Impact of Social Networking Sites on Academic Performance of Students

This study explores the impact of social networking sites on the academic performance of students. It examines the adverse effects of excessive usage of social media on their studies and offers suggestions to manage the current trend.

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Impact of Social Networking Sites on Academic
Performance of Students
1 Prof. Asha.N 2 Prof Shashikala 3 Prof Nandini S
Vice Principal Asst.Prof. Asst.Prof.
2,3 Department of Management
1,2,3 Sindhi College
Reva University
#33/2B, Kempapaura, Hebbal, Bangalore: 560 024
ABSTRACT
Today’s world is a global village. Everyone is connected to one another in this network generated by the
Internet. As said by Marshall Mc Luhan, a philosopher of communication theory, “The new electronic
independence re-creates the world in the image of a global village”. This electronic independence is inherently
dependent upon the Internet. It illuminates the lives of thousands of people by spreading knowledge
internationally, thereby making us global citizens. But unfortunately, the students instead of using them for
enhancing their knowledge are significantly led by distraction that is brought by the entire social media sites,
making them to spend lesser time on studies and more on the use of various social media.
The study intends to find out the impact of social networking sites and assess its adverse effects on their
academic performance. It also tries to throw light on the various factors leading to their poor academic
performance due to excessive usage of the social media. The study also intends to offer suggestions to manage
the current trend of using the social media and cope up with their studies as well as bringing a balance
between the effective usage of the social media and their studies
Key Words: Social Networking, Social Media, Academic Performance
INTRODUCTION
Social networking websites are currently being used regularly by millions of people. The Internet is
more than just a means of seeking information. People discovered that the Internet could be used to connect
with other people, whether for business or commercial purpose, make new friends, reawaken old friends and
long lost relatives. The use of social networking sites has been widespread that they have not only caught the
attention of academic and industry researchers worldwide but also us, in particular. Social networking sites are
now being investigated by numerous social science researchers and an increasing number of academic

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commentators are becoming more and more interested in studying Face book, Twitter, and other social
networking services, because of their probable impact on academic performance. The students of the modern
generation are not only well versed with the usage of the social networking but are also succumbing to the peer
pressure of becoming members of these sites.
While the social networking sites have the same key aspects, the cultures and responses around them
that become apparent are varied. Most sites help strangers connect with others based on shared personal
interests, political and economic views, or simply recreational activities. Some sites accommodate distinct
viewers, while others attract people based on similarities, such as common languages or shared religious, racial,
sexual or nationality-based identities. Nonetheless, social networking sites have only one common goal. It is to
encourage new ways to communicate and share information.
Many students always log in to their account on Face book, Twitter, etc. as a part of their everyday
routine. Millions of students are logging in to these social networking sites, everyday. That’s why many
students have been blaming various social networking sites for their steady decrease in grade point averages.
This emergent phenomenon aroused us to look into social networking sites and why they affect fellow student’s
academic performances.
The target population for this research was defined as the students who form the major chunk of users of
these social networking sites. This was done to have a better insight into the research as the target population
was one of the most avid users of these sites and could provide exceptional responses. Even the understanding
of the questionnaire was easy for them as they were familiar with the sites and are quite clear about the reasons
they use it for and the various problems that they now face because of the effects of using these social
networking sites.
The responses were collected by personal questioning through questionnaire. The responses were taken from
the students in Sindhi College.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1. To find out the influence of social networking sites on the academic performance of students.
2. To analyse the impact factor of these social networking sites on the academic performance.
3. To offer suggestions to mitigate the effects of social networking sites.
4. To ponder upon the potential of social media as a means to build and stay in touch with all
known people, without affecting the academic performance.

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5. To evaluate the positive and negative effects of social media on academic performance.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study aims to explain the importance of the proper usage of social networking sites. It aims to point out
particularly the adverse effects it poses to student’s daily lives. These sites evidently have a lot of positive
effects, but they also have their share of negative impact. In order to provide much help, this study would like
to give enlightenment to the said phenomena. We would like to provide, through this research, information
about the impact of these sites to students that would hopefully lead to a realization of their own standing in
terms of SNS (Social Networking Sites) addiction. We also would like to give a certain form of guidance to
those who are delved in situations aforementioned. Lastly, we would like to provide evidences that would
solidify the support on controlling the usage of social networking sites, thus reducing the risk of assimilating
such addicting activities.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Transition in behavior has led the youth to explore new patterns of information and perform multitasking.
Though, this multitasking has to affect the time utility and distribution in both positive and negative ways. One
significant effect of these channels is on the student’s academic performance and several empirical studies have
reported that the excessive unproductive time spent on social networking sites have affect the students grades.
(Facebook and Academic Performance)
SNS do affect one’s academic performance adversely. It causes the gradual drop in the grades of the students
directly. It affects the student’s academic performance if he/she invests his/her time in SNS instead in his/her
studies. Wasting time is a major issue in this regard. SNS are highly addictive to those people who cannot
control themselves into constantly using these sites, prioritize entertainment over work and gives to much
attention to social acceptance and affiliation. The situation is that if a student gives too much time to SNS, there
is an ultimately decrease in academic performance. (SNS affects one’s academic performance adversely)
FACEBOOK users may feel socially successful in e-world but they are more likely to perform poorly in
exams, according to new research into the academic impact of the social networking website. Mostly students
spend a lot of time on these sites during exams instead of on preparation for their exams. The research shows
that students who used Facebook had a “significantly” lower performance in their studies than those who did
not use the site. The majority of students who use Facebook every day are underachieving in their academics as
compared with those who shun the site. Researchers have discovered how students who spend their time
accumulating friends, gossiping and poking others on the site may devote as little as one hour a week to their

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academic work and that Facebook directly causes lower results in academics, merely that there’s some
relationship between the two factors. Facebook users are just prone to interruption.
Same as mentioned above, Social networking site like Facebook becomes an issue as people relates this with
academic performance. Many researchers are working to explore the correlation between social networking
sites and academic performance. Those students, who use Facebook and twitter, have shorter span of attention
in classrooms. Such sites create many problems for teachers because abbreviations commonly used on sites
such as Twitter and Facebook are also making it into coursework, essays and experiment write-ups. .
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:
A theoretical framework is the foundation of Hypothetic-Deductive research, as it is the basis of the hypothesis
that you will develop. A theoretical framework represents your beliefs on how certain phenomena, variables or
concepts are related to each other i.e. a model and an explanation of why you believe that these variables are
associated with each other i.e. a theory.
The process of building a theoretical framework includes three basic features:
 Introducing definitions of concepts or variables in your model.
 Developing a conceptual model that provides a descriptive representation of your theory.
 Coming up with a theory that provides an explanation for relationships between the variables in your
model.
A conceptual model helps you to structure your discussion of the literature. A conceptual model describes how
the concepts in your model are related to each other. A good model is based on a sound theory. A theory or a
clear explanation for the relationships in your model is the last component of the theoretical framework. A
theory attempts to explain the relationships between the variables in your model.
SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:
Following is the schematic diagram of independent and dependent variables which we found after the review of
the literature:
In the above diagram, social networking sites is independent variable and student academic performance is
dependent variable. Now, we define our independent and dependent variables:

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SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES:
“Social networking sites are social network services that focus on building online communities of people who
share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.’’
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE:
“Academic performance refers to how students deal with their studies and how they cope with or accomplish
different tasks given to them by their teachers.”
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 TYPE OF STUDY: A considerable amount of work has been done in this field and several articles are
available on the internet and magazines about the social networking sites. So first we carried out a literature
survey of the available data for collection of secondary information. We followed it by a descriptive research
design in order to understand the problem and carry out the research in a lucid manner.
 TARGET POPULATION: The target population for this research was defined as the students who form
the major chunk of users of these social networking sites. This was done to have a better insight into the
research as the target population was one of the most avid users of these sites and could provide exceptional
responses. Even the understanding of the questionnaire was easy for them as they were familiar with the
sites and are quite clear about the reasons they use it for and the various problems that they now face
because of the effects of using these social networking sites. The extent of the survey was limited to Sindhi
College.
 SAMPLING FRAME: It can be defined as all the users of social networking sites in the vicinity. Once the
sampling frame was decided, simple random sampling method was used to select the respondents. In the
person assisted survey, almost everyone in the sampling frame had an equal chance of being selected and we
got the responses filled through those people who were readily and willingly accepting to fill it. The sample
size consists of 30 students of Sindhi College.
 DATA COLLECTION METHOD: After secondary data collection through data collection over the
internet, a primary research was carried out through a questionnaire. The questionnaire was well structured
and the responses were sought from the respondents. The nature of the questions was such that it avoided
ambiguous responses from the respondents and it also helped in quick analysis of the data collected.
 SURVEY: The responses were collected by personal questioning. The responses were taken from the
students in the Institute area from departments’ like COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT and, COMPUTER

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SCIENCE DEPARTMENT. The responses are gathered in a standardized way, so questionnaires are more
objective, certainly more so than interviews.
DATA ANALYSIS:
Table:1 : Gender
The questionnaire was filled from 30 respondents. All were the students of Sindhi College. Out of these 30
random respondents 20 were male and 10 were female.
Table 2 : Discipline
The questionnaire was randomly asked from respondents of different departments.
Table 3: Semester/Year
Respondents were of different disciplines and of different semester. This allowed us to have a wide grip on our
research topic.
Gender No.of Respondents Percentage
Male 20 66.7
Female 10 33.3
Total 30 100
Discipline No.of Respondents Percentage
BBA 2 6.67
B.COM 10 33.33
BCA 4 13.33
B.Sc 1 3.33
M.COM 6 20.0
MFA 5 16.67
PUC 2 6.67
Total 30 100
Semester No.of Respondents Percentage
I Sem 5 16.67
III Sem 10 33.33
V Sem 13 43.33
II year PUC 2 6.67
Total 30 100

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Table 4: Social Networking Sites Accounts
All of the respondents had social networking sites accounts. Respondents, having no social networking sites
accounts were discarded because they were not eligible to answer our questions.
Table 5: No. of actively used sites
Majority of respondents had more than 4 SNS accounts. After that, many had 2 accounts and least number of
respondents had 3 actively used Social Networking Sites accounts.
Table 6: Preferred Site
Face book was the most commonly used Social Networking Site. After that, YouTube was the most commonly
used site for the purpose of communication, entertainment, information and education.
Social Networking Sites Accounts No.of Respondents Percentage
YES 100 100
NO 0 0
Total 100 100
No. of actively used sites No.of Respondents Percentage
4 and above 12 40.0
3 4 13.3
2 9 30.0
1 5 16.7
Total 30 100.0
Preferred Site No.of Respondents Percentage
Face book 18 60.0
Twitter 1 3.3
Youtube 7 23.3
Others 4 13.3
Total 30 100.0

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Table 7: Hours spent per week
Time spent on a Social Networking Site by our respondents was majorly 3 – 5 hours. Many of the respondents
spend 15 or above hours per week on these sites.
Table 8: Purpose of usage of SNS
Purpose of usage was our major point. Maximum number of respondents used these sites to communicate with
friends and very few of used just to find their old friends.
Table 9: Usage enhance learning skills
When the respondents were inquired that do the use of social networking sites enhance their learning skills or
not then maximum number of respondents answered that yes, the usage of these sites improved their learning
skills because they get up to date information from these sites.
Hours spent per week No.of Respondents Percentage
15 and Above 9 30.0
10-14 5 16.7
6-9 6 20.0
3-5 10 33.3
Total 30 100.0
Purpose of usage of SNS No.of Respondents Percentage
To communicate with friends 19 63.3
For group Discussion 3 10.0
For study Purpose 3 10.0
To make new Friends 4 13.3
To find old Friends 1 3.3
Total 30 100.0
Usage enhance learning skills No.of Respondents Percentage
Yes 23 76.7
No 3 10.0
Neutral 4 13.3
Total 30 100.0

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Table 10: Contribution in academic activities
Majority of the respondents were of the view that the networking sites do not substantially contribute towards
their academic activities. While some other said that these sites have very low contribution towards their
academic performance.
Table 11: Effect on results
With the increase in the use of social networking sites, many respondents were of the view that their academic
performance decreased.
FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION
1. The sample was selected from the students of Sindhi College. Out of these 30 random respondents 20 were
male and 10 were female.
2. The questionnaire was randomly administered to respondents of different departments.
3. Respondents were of different disciplines and of different semesters. This allowed us to have a wide grip on
our research topic.
4. All of the respondents had social networking sites accounts. Respondents, having no social networking sites
accounts were discarded because they were not eligible to answer our questions.
Contribution in academic activities No.of Respondents Percentage
High 2 6.7
Moderate 23 76.7
Low 5 16.7
Total 30 100.0
Effect on results No.of Respondents Percentage
Increase 8 26.67
Decrease 20 66.67
No effect 2 6.67
Total 30 100.0

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5. Further, respondents were asked to tell that how many accounts they actively use. Majority of respondents
had more than 4 SNS accounts. After that, many had 2 accounts and least number of respondents had 3 actively
used Social Networking Sites accounts.
6. Face book was the most commonly used Social Networking Site. After that, YouTube was the most
commonly used site for the purpose of communication, entertainment, information and education.
7. Time spent on a Social Networking Site by our respondents was majorly 3 – 5 hours. Many of the
respondents spend 15 or above hours per week on these sites.
8. Purpose of usage was our major point. Maximum number of respondents used these sites to communicate
with friends and very few of used just to find their old friends.
9. When the respondents were inquired that do the use of social networking sites enhance their learning skills or
not? Then maximum number of respondents answered that yes, the usage of these sites improved their learning
skills because they get up to date information from these sites.
10. Majority of the respondents were of the view that the networking sites do not substantially contribute
towards their academic activities. While some other said that these sites have very low contribution towards
their academic performance.
11. Majority of the respondents were of the view that their academic performance decreased due to the increase
in the use of social networking sites.
SUGGESTIONS
 Our research revealed that the majority of the students had 3 or more SNS sites so we suggest them to
reduce the number to at least 2 SNS sites to reduce their time spent on the SNS sites and productively use it
for their studies.
 Instead of using Facebook and Youtube for entertainment alone we suggest to divert their attention and
their time productively using some of the informative websites and blogs like LinkedIn, Wikipedia etc.
 We also suggest the students to limit their time spent on SNS and plan in such a way that they spend not
more than an hour a day.
 On a regular basis we suggest the students to use any of the SNS productively for preparation of their
college projects and assignments.
 We suggested that the students can involve more on group based activities to communicate and develop
their interpersonal skills rather than relying on SNS as a medium of communication.

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 Apart from the SNS we suggest the students to make use of various books, periodicals and journals rather
than depending on the SNS alone for updated information.
 Since majority of the respondents felt that SNS is not contributing to their studies much it can be
interpreted that SNS is surely a distraction to their studies which can be avoided during their exams and
important academic related activities.
 We also suggest that the Government should insist on strong cyber governance to have a check on SNS
misuse.
 Even the parents have an equal responsibility of curbing the use of SNS by their wards.
 Awareness programmes can be conducted by various institutions regarding misuse of SNS.
 In the interest of the wellbeing of the students, we suggest them to involve in various other creative
activities like Yoga, Meditation, Art, Music etc. which prevents them from getting addicted to SNS.
 Lastly, we suggest the students to pursue any hobby of their choice to keep themselves away from SNS.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Social Networking
Book by Peter K. Ryan
Originally published: 2011
 The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World
Book by David Kirkpatrick
Originally published: 2004
 WEBSITES AND LINKS
https://www.dreamgrow.com
www.socialmediatoday.com