Research Topic:

“An assessment of the impact of using social media on university students in

Faisalabad”

Assigned by:
“Dr. Hammad Badar Sb.”

Presented by:

Muhammad Humal Qamar 2016-ag-1382

Nabeel Fayyaz 2016-ag-2707
Muhammad Faisal Razzaq 2016-ag-2652
Muhammad Salman 2017-ag-5496
Table of Contents:

Contents : Page No

1- Introduction

2- Literature review

3- Methodology

4- Results and discussions.

5- Conclusion and Recommendations.

 Abstract:
It is crucial to determine the impact of social media on the academic performance of
students. Technology is booming rapidly from year to year, and the younger generations are the ones
caught in this rapid change. Questionnaires were distributed in well known universities in Faisalabad
including IMBS, UAF to find out whether students academic performance is affected by using social
media or not.

Chapter No.01

Introduction:
Nowadays, the most commonly used method of communication is social media networking. It is being
used by individuals belonging to every walk of life. There are numerous online networking platforms
that include but are not limited to Facebook, twitter, Instagram, pin interest, YouTube, LinkedIn,
google+, flicker, snapchat,vine,Tumblr. Figure below shows numerous social media networking types.
The main purpose of social media is to give access and client users. They can have conversation with
individuals and construct social relations on the web. They can likewise share their contemplations
and individual data on social media including everyday happenings, suppositions, pictures, recordings
and web-links.
Individuals can promote their business and individual aptitudes. The capacity of online networking to spread
valuable data quickly has made it the quickest developing method of association. Social networking is very
helpful for the business as well as for the students. With such a high rate of students using social media
networking on daily basis, there is a strong need to analyze the extent to which social media is having its impact
on students. Through the help of social media people can interact with each other very easily also increase the
social relationship. Now a day’s organizations promote their business through online networking with impactful
advertisement. In recent times, social media has a lot of ability to improve efficiency of the organization
through different marketing tactics and also helpful for the Students. As more people started using social media
websites, it became vital role for different business brands to list their social media addresses that mostly
include Facebook and twitter web-links. Hence, social media became a spot for business as well.(Ref:
Abdulwahaab Alsaif).
Academic and co-curricular engagement are powerful forces in both student psychosocial development and
academic success. Improvement in grades and persistence has been noted across a variety of populations,
including minority students, first generation students, and students who are not adequately prepared for
college academic work with increased engagement Ref; (Passarella&Terenzini 2005; Kuh et al. 2008).
Institutions can create programs that help increase student engagement, and thereby increase the chances that
students will reach the desired outcomes of a college education (Kuh 2009).
Around 100 million individuals began to use internet and thus social networking websites, by the start of 2000.
It turned out to be common for individuals to be engaged on social media websites. Obviously, then it was
through to be odd. Still, more individuals started to use visit these websites for socializing, dating and
educational purpose.
The invention of smart phone has increased the usage of social media. It enables user to access multiple social
networking sites through just few clicks these social medias has a great impact on students on which large
number of researchers has been conducted and each result show unique result. Social media also have a
positive or negative effect on the university students.
The use of social media among students has reached high levels and has affected their study time, poor
grammar and wrong spellings when socializing on social media as well as diverting their attention from their
studies. Students spends much of their study time on social networks than in their academic undertaking and it
has affected their Grade Point Average (GPA).Fifty years ago, no one knew a term of “Social Media”. But now,
everyone knows about it. This term has become a common knowledge in society especially for youngsters. It is
a new entertainment where people can share and exchange their thought, personal information, photos and
interest. This media is growing bigger every day. In 1978, the first social media was created. Bulletin Board
System (BBS) was created by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess used to announce meeting and sharing
information by posting it on BBS. It was the beginning of virtual community and the first dial-up in history.

The personal website year was 1995. After internet (WWW) launched and loved by many people, Geocities
were launched by Beverly Hills Internet (BHI). Geocities’ service was web hosting. It allowed internet users to
create simple websites for themselves. Early social media service that appeared in 1997 was six degrees. Six
degrees let its users to create profile and list of friends. It was used by 1 million users. 1999 was a year for
Blogger and Livejournal. Users could write, share and communicate with friends by using their own blog or
journal. Friendster was launched in 2002. It could be include in social networking group. It let users to create
profile and virtual connection with people around the world. Now, Friendster has become a social media for
games.

Myspace, LinkedIn and WordPress launched in the same year, 2003. Most of Myspace users were musician and
band. WordPress was created to be used as open-source content management system. And LinkedIn was social
networking for business-oriented. In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launched “The Facebook”. In the beginning, The
Facebook was created as social networking for college students. YouTube was launched in 2005. It was founded
by Jawed Karim, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley. They were employees of PayPal. It was a social sharing that let
users freely upload and share a video. Twitter was launched in 2006. It was known as social networking and
microblogging site. It let its member to share and exchange 140 character messages. This short message was
called as Tweets. In 2011, Google launched new product of social networking named Google plus (Google+).
Google plus let you have a video chat (hangout) and exchange information. In 2012, the first social
scrapbooking that gained 10 million users faster in history launched. This social scrapbooking’s name is
Pinterest. In Pinterest, you could create and share album of photos.

So we want to assess the overall impacts of the use of social media on university students either they are
positive or negative. To explore how they are affecting the academic performance, health and psychology of
the students. And to observe the misunderstandings of the people about the use of social media that it’s not
only for some heinous activities it can be used optimistically as well. At the end, we want to provide some
solutions too that how the university students can use social media affectively for the best productive
objectives.

Introduction The Internet is more than just a means of seeking information. People have discovered that the
Internet can be used to connect with other people for business or commercial purpose, to make new friends, or
to reawaken old friends and long lost relatives. The emergence of social networking sites (SNSs) simplifies the
process because they do not require advanced internet knowledge or experience and are made up of a wide
array of different formats and topics. This means that anyone can connect through SNSs. With such extensive
acceptance, it is no surprise that SNSs have impacted the way people live and socialize. SNSs are also being
used by teachers and students as a communication tool, especially in the West. It is a bidirectional process as
students are using these mediums to share comments with their teachers

According to Boyd and Ellison, Social network site is a web based service which allows people to sign up in a
bounded system, articulating group of people within the same system so as to share personal or academic
related information This indicates that SNS entails a place where people connect with each other and share
common issues relating to relationship, sports, politics or academics. However, Boyd and Ellison argue that
participants from certain social media sites are not primarily there to connect with people they are not familiar
with, rather they sign up to connect and catch up with loss but found offline friends as well as close ones.
Social network sites have attracted considerable attention among scholars and educators due to the growing
popularity among students and the potential effect on academic performance. However, the studies appear
from two opposing views on the impact of SNSs on users. While proponents argue that it allows users in
connecting people of common interest and value, opponents claim that excessive use of these sites affect the
social, mental and physical health of the users Introduction the Internet is more than just a means of seeking
information. People have discovered that the Internet can be used to connect with other people for business or
commercial purpose, to make new friends, or to reawaken old friends and long lost relatives. The emergence of
social networking sites (SNSs) simplifies the process because they do not require advanced internet knowledge
or experience and are made up of a wide array of different formats and topics. This means that anyone can
connect through SNSs. With such extensive acceptance, it is no surprise that SNSs have impacted the way
people live and socialize. SNSs are also being used by teachers and students as a communication tool,
 especially in the West. It is a bidirectional process as students are using these mediums to share comments
with their teachers

According to Boyd and Ellison, Social network site is a web based service which allows people to sign up in a
bounded system, articulating group of people within the same system so as to share personal or academic
related information This indicates that SNS entails a place where people connect with each other and share
common issues relating to relationship, sports, politics or academics. However, Boyd and Ellison argue that
participants from certain social media sites are not primarily there to connect with people they are not familiar
with, rather they sign up to connect and catch up with loss but found offline friends as well as close ones.
Social network sites have attracted considerable attention among scholars and educators due to the growing
popularity among students and the potential effect on academic performance. However, the studies appear
from two opposing views on the impact of SNSs on users. While proponents argue that it allows users in
connecting people of common interest and value, opponents claim that excessive use of these sites affect the
social, mental and physical health of the users

Problem Statement:

In that statement, determine the social media’s impact on the university and college students. With
the explosive growth in the number and use of social media in everyday communication method for
individuals and organizations, there has been a corresponding increase of its incorporation in teaching
and learning in higher institution. In view of this, this study examine and assess the impact social
media has on teaching and learning in higher education. Be it positive or negative impacts. Because it
is felt the need of the time is to assess social media’s impact on university students. The internet is
today the most important source of information and the growing dimensions of the use of social
media by students cannot be underestimated.

It has been observed that students devote more attention and time to social media than they do for
their studies and they cannot pass their examinations well if they do not learn (Osharive, 2015). Also,
the study conducted by Maya (2015), revealed that media use contribute to lower academic
performance, low self-perceptions and less interest in college oriented carriers. Academic excellence
plays an important role in an individual’s life; be it in the family, at social gatherings, at workplace, in
an institution or even among peers. Much emphasis is placed on academic excellence because of the
role it plays in an individual’s life as far as a successful life and respect is concerned in every part of
the world. Due to this, many people are concerned with the ways that they can improve their
academic performance (Kyoshaba, 2009). Studies have also revealed that social media affects
students’ use of English. They tend to use short- handwriting to chat with friends and get used to it
 thereby replicating the same errors during examinations (Obi, Bulus, Adamu and Sala’at,2012).Ref;
(Raymond Owusu Boateng α & Afua Amankwaa)

Research Objectives:

1) To determine the impact of using social media on university students.

2) To identify the problem of individuals in using social media.
3) Suggestion and measures of social media.

Chapter No. 02

Literature Review:

“Social media” is defined as the function that allows users to interact with each other, create, edit and share
new forms of content, So social media denotes to the wide collection of Internet based and mobile services
that connect people together to communicate, participate, collaboratively interact, discuss and exchange ideas
and information on an online community. The kind of Internet services commonly linked with social media,
includes, Weblogs or blogs, as they are branded, are easily created and updateable websites that allow authors
to publish to the Internet instantly, hence allowing instructors and students to communicate easily. Basically a
blog is an online journal in which pages are usually displayed in reverse in an order. Blogs can be hosted for free
on websites such as Word Press, Tumblr and Blogger.And “wiki” is a collective website where any participant is
allowed to modify any page or create a new page using Web browser”. Anyone can add and edit what has
already been published. One well known example is Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia that makes use of
wiki technology.Social Bookmarking sites allow users to organize and share links to websites. This enables users
to produce a searchable personalized internet. Social network sites like Boyd and Ellison (2007) defined social
network sites as public web-based services that allows users to develop a personal profile, identify other users
with whom they have a connection, read and react to postings made by other users on the site, send and
receive messages either privately or publicly. These web based services allow individuals to construct a public
or semi-public profile within a bounded system. Among the most popular are Facebook and LinkedIn.Status
update services are also known as micro blogging services, status update services such as Twitter allow people
to share short updates about people or events and to see updates tweeted by others which allows people to
know that what is happening around them in mere seconds.

According to “Douglas Thomas and John Seely Browns” (2011) description of a technology enhanced new
culture of Learning that says, learning is based around principles of collective exploration, play and innovation
rather than individualized instruction, it could be argued that social media supports the aspect of knowledge
consumption and construction that are very different to the conservative principle of formal education and
individual instruction as well as sounding with currently fashionable constructivist and socio cultural learning
theories. These ideas are reflected most explicitly in the notion of connectives the idea that learning in a social
media age now rests upon the ability to access and use distributed information on a “just in time basis”. Simply
put, learning can be seen as an individual ability to connect to specialized information sources as and when
required. Thus knowledge ability would demand nurturing and maintenance of these connections. As George
Siemens (2004) puts it, learning can therefore be conceived in terms of the ‘capacity to know more’ via social
media rather than a depending on the individual accumulation of prior knowledge in terms of what is currently
known.

And if we talk about impact of Social Media on Students Academic life it provides mechanism for a familiar
exercise. It provides students a direct medium by which to publicly evaluate and comment on their campus
environments, institutional policies, classes, and administration and fellow students in real-time. Social media
moves through our campuses nearly unseen, dragging behind it the heavy weight of social injustices and
complicated Jurisprudence gathered from decades of student speech (Gurcan 2015). Given social media’s
potential for positive impact, and in many ways the technology is already out of our grasp.

And now a days, students communicate with the help of technology, and that If you say absolutely no
Facebook or texting, you are minimizing an important relationship with students technology as an online
teacher use of technology via the use of a variety of tools such as Skype, text, email, Facebook and twitter.
Social media opens up new ways for collaboration and discussion in the sense that, it offers a good deal of
material posting, coping, sharing and search ability by easily using online search tools. Students today use social
media anywhere and at any time where internet connection is available in order to meet their educational
needs.
On the other hand, the numbers of complaints of inappropriate contact involving social media, the possible
threats are too great. Student engaging in a private relationship outside the classroom circles begs for
inappropriate behavior to happen (Gurman 2015). There is the likelihood of users not being courteous and
respectful of other, vulgarity or language that is harassing or otherwise inappropriate for the university
environment sometimes circulates in these platforms. Users can easily display, send, retrieve, or download any
items that are negative, or contain hate-based or discriminatory material without the notification of a teacher,
university management. This in return can make students agree that they have no right or expectation of
privacy with respect to their use of university technology (Gurman 2015).
So there are always
chances for the things to happen wrong and that is true about technology as well. That is why;critics would
have to stop talking about only the negative impacts of using social media. They must realize that there are
huge good opportunities associated with social media too that can groom students if used properly.
Positive effects of social media on students’ academic life
Students’ academic life has moved to a different dimension since the introduction of these social media
networks and several studies have affirmed that social media plays an important role on students in higher
education including the study conducted Ref Wheeler, Yeomans and Wheeler,(2008); Rifkin, Longnecker,
Leach and Ortia,(2009). In their study, they recognized four (4) major advantages of social media usage by
students in higher education which included enhancing relationship, improving learning motivation, offering
personalized course material, and developing collaborative abilities. Indeed, social media has contributed
greatly to facilitating learning in the 21st century. It is shown that a greater percentage of students including
those at the PhD level commonly use social media to ameliorate their studies (Khan, 2010).The answers to the
causes of flexible studies today across the globe might not be far-fetched from the great contribution that
social media platforms are providing when used judiciously. Even though, there have been other school of
thought that states that social media is a nuisance to students’ academic life such as Kuppuswamy and
Shankar(2010), who argued in their study that social networks distracts the attention and concentration of the
students toward learning and converts it towards non educational activities such as useless and unnecessary
chatting, there have been several studies conducted afterwards whose findings are contrary to this claim. For
instance, the study conducted by Jain, Verma, Verma and Tiwari (2012), titled “the impact of social networking
in promoting education’’ revealed that students benefit from chatting with other students, teachers and
external sources to acquire knowledge. Also, Yunus and Salehi (2012), argued in the same direction that
students gained more vocabulary, improved their writing skills and reduced their spelling mistakes through
social media usage. In fact as an educational tool, social media enriches learning by giving both students and
teachers the opportunity to connect in new and very exciting ways thereby encouraging flexible mode of
learning. It is stated that flexible learning expands the choice on what, when and how people learn. It supports
different styles of learning including E-learning which is highly patronized across the globe (Pappas, 2013).
Other scholars; O’keeffe and Clake-pearson (2011), in their study also revealed that social media benefits
students by connecting them to one another on assignments and class projects.
It is further buttressed in the study of Arquero and Esteban, (2013) and Selwyn, (2007) whose conclusions
were that social media undoubtedly generate new opportunities to engage students in higher education as
they are remarkably effective at connecting people and facilitating the exchange of information. It is clear and
indisputable from these studies that social media usage in the educational sector cannot be underestimated
since its introduction.
Negative effects of social media on students’ academic life:
Davies and Cranston (2008), enumerated some of the risks associated with social media which included
criminal activities such as identity theft and fake contacts which is prevalent today, sexual abuse or harassment
and unsuitable advertising. On the same subject O’keeffe and Clakepearson (2011), also mentioned
cyberbullying, online harassment, sexting, Facebook depression, and privacy concerns as some of the
challenges associated with social networking.
Cyberbullying: cyberbullying is a category of bullying that occurs in the digital realm or medium of electronic
text. ‘‘It is any behavior performed through electronic or digital media by individuals or groups that repeatedly
communicates hostile or aggressive messages intended to inflict harm or discomfort on others’’ (Tokunaga,
2010). Cyberbullying is one the serious threat in the social media environment and has called for a number of
studies to determine its causes. The causes of cyberbullying according to Calvete, Orue, Estevez, Villardon and
Padilla (2010),was significantly related with the use of proactive aggression, justification of violence, exposure
to violence and less perceived social support of friends. Privacy concerns: this is another concern that everyone
involved in social networking is faced with. The rate at which people post or share fake information calls for
alarm and it is difficult to ascertain that, what people say and post are truly who they are. Individuals’ private
information are publicly displayed on some of these social networks and malicious people take advantage and
perpetrate all kinds of harassment. It is also argued that the privacy options offered by most social networking
sites (SNSs) do not provide users with the flexibility needed to handle conflicts with individuals who have
different conceptions of privacy (Preibusch, Hoser, Gurses and Berendt, 2007).
Aside these effects, other studies conducted by scholars have also proved that social
media can be detrimental to students’ academic life if caution is not taken in its usage. For instance the study
conducted by Obi, Bulus, Adamu and Sala’at (2012), titled “The need for safety consciousness among Youths
on social Networking Sites” concluded that social media affects students use of English. They use short-
handwriting when chatting with friends and unconsciously get used to it thereby replicating same errors during
examinations. Even though one may argue that these are minor challenges, it is important to acknowledge the
increasing rate at which these errors are replicated in the education sector and if care is not taken future
generation may see it as a norm. Indeed a number of studies including but not limited to the study of
Kuppuswamy and Shankar (2010), Osharive (2015), Maya (2015), among others have revealed unequivocally
that social media can be problematic to students’ academic life if caution is not taken in its usage.

Chapter No. 03

Methodology:

This chapter will explain the research methodology used for the research under study. The overall design or
strategy that helps in obtaining the desired goals and objectives of the research is referred to as research
methodology. It is basically a confirmation that the problem under study has been analyzed and addressed
thoroughly. This gives effectiveness and completion to the research. The research methodology includes
research design, data collection, reliability and validity, analysis of data and ethical issues involved in the
research process.

Research Design:
There are two broad categories of research designs. These categories are namely quantitative and
qualitative research design. So in this we will analyze which of these studies is appropriate for our research
related to use of social media among university students.

1-Quantitative:
The standard for a research design is quantitative research design. Most of the researches are conducted based
on quantitative design. Especially in scientific experiments, where most of the work is based on mathematical
calculation and complex statistical algorithms, quantitative method is always preferred since it gives exact and
accurate results. For examples, a product’s annual sale is analyze through quantitative research.

2-Qualitative:
Whenever research has to be done in order to measure a quality or extent of something, qualitative research
design is preferred. It is most commonly used when traits like human behavior, preferences and thoughts have
to be analyzed. Whenever trend towards a particular element has to be analyzed, qualitative research design is
used. This is important because not everything can be measured by putting them in pre-decided mathematical
formulas. For examples, a product is designed based on preferences and requirements of people, this is
obtained through qualitative research. Questionnaires, surveys, case studies and interviews are the examples of
this type of research design.

Chosen Research Design

The research design of this product is purely qualitative i.e. using questionnaires. The reason behind
choosing this design is because this study focuses on measuring the behavior of students to analyze
the impacts of social media on them. Human behavior varies a lot and is highly unpredictable. It
cannot be mathematically calculated.
Data Collection
Data collection is an important step while conducting research. The type, quantity or quality of data
that is collected varies in different researches according to the objectives of the project. There are two
main types of data:
Quantitative Data
Quantitative data refers to that data type that is used to quantify and measure something. For
example, the height of a particular tower, weight of an animal etc. so in this study it’s not possible to
measure the human behavior in terms of behavior because that will change moving from one person to
another.
Qualitative Data
Qualitative data refers to that data type that cannot be measured rather it is something that can be
used to describe. It involves approximation or characterization of data without actually quantifying
attributes or properties of a person, place or thing. For example, gesture of a person, smell of roses or
other such traits of human behavior.

Chosen Data Type

In this research, Quantitative data is involved. The preferences of students to use social media, their
usage and duration of use belong to quantitative data. In this study both primary and secondary
sources of data will be included. The primary data for this research study will be collected using a
distrusted questionnaire; the data of questionnaire will be collected from 100 students which will be
used as the primary source of data for the analysis of this study and that lead this research study to the
investigation of the impact of social networking websites on university students in Faisalabad. At the
same time literature review of this research study will be used as a secondary data source for this
study.
 Chapter No. 04
Results and Discussions:
There were total 110 responses received. The demographics were 68% males
and 32% females. The majority of the respondents were between 18 to 22 years old and they made
up 72% of the respondents. The rest of the 28% were 23 years old or above. This means the majority
were from graduation or above , which are 85% of the respondents
When it came to looking at which platforms students use mostly, 41% mostly used Facebook and 32%
used Google. The least platform that was used was Snap Chat since 40% of the respondents voted for
it the least. The other platforms were, Instagram 27% used most frequent. Twitter and YouTube, their
level of usage was a three out of five, as observed by the scores on the Likert Scale used in the
questionnaire They were also asked to mention whether they use social media to study or not and
how they use social media to study, 70% of them are using social media as a source of entertainment.
The respondents were also asked to mention the number of hours they spend daily on social media
and studying, the results were quite surprising. About 50% of the respondents spend more than three
hours on social media. From this it is clear that the respondents do not study more often than they
browse social media only.

Many students usually spend sleepless nights on social media without the knowledge of their parents.
The disruption of sleep has had adverse effects on the students. It has led to cases of insomnia, mood
swings, attention deficits at school and increased obesity just to mention a few. These are some of the
serious negative effects of social media on students and issues that are arising with kids often
addicted to Facebook. With such overwhelming evidence of the negative effects of social media on
the university students, why then, are many parents not taking more action to protect their children.
There perhaps are the major reasons; Parents are unaware of the issues involved in the online
connections. While students are in to social media, only about 40% of parents are involved
themselves. Parents may not be aware of their “pages” and don’t fully understand privacy policies and
they don’t realize what kinds of public postings are taking place, involving them. Parents don’t want to
interfere in their children’s social lives. Most parents want their children to be popular, accepted and
enjoy a happy social life.
Chapter No. 05
1-Conclusion:
In this section, a result of the study of impact of social networking sites has been
discussed. It is found that students are very fond of using facebook, twitter, YouTube and paying
least attention to their academic progress and addressing any issues will go a long way towards
keeping the negative aspects of social media from influencing their studies. However, faculties and
students are now pushing learning beyond the borders of the classroom through social networking
along with hurdles, including the fact that many universities still block access to such sites within
their boundaries
References :