The Impact of Social Media on Students’ Academic Performance Among Senior High School Students
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
MAIN OBJECTIVE
The main objective of this study is to investigate the impacts of social media on student‘s academic performance in high schools in urban areas.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
1.To find out the kind of information high school students seek on online social media.
2.To establish what other purpose, apart from communication, students use social media
3.To establish whether online social media are used by students to improve their academic
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
In order to carry out this research, the researcher will conduct his research will conduct relevant literature of past authors. In order to ensure authenticity, the researcher will consult literature that was produced with the past ten years. The literature review will follow the outline below.
- Introduction
- Conceptual framework
- Theoretical Framework
- Empirical review
- Summary
The Concept of Social Media
Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) defined social media as “Internet based applications that allow the creation and exchange of content which is user generated” (p.61). They stated that social media was first known in1979, when Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis from Duke University created the Usenet, a worldwide discussion system that allowed Internet users to post public messages; and also when Bruce and Susan
Abelson founded “Open Diary” in 1998.Open Diary was an early social networking site in which members of a certain community shared their daily diary online and the word “blog” was first used at the same time. Before the second stage of development of the Internet, “Web 2.0,” in the late 1990’s, users browsed only for the aim of getting information through reading from various resources and watching videos (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) users at this time were considered consumers not participants. It was mentioned in Ritzer and Jurgenson (2010) study (as cited in Obar & Wildman, 2015) afterwards, Web 2.0, representing the second stage of the Internet development namely “User Generated Content (UGC)”, Internet users were transformed from being consumers and participants to “prosumers” which means that they consume and produce media (as cited in Obar & Wildman, 2015). These new affordances are what made the applications and dynamic interaction of social networking possible. Some of the common features that qualify a tool to be considered a social networking site are: enabling users to communicate with each other in an easy way and allowing users to exchange information, pictures and messages (Dijck, 2011). There are many forms of social media, presented in the table below, which allow users to interact with other media users of their choice.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN
This research employed descriptive survey research design.. It is as a plan that describes how, when and where data are to be collected and analyzed (Parahoo, 1997). Descriptive survey research design is a method of collecting information by interviewing or administering a questionnaire to a sample of individuals (Orodho, 2003).This design aims to study existing relationships, prevailing practices, beliefs and attitudes held, processes and effect of developing trends. It can be used when collecting information about people, attitudes, opinions, habits or any of the variety of education or social issues (Orodho & Kombo, 2002).
This study aimed at collecting information from teachers and students in high schools in Uyo on the impacts of social media on academic performance. Primary sources of data were used. Primary sources of data include questionnaires and interviews. This research design was relevant to this study because the researcher used interview and questionnaire to collect information which are the same instruments used in this research design.
Research area
This study was carried out in Uyo, Akwa ibom state. The sample was drawn from high schools in Uyo which was picked through non probability sampling technique.
Population
The research population for this study was drawn from high schools in Uyo. This is in line with the contention by Kothari (2004) who defines the target population as the total number of respondents in the total environment of interest. The target population of this study was students in high schools in Uyo Akwa ibom state. There are 66 high schools in Uyo. The approximate population of students in high schools in Uyo is 26,400 students. Senior high students were the key respondents in this study because they are the ones using social media and the main concern of this study. The researcher picked this population with the assumption that students attending the high schools in Uyo come from economically able backgrounds thus have more access to internet.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS
According to Babbie (2004) quantitative analysis is the numerical representation and manipulation of observations for the purpose of describing and explaining the phenomena that those observations reflect. The feedback collected from the respondents‘ questionnaires was coded, entered and analyzed using a computer through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 16) programs that the findings of the study can be uncovered. Findings from the interviews conducted were also used to answer the research questions for this study.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
This study aims to shed the light on the social media effects on the academic performance of university students in Nigeria and aims to clarify to different stakeholders the relationship between the social media usage and academic performance and to harness full potential of social media. Interestingly, this study shows that there are three different students opinion of the social media effect on their academic performance, according to the survey analysis and the focus group discussions; the students are divided into three groups. The first group believes that social media have a positive effects on their academic performance, the second group believes that social media have a negative effect on their academic performance, and the third group believes that social media does not have any effects on their academic performance. As per the focus group discussions, each group has discussed how do they perceive this effect and why do they think that this effect take place. For instance, the positive effects group mentioned that using social media as a way of communication in discussing course related contents have a positive effect on their academic performance, the negative effects group mentioned that their addiction to social media takes away from their studying time which have a negative effects on their academic performance, and the no effects group mentioned that social media have nothing to do with their academic performance and as long as they know how to control their time nothing will affect their academic performance. The discussion and the results show that the relationship between the social media use and the academic performance depends on the students’ usage of social media. This explains the negative correlation between the students’ academic GPA and the time they spend on social media, which can be addressed by increasing the students’ awareness about the social media addiction effects. Furthermore, the results of the present study show that the majority of the participants use social media for academic related purposes as a mean of communication, they use it connect with their colleagues in order to discuss class related contents. Higher education institutions in Egypt may utilize this fact in creating a semiformal social media networks to be monitored by teacher assistants to better assist the students and to insure the credibility of the exchanged information between students. Also, faculty might consider harnessing on this engagement with social media, and think of ways to creatively engage students with class content. Social media awareness for students is needed to address the social media addiction issue. Significant differences in the behavior of students from different academic majors and different academic status in perceiving and using social media emerged which might require further investigation. Also, using social media as a communication platform in discussing course related content falls with the development of communities of learners which is seemingly on high demand, this area might require further investigation.
From the collected and analysed, it can be concluded that the exposure to social media by undergraduate students in Uyo students is high and this has negative effect on their performance.
Recommendations
The paper therefore makes the following recommendations:
- Students should reduce their exposure to social media and pay more attention to their studies.
- Students, especially those willing to record huge academic success should guide themselves against the use of social media.
- The government, schools and other well to do individuals should encourage hardwork by rewarding successful students through scholarship schemes and other incentives.
- The government should consider the possibility of evolving a policy on teenagers’ exposure to social media.
References
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