Exploring the Effects of Social Media on Student Achievement in School

This essay explores the multifaceted effects of social media on student achievement, focusing on both academic performance and social interactions within the school environment. The research involved gathering data from high school and undergraduate students through online interviews, exploring their usage patterns across various social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Twitter. The findings indicate a dual impact: while social media facilitates academic material sharing and socialization, excessive usage correlates with lower grades. The study concludes that balanced social media engagement is crucial for maximizing its benefits without compromising academic success, highlighting the need for students to be mindful of their time spent online to maintain optimal performance.

Effects of Social Media on Student Achievement
Abstract
The target of this research is to explore how social media use by students
affects their achievement academically and their social life in school. The
participants for study comprised high school and undergraduate students. To
get data for this study, students were asked to take part through online
interview. Students expressed the type of social media that they use often like
Facebook, Skype, YouTube, Twitter, My Space among others. The research
also asked them to provide information regarding the time they spent on social
media. The data was then analysed and a conclusion reached.
Introduction
• The advent of novel technology has made people of the modern age
obsessed with technology particularly social media, which has become
part of peoples’ daily life. Currently, people have access to all sorts of
information at their palm through cellphanes, tablets and iPhones.
• Indeed, the advent of social media especially Facebook, and WhatsApp
have become the leading words on the lips each student. The popularity of
Facebook has made countless students to join and use for both academic
and social lives (Alwagait, Shahzad, & Alim, 2015). The use of social
media has transformed the world into a whole new level. Although social
media is seen to serve a positive thing because of being a good source of
communication among students, it can as well serve negative things like
cyber bullying.
• Nonetheless, what comes into play when social media is used in the
academic arena among high school and college level students?
Methods
 Data collection methods
• Data is collected using literature review and interviews
Literature Review
According to Maqableh et al. (2015), social media is a pool of internet
services, websites, and performs, which hone sharing, public building, and
collaboration. In the recent past, the usage of social platforms amongst
students has become popular. Social media aid connecting students both on
campus with friends outside school. Young students tend to use Facebook
more often compared to grownup students as a way to keep in touch with their
high school friends and hometown friends (Davis III, Deil-Amen, Rios-
Aguilar, & González Canché, 2015). Concentrated on the connection
concerning time consumed on social media particularly Facebook and the
performance of students. The general outcome revealed that most of learners
who spent much time on social sites registered slight lower grades as
compared to those who spent less time on these sites (Lau, W. W. (2017).
Favourite social media sites accessed by students
Interview
• The interview focussed specifically on students as the main participants of
this research.
Results
According to the interview responses for the interview it shows that most
students like Facebook compared to other social media sites.
The social site that is least liked by students is My Space.
Favourite social media sites
Table 1: Responses for favourite sites by students
Time spent on social media sites per day
Table 2: Students response on the spent on social media everyday
Conclusion
• The use of social media among students has both positive and
negative impacts.
• However, spending much time on social media has been found to
negatively impact on performance. Students who spent much
time on social media registered slightly lower grades unlike
those who spent less time.
Implications
• Use of social media among students allows them to share
academic materials and socializing with other students.
• Excessive time spend on social media impacts negatively on
students’ academic performance
References
Alwagait, E., Shahzad, B., & Alim, S. (2015). Impact of social media usage on
students academic performance in Saudi Arabia. Computers in Human
Behavior, 51, 1092-1097.
Davis III, C. H., Deil-Amen, R., Rios-Aguilar, C., & González Canché, M. S.
(2015). Social media, higher education, and community colleges: A research
synthesis and implications for the study of two-year institutions. Community
College Journal of Research and Practice, 39(5), 409-422.
Lau, W. W. (2017). Effects of social media usage and social media multitasking
on the academic performance of university students. Computers in human
behavior, 68, 286-291.
Maqableh, M., Rajab, L., Quteshat, W., Masa’deh, R. E. M., Khatib, T., &
Karajeh, H. (2015). The impact of social media networks websites usage on
students’ academic performance.
Social site Frequency Percentage
Facebook 985 68.12
WhatsAp
p
320 22.13
YouTube 87 6.02
Skype 61 4.22
Twitter 50 3.48
My space 30 2.07
Total 1446 100
Response Frequency Percentage
(%)
30
Minutes
1028 71.09
1-2 Hour 350 24.20
3-5
Hours
68 4.70
Total 1508 100