikis, forums, multimedia platforms (YouTube, Flickr), blogs (word press), microblogs (Twitter), social games, social networking sites (Facebook), and instant messaging”. According to DePietro (2013), “social media are all about connecting individuals to communities of people who have elected to become part of that network, because these individuals want to engage as much as possible and as often as possible with that network”.
Bamigboye and Olusesan (2017) also define social media as “internet-based applications which are built on the technological foundations of Web 2.0 allows for collaborations, exchanging of user-owned contents and ideas”. One of the most popular channels of communication and social interaction worldwide with ubiquitous access currently is social media (Gotti, 2016). “Social media activities include; bloggings, picture-sharing, v logs, wall postings, emailing, instant messaging, music sharing, crowd sourcing and voice over IP, to name a few” (Bamigboye and Olusesan, 2017). Social media is currently the most preferred means through which individuals, businesses, family and friends, organisations, institutions and especially students interact and share information without distance barriers (Asare-Donkoh, 2018). Social media enhances knowledge and skills sharing, group interactions and collaborative learning among students.
Web 2.0 or Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are other terms for social media. In the year 2004, Tim O’Reilly was the first to use the term “Web 2.0”. O’Reilly (2005) as cited in Lwoga (2014) defines Web 2.0 as “network platform, spanning all connected devices”. Boyd and Ellison (2007) also state that “social networking sites are web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system”.
With Facebook for instance, a subscriber of the social network establishes friendship with another person, the new friend links up the member to many other friends for online engagement. There is therefore an endless growth of friends which becomes cyclical as one becomes connected to the friends of his friend(s). Social media makes use of digital platforms to facilitate dialogue, creation of contents (visual and textual) and sharing of information among members in the virtual communities (Freberg, 2012).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
According to Kothari and Garg (2014), “research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem.
The methodology for this study is as follows: the research design, selection of the case(s), population, sample size, sampling technique, data collection instrument, data collection procedure and methods of data analysis.
Research Design
According to Kothari and Garg (2014), “a research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure”. The research design is actually the framework within which research is undertaken; it comprises the pattern or guide for collecting, measuring and analyzing data. It encompasses a synopsis of the researcher’s work from hypothesis formulation and its operational implications to the end of data analysis. The methodology used for this research was the survey methodology. Survey research involves asking questions about people’s beliefs, opinions, characteristics, perceptions and behaviour. A survey researcher may want to make an inquiry concerning the relationship between characteristics of respondents such as age, education, social class, race and current attitudes towards a particular issue. The survey enables information to be gathered from a large sample of people relatively quickly and less costly by the researcher (Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen and Walker, 2014). The adoption of the survey methodology for this study enabled the researcher to collect data from a larger number of respondents, which otherwise would have been difficult. It also enabled information to be obtained on the respondents’ social media use relatively quickly and less costly.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
Introduction
This chapter analyses data collected from the survey by the use of questionnaire and the presentation of the results of the study. It analyses the data with regard to the objectives of the study. The chapter is divided into two (2) sections. The first section captures biographic data and the rest of the sections are based on the objectives of the study. A total number of 400 copies of questionnaire were distributed to respondents and 390 were returned for analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary of Findings
This study sought to find out how students use social media and also determine whether their use has any effects on their academic performance. The summary of the main findings are presented below.
Social Media Platforms and their Usage by Students
The study revealed that all the students, 390 (100%) who participated in this study from the two institutions were social media users. The most popular or used social media platform was WhatsApp, followed by Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Skype in the order of frequency. Some of the electronic devices mostly used for accessing social media were mobile phones, smartphones and laptop computers. Most of the students had large number of friends and followers online which influenced their frequency of social media visits. The study also revealed that majority of the students were addicted to social media use and got deprived of quality sleep, especially at night due to their use of social media while others were not. Most of the students also indicated that they were not left out of the selfie culture while others were addicted to the practice.
Reasons or Purposes for Using Social Media
The study revealed that students of Bilingual High School of Yaoundé used social media for a variety of reasons or purposes. Entertainment or recreation was the main purpose for their social media use. Latest or up-to-date news and events was the next purpose due to their desire to be abreast of current developments and happenings around. The other reasons or purposes were socialization, learning or academic work as well as for leisure.
The Time Students Spent on Social Media and the Time they Spent Studying
The study revealed that students of Bilingual High School of Yaoundé spent many hours on social media platforms per day as against the time they spent studying. As majority of the students 126 (32.3%) spent as few as 1-2 hours for studies every day, as high as 99 (25.4%) of the students spent 4-5 hours using social media every day. The Chi-Square test revealed a negative relationship between time spent on social media and time spent studying on daily basis.
Effects of Social Media on Students’ Academic Activities
On the effects of social media on students’ academic activities, students responded to statements using a five point Likert scale. As some were neutral and stated they did not lack quality sleep, more than one-third admitted (agreed and strongly agreed) they lacked quality sleep due to their social media use and affected their academic performance. Also, as some of the students were ‘undecided’ and others did not agree to distraction on their studies, a significant number admitted (agreed and strongly agreed) that social media caused a distraction to their academic work. Again, as one-third 130 (33.3%) of the students admitted that a reduction in their social media use would result in a higher Academic performance, some did not agree while others were undecided. Although some of the students interacted on social media during class hours and at lectures, others did not. Besides, on study regime, as majority were undecided whether they kept to their study timetable or not, one-third of the students indicated they were able to stick to their study timetable while almost the same number struggled to do so because of their use of social media. Furthermore, some of the students were undecided and others admitted while a majority did not admit (disagreed and strongly disagreed) that the use of social media negatively affected their academic performance.
Conclusion
The impact of the information revolution in our current generation cannot be overemphasized. It offers effective means for communication and interactions between individuals, organizations and groups of people worldwide. Technological advancement, especially social media, is the order of the day and serves as an antidote to the challenges associated with the former means of communication and information sharing. It is therefore not surprising that a significant percentage of the world’s population are active social media users. Students of almost all levels of education are not left out in the use of social media due to its immense benefits, notwithstanding the negative effects. Several studies suggest that social media use by students has negative effects on their academic performance while others indicate positive effects. As the use and gratification theory of Katz et al. (1974) indicates, an individual’s choice of media contests with other sources of information. Social media platforms rival against students’ concentration and academic work. Again, the social learning theory by Bandura (1997) situates that the learning outcomes (academic performance) of students are affected by the students’ choice of situation (social media use) and peers (friends and followers online). Since the use of social media has become inevitable among students, it is imperative that students are made aware of its effects (both positive and negative) in order to derive maximum benefits from it.
Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made:
Integration of Social Media Topics in the Classroom
Firstly, the researcher recommends to university management the integration of topics relating to social media use in the classroom by instructors and implementers, especially the pros and cons, to enable students make informed decisions and responsible use of social media. Also, social media accounts must be opened purposely for courses instead of personal ones.
Regulation of Students’ Social Media Use in Class
Most students use social media in class, lectures or school hours which cause a lot of distraction and affect them academically. It is therefore recommended to university and school authorities to have policies or rules that regulate the use of social media by students. Students should be restricted from using social media during class sessions, lectures and other academic activities.
Provision of Facilities to Support Social Media Use
Despite some negative effects associated with social media use, it is also beneficial to students’ academic work. It is therefore recommended to stakeholders of education, including government and educational authorities to make constant provision of facilities that support the use of technology including social media such as internet, Wi-Fi connectivity, etc. to enhance students’ learning.
Allotment of Quality Time for Studies
It is also recommended to students to strive to allot more quality time to their studies as against the time they spend on social media platforms in order to enhance their academic performance. This may also help them to develop the right attitudes and become more responsible for future endeavours.
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