The Use and Impact of Social Media on Tertiary Institution Students

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Introduction

The introduction of social media as a category of online discourse has made it possible for individuals to produce, share, bookmark, and network at an unprecedented pace. Social media is rapidly altering public conversation and creating trends and agendas across a wide variety of issues, from the environment and politics to technology and the entertainment industry, due to its simplicity of use, speed, and reach (Al-Rahmi et al., 2018). Thanks to the introduction of social media, the online world has changed tremendously in the past 10 years. Young men and women today communicate thoughts, sentiments, personal information, images, and videos at an astounding pace. Seventy-three percent of all wired American teenagers currently use social media.

Communications and sharing images and videos are the primary goals of using these sites like Facebook and MySpace. However, for the sake of this research, social media is defined as the use of the internet by individuals to communicate, share ideas, and share images and videos through Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Skype, MySpace, and Yahoo Messenger. Recent years have seen a global upsurge in the usage of social networking websites of all kinds. Initially a pastime for computer-savvy individuals, social media has evolved into a way of life for people throughout the globe. To stay in touch with their peer group, exchange information, reinvent their identities, and put their social lives on display, young adults and teenagers have taken to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace in particularly large numbers (Alnjadat et al., 2019).

The rise of social media websites in recent years has given young people a new avenue to connect and communicate with one another and the rest of the world. After Facebook and MySpace were launched between 2004 and 2006, social networking exploded in popularity. Facebook, for example, has more than 500 million members and is continually growing, and over 85 percent of undergraduate students use Facebook. Since Facebook’s user base continues to expand, these statistics are projected to rise. This is not only the case with Facebook but also with YouTube.

Communication, knowledge sharing, and new connections may all be facilitated by social networking platforms. As we learn to live in an ever-more technologically advanced society, the advent of social networking websites has had a significant impact on the way we communicate with one another. A lot has changed in the way online users communicate and engage with one another. Using the internet to socialize is taking away from the face-to-face interaction that has been there for a long time. By altering how we communicate face-to-face, how we acquire information, and how our social groups and friendships function, social networking websites have had an impact on our social interactions.

The fast progress of media technology has had a major influence on the way people interact daily. The expanding dimension of the usage of social media among the young of today cannot be over-stressed. Over the years, social networking among students has gotten more and more popular. It is a means to create relationships, not just on campus but with people outside of school (Cao & Sun, 2018). Social networking is a strategy that helps individuals feel they belong to a group. Due to its rising ubiquity of it, economists and educators are asking if the grades of students will not be influenced by how much time is spent on these sites.

The usage of technology such as the internet is one of the most critical variables that might impact the educational performance of pupils favorably or badly. Many parents and guardians are anxious that pupils are spending too much time on Facebook and other social media sites and do have not enough time to study.

Internet platforms, services, and behaviors that enable collaboration building communities, participation, and sharing” are known as “social media” or “social networking.” It is impossible to overstate the importance of social media in today’s youth. Social networking has grown in popularity among second-year students in recent years. It’s a great method to interact with people both on and off-campus (Giunchiglia et al., 2018). Many individuals benefit from the sense of belonging that comes with social networking. Researchers and professors are beginning to wonder whether students’ grades are being harmed by their increasing use of these sites.

About 57% of users on Facebook are between the ages of 18 and 29 and maintain a personal profile on various social media platforms (Zachos et al., 2018). There was a wide range in the daily time spent on social networking sites. However, a study of the data showed that most individuals spent roughly thirty minutes a day socializing, with the majority of this time occurring between 9 pm and 12 am. Social networking sites are often visited by more than half of college students. Almost two-thirds of college students admitted to checking Facebook multiple times a day. When it came to keeping in contact with high school and local acquaintances, younger students use Facebook more often than older students.

Social networking sites have been shown to have a detrimental impact on student’s academic achievement in several studies by experts. It has been estimated that 25 percent of students’ internet use is spent on social networking sites. Social media users tend to be less diligent in their studies, which results in worse grades. Students who utilize social networks have lower grades (GPAs) than those who don’t, according to recent research. While many diversions are unique to each age, Facebook has remained a key one for the present one. Students who are heavy Facebook users often suffer academically (Mastrodicasa & Metellus, 2013). Similarly, students’ use of social media has been shown to have a detrimental impact on their academic performance, making its disadvantages much more significant than its benefits. The surge in internet use has been a direct result of the rise in online addiction. Researchers found that people who are hooked to the internet tend to put off personal and academic duties in favor of their internet usage, which may lead to worse grades.

The use of synchronous communication programs, such as online sites and forums, has been linked to academic performance problems and internet reliance (Hou et al., 2019). There is a negative correlation between first-year university students’ self-reported GPA and their usage of different media, including mobile phones. Study participants were found to have allowed their mobile phone usage to disrupt their academic pursuits, according to the findings of the study. Students’ self-reported assessments of academic difficulty are linked to the frequency with which they check their phones each day. “Excessive” mobile phone usage is linked to school failure, according to studies.

Ninety percent of youths in the U. S. have an Internet connection, and 75 percent of these kids use the Internet more than once a day, according to the results of an online poll. Teens who have Internet access are also users of social networking sites and utilize the Internet to arrange plans with peers, new research found. Only 16 percent of all 18-29-year-old internet users were using social networking sites in September 2005, but this figure jumped to 86 percent in the following year.

Conclusion

According to this research, the majority of students have smartphones with internet access and are aware of the presence of social media platforms. As a consequence, they spend anything from 30 minutes to 3 hours a day on social media. Students’ academic performance was severely impacted by their usage of social media, according to this research, which also proved the substantial link between social media use and academic performance (Moghavvemi et al., 2018). More people use social media for chatting than for academic purposes, according to this study.

References

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Alnjadat, R., Hmaidi, M. M., Samha, T. E., Kilani, M. M., & Hasswan, A. M. (2019). Gender variations in social media usage and academic performance among the students of University of Sharjah. Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences, 14(4), 390–394. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtumed.2019.05.002

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Hou, Y., Xiong, D., Jiang, T., Song, L., & Wang, Q. (2019). Social media addiction: Its impact, mediation, and intervention. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 13(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.5817/cp2019-1-4

Moghavvemi, S., Sulaiman, A., Jaafar, N. I., & Kasem, N. (2018). Social media as a complementary learning tool for teaching and learning: The case of youtube. The International Journal of Management Education, 16(1), 37–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2017.12.001

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