IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS OF

UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

The adoption level of emerging web technologies is rapidly growing in educational settings.

Given the widespread popularity of social media, it has become essential to understand and adopt

social media sites to develop future educational plans as well as deploy current course material

on new technologies. The social media has become of the most importance communication

means in recent time. However, social networking exists so as to provide communication among

people regardless of the distance, making it open to people easily share information, files and

pictures and videos, create blogs and send messages, and conduct real-time conversation. The

evolution of internet technology has led to its use as the best medium for communication.

Whereby, two-third of the world’s internet population visits social networking or blogging sites,

thus serving as a communication and connection tool. Social networking sites (SNSs) are online

Communities of Internet users who want to communicate with other users about areas of mutual

interest, whether from a personal, 2 business or academic perspective‖ (William, Boyd, Densten,

Chin, Diamond & Morgenthaler 2009). The millions of social networking sites have transformed

the thought of global village into a reality whereby billions of people communicate through

social networking sites. Numerous benefits have been obtained through distant communication

through the use of social networking sites. Academic excellence or achievement plays an

important role in an individual placement, be it in the academic institutions or job placement.

Due to this, many people are concerned with the ways they can enhance their academic

achievement. The emphasis on academic excellence which is also prevalent worldwide has
encouraged many studies about the conditions promoting it. The role of academic achievement

as one of the predictors of one’s life success and also in the aspect of academic placement in

schools to higher institutions as well as the level of employability in one’s career is inevitable

(Kyoshaba, 2009). As we are living in a networking era, the tremendous growth of the internet

has a high impact on the development of the students in which they interact and socialize. During

this era, communication is the most popular term. Today, communication revolution brought us

together regardless of geographical boundaries. The internet offers a wide variety of

communication tools. Billions of people use facilities like search engines, web pages, e-mails,

Really Simple syndication (RSS), e-journals, e- newspapers, internet banking, internet telephony,

conferencing, multi-media sharing, online news rooms, social networking. Academic

performance, which is measured by the examination results, is one of the major goals of a

school. Hoyle (1986) argued that schools are established with the aim of imparting knowledge

and skills to those who go through them and behind all this is the idea of enhancing good

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). Social networking sites although has been recognized as an important resource for

education today, studies however shows that students use social networking sites such as

Facebook for fun, to kill time, to meet existing friends or to make new ones (Ellison, Steinfield,

and Lampe 2007). Although it has been put forward that student spends much time on

participating in social networking activities, with many students blaming the various social
networking sites for their steady decrease in grade point averages (Kimberly, Jeong and Lee,

2009), it also shows that only few students are aware of the academic and professional

networking opportunities the sites offered. According to Kuppuswamy and Shankar (2010),

social network websites grab attention of the students and then diverts it towards non-educational

and inappropriate actions including useless chatting. Whereas on the other hand, (Liccardi,

Ounnas, Massey, Kinnunen, Midy, & Sakar. 2007) reviewed that the students are socially

connected with each other for sharing their daily learning experiences and do conversation on

several topics. Tinto (1997) argued that extracurricular activities and academic activities are not

enough to satisfy some student those who are suffered by social networking isolation. This

shows that social networks are beneficial for the students as it contributes in their learning

experiences as well as in their academic life. Trusov, Bucklin, & Pauwels (2009) noted that the

Internet is no doubt evolution of technology but specifically social networks are extremely

unsafe for teenagers, social networks become hugely common and well-known in past few years.

According to Cain (2009) social network websites provide ease of connecting people to one

another; free 5 of cost and after connecting one can post news, informative material and other

things including videos and pictures etc. Wiley and Sisson (2006) argued that the previous

studies have found that more than 90% of tertiary school students use social networks. In the

same way Ellison et al (2007) stated that the students use social networking websites

approximately 30 minutes throughout the day as a part of their daily routine life. This statement

shows the importance of social networking websites in students’ life. Lenhart and Madden

(2007) revealed through a survey that students strongly recommend social networking websites

to stay in touch with friends to keep informed and aware.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
In recent times social media have been a major stay in the minds of students and the world at

large thereby causing a lot of drastic measure by students, teacher and even educational

administrators at large. It is therefore of great importance to explore some of the trending issues

facing students’ academic performance as a result of social media. Students at all levels of

learning now have divided attention to studies, as a result of available 7 opportunities to be

harnessed from social media. Whether these opportunities promote studies is a question that

needs to be answered

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study generally is to examine the influence of Social Media on the Academic

Performance of students in the University of Cape Coast.

Specifically, this study seeks;

1. To examine the level of student addictiveness to social media and the influence on their

academic performance.

2. To determine the social media network that the students are more exposed to and the influence

on their academic performance.

3. To ascertain how age has influence on students’ usage of social media network.

Research Questions

The following research questions were raised;

1. To what extent would student addictiveness to social network influence their academic

performance?
2. Does the social media network that the students are more exposed to influence their academic

performance?

3. In what way do younger and older students influence the use of social media?

LITERATURE REVIEW

To shed light on the positive and negative sides of using social media in general, as well as

discover its effects on students’ academic performance, existing studies were reviewed. Studies

found out that academic outcome of students who spent most of their time interacting using

social media are positive because they were able to share and generate ideas and concepts related

to their studies. They also use these sites for having fun as these social media sites are helpful in

their academic work. A similar study revealed that online social media had improved the

communication between the faculty member and students which facilitate the communication of

the correct information and improve understanding and the development of the ideas and the

courses. Based on the information collected, it is noticeable to say that the use of the social

media during the lecture time is not recommended. Mensah &Nizam concluded in their study

that social media platforms have a significant impact on students’ academic performance in

Malaysia tertiary institutions. Nevertheless, among the six variables used in their study, time

appropriateness and health addiction have a stronger significant influence on students’ academic

performance. This is because time management plays an essential role in determining the success

and failure of an individual. Thus, students who lack time management can easily fall prey to the

negative impact of social media. Likewise, health and addiction, students who are engrossed with
social media platforms ends up skipping meals which has health impact. According to the study

of Owusu-Acheaw & Larson, it was revealed that the use of social media had affected the

academic performance of their respondents negatively and further International Journal of

Advanced Information Technology (IJAIT) Vol. 8, No.4/5, October 2018 29 confirmed that there

was a strong positive relationship between the use of social media and academic performance.

Their study further revealed that most of their respondents use social media sites to chat rather

than for academic purpose. Based on the study of Alwagait, Shazad and Alim, it was found that

social media usage on weekly basis displayed a positive skew where most students do not use

social media excessively. Respondents in their study felt that time management and football were

factors that contributed towards negative academic performance besides excessive social media

use. Study in Kogi State University found out that the exposure of the students to social media

have effect on their academic performance. Evident show that social media have negative

influence on the academic performance of students. Students who spend more time on social

media are likely to perform poorly in their academics this is because instead of reading books,

thy spend time chatting and making friends via social media and this will definitely have

negative effect on their academic performance. Another study shows that students are not only

affected by social media, employees and employers too. A U.K. firm released a study showing

that people who use Facebook, Twitter and other social networks while at work extracts a heavy

cost on their employers. According to Kolan and Dzadza[8], the nature of social media as a

useful servant but a dangerous master and a two-edge sword has been revealed in the findings of

the study. Despite the benefits that students can harness from social media networks such as

sharing of information, building relationship, partaking in group discussion, there is to some

extent addiction and distraction of attention caused by the use of social media which could have
serious consequences on the academic life of students. One of the negative effect of social media

is piracy. The primary motivator for Australians of all ages illegally downloading movies and

TV shows is that it is free. According to Landry, social media a tool that could be used for good

or bad, it all depends on the person. Social media has its layers of good and bad. Yes, it is easier

to remember the bad rather than the good but, social media sites have created opportunities for

people all over the world.

Though social media can increase student learning through student interactions, challenges arise

when social media are incorporated into an academic course. The assumption that students are

familiar with and agreeable to using certain types of social media can cause educators to

inadvertently fail to provide the resources or encouragement necessary to support student usage

and learning (Cole, 2009; Väljataga & Fiedler, 2009). Arnold and Paulus (2010) found that even

when social media is used for an educational purpose, students incorporate the technology into

their lives in a way that may differ from the intentions of the course instructor. For example, off-

topic or non-academic discussions occur on social media because of its primary design as a

social networking tool (Lin et al., 2013). Further, as a student’s age increases, the frequency of

off-topic discussions also increases (Lin et al., 2013). This indicates that while social media may

encourage broader discussions of course content, older students may spend more time than

younger students engaging in unrelated discussions. Social media can also negatively affect

student GPA as well as the amount of time students spend preparing for class (Annetta et al.,

2009; Junco, 2012b). One explanation for this impact is that social media provides too much

stimulation and therefore can distract students from completing their coursework (Hurt et al.,

2012; Patera et al., 2008). Another reason for this may be that students who spend more time on

social media may have difficulty balancing their online activities and their academic preparation.
SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY

Social media can also be a challenging instructional strategy to incorporate because it attempts to

balance the authority of the educator with the active participation of the students. Collaboration

through social media supports more of a constructivist approach to learning, where students and

educators can work together to co-create understanding of a particular topic, rather than an

approach that emphasizes individual contributions (Stevens, 2009). As a result, students and

educators become equal participants in the knowledge sharing process. Though this seems

beneficial for creating and disseminating knowledge, social media can also become a privacy

concern; that is cyber-plagiarismas: well as an outlet for abuse and cyber-bullying. This suggests

that establishing standards for social media use should include behavior and attitude guidelines

similar to those enforced in the classroom. According to Kuppuswamy and Shankar (2010) social

network websites grab attention of the students and then diverts it towards non-educational and

inappropriate actions including useless chatting. Based on the above statement we can say that

social networking sites may badly affect the academic life and learning experiences of the

student. Trusov, Bucklin, and Pauwels (2009) noted that the Internet is no doubt evolution of

technology but specifically social networks are extremely unsafe for teenagers, social networks

become hugely common and well-known in past few years. This research is conducted to explore

the effect of social networking websites and its impact on academic life and learning experiences

of students. As Kuppuswamy and Shankar (2010) explained that the social networks grab the

total attention and concentration of the students and diverts it towards non educational, unethical

and inappropriate actions such as useless chatting, time killing by random searching and not

doing their jobs. Students and teenagers mostly use social networks for time killing and sake of

enjoyment but it has been analyzed that internet use for education purpose and any appropriate
task including online tutorials, online lectures and education material downloading is very good

but use of internet for only social network is very useless perhaps dangerous.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

This theoretical framework shows the dependency and independency of factors gender, frequent

use of networking sites. Use of social networking websites depends upon the above four factors

so use of social networking is dependent and the above four are independent variables; Whereas,

the academic performance depends upon the use of social networking websites in this case,

academic performance is a dependent variable and the use of social networking sites is an

independent variable.
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