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Homepage > Catalog > Business economics > Marketing, Corporate
Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media

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Impact of Facebook Usage on Students

Academic Performance
Thesis (M.A.), 2014
63 Pages

Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market

Research, Social Media
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Excerpt

Table of Contents
Contents Pages

Acknowledgement

Abstract

Acronyms

List of Tables

List of Figures

Chapter One
Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Objectives of the Study
1.3.1 General Objective
1.3.2 Specific Objectives
1.4 Research Questions
1.5 Significance of the Study
1.6 Scope of the Study
1.7 Limitation of the Study
1.8 Operational Definition of Key Terms
1.9 Organization of the Thesis

Chapter Two
Review of Related Literatures
2.1 Definition of Social Networks
2.2 Becoming Social
2.3 Extent of Social Media Technology Use
2.3.1 General Demographics
2.3.2 College-Age Users
2.4 An Overview of Facebook
2.5 Facebook Usage
2.6 Students’ Perceptions of Facebook
2.7 Academic Performance
2.8 Facebook and Academic Performance
2.9 Hedonic Usage of Facebook and Academic Performance
2.10 Theoretical Review
2.10.1 Flow Theory (FT)
2.10.2 Distraction Effect
2.11 Impacts of Facebook Usage
2.11.1 Positive impacts
2.11.1.1 Sharing and collecting information
2.11.1.2 Communication and entertainment
2.11.2 Negative impacts
2.11.2.1 Academic performance problems
2.12 Student’s behavior
2.13 Empirical Review
2.14 Conceptual Framework

Chapter Three
Research Methodology
3.1 Description of the Study Area
3.2 Research Design
3.3 Population and Sampling
3.3.1 Target Population
3.3.2 Sample Size and Sampling Technique
3.3.2.1 Sample Size
3.3.2.2 Sampling Techniques
3.4 Source of Data and Instruments of Data Collection
3.4.1 Reliability and Validity of Research Instruments
3.4.1.1 Reliability of Research Instruments
3.4.1.2 Validity of Research instruments
3.5 Procedures of Data Collection
3.6 Method of Data Analysis and Presentation
3.7 Ethical Consideration

Chapter Four
Results and Discussion
4.1 Results of the Study
4.1.1 General Profile of the Respondents
4.1.2. Reliability Analysis
4.1.3 Facebook Usage
4.1.4 Motives that Drive Students’ to Use Facebook
4.1.5 Time Spent by Students’ on Facebook Usage
4.1.6 Students’ Ratings of Time spent on Facebook Usage and Study Time
4.1.7 Facebook Usage and Students’ Academic Performance
4.1.8 Facebook Impacts on Students’ Academic performance
4.1.9 Students’ Addiction to Facebook Usage
4.1.10 Correlation Analysis
4.1.11 Regression analysis
4.2 Discussion of Findings

Chapter Five
Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1 Conclusion
5.2 Recommendations

References

Appendix

Acronyms
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

List of Tables
Table 1: Sampling Technique

Table 2: Demographic Profiles of Respondents

Table 3: Reliability test for the variables

Table 4: Students Facebook Usage

Table 5: Facebook and Time Spent by Students on it

Table 6: Facebook and Study Time

Table 7: Students’ CGPA

Table 8: Impacts of Facebook on Students’ Academic Performance

Table 9: Students’ Addiction to Facebook

Table 10: Simplified Result of Pearson Correlations

Table 11: Model Summary for Multiple Linear Regressions

Table 12: Results of Multiple Linear Regressions

List of Figures
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of the Study

Figure 2: Motives for Students to Use Facebook

Acknowledgement
Above all, I would like to express the help of God in my entire life journey
and in completing the research project and the grace, blessing as well as
giving me strong muscles and mental stability to bring out this piece of work
in to the light. My heartiest thanks go to my advisors Dr. Shimelis Z.,
Tagay F. (MBA), and Sarfaraz K. (MBA) for their considerable
contribution to the topics and direction of this project and their invaluable
guidance, conversations, stretched patience, encouragement and support of
various kinds through some difficult times. Without them this journey would
never have reached this destination.

Also, my special thanks go to Wollega University Registrar Office

employees for providing me all necessary information and all the study
participants who have given their time to fill the questionnaires and to many
people who have helped me with financial, material and moral support up to
the completion of my thesis work.
Finally, yet importantly, I am very grateful to all my family who always
stand in my right hand in cases where difficulties arise. Their moral support
is always recognizable with great love and thanks.

Abstract
Today Facebook is considered as one of the most popular platforms for
online social networking among youth, and - as many researches show –
university students. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of
social networking sites i.e. Facebook on students’ academic performance.
The study was carried out in Wollega University with regular undergraduate
students in focus. A questionnaire was designed to assess impact of
Facebook usage on Student and was administered to 384 students’ selected
using stratified sampling technique. Variables identified are time spent on
Facebook, addiction to Facebook and academic performance. The Pearson
product-moment correlation coefficient was used to examine the
relationship between addiction to Facebook and time spent on Facebook and
students’ academic performance. Furthermore, a multiple linear regression
was carried out to determine the relative contribution of addiction to
Facebook and time spent on Facebook to students’ academic performance.
An analysis of the results was carried out using the SPSS software package.
And the findings of this study shows that time spent on Facebook and
addiction to it negatively and significantly affects students’ academic
performance.

Key words: Academic performance, Facebook, and Social networking Sites

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study

Introduction of infrastructure and technological innovations into countries

have always been the adversaries and blessing opportunities for socio
economic and political life of human beings. Every technological innovation
has been a topic of debate and centre of researchers’ attention and same is
the case with the development of social networking sites. Various
researchers have conducted studies to pinpoint the several impacts of these
sites on their users and findings suggested both bright and dark aspects.
Hence, many countries gained open access to the Internet due to rapid
advances in information technology within last twenty years (Kuppuswamy
& Narayan, 2010).

In fact, the Worldwide Web, originally created in 1990 for US military

forces, has become not only an effective instrument for the management of
US army, but later a convenient tool that issued by civilians for
communication, entertainment, and learning purposes. One ofthe most
popular and recognized platforms used on the Internet are social networking
sites such as Facebook.

Facebook being at the forefront of the social media craze, has over 500
million active users on its website every month. It is emerged on February 4,
2004, when a 19-year-old sophomore Harvard student named Mark
Zukerberg founded the revolutionary site to connect Harvard University
students (Grossman, 2010). But later, this site allows users to build social
networks with hundreds or even thousands of people around the world of
which university students are one of the primary demographics using
Facebook, with features such as photos, wall posts, and status updates
becoming seemingly irresistible to those who want to connect with their
friends (Gold, 2011).

Even though Facebook is by now used by a much wider variety of users,

university students are still its “biggest fans”. Results from a recent paper
Ellison et al. (2007) reported that 94% of College students are active
Facebook users, spending 60-90 minutes online each day communicating
with their Friends List of 150–200 people. Similarly, Wiley and Sisson
(2006; as cited in Pempek et al, 2009) conducted a large survey on college
students from universities in the developing countries indicated that 91% of
students use the Facebook. Ethiopia is also as one of developing countries
has intoxicated with around one million users of Facebook in which half of
them are higher education students (Kassashow, 2012)

Though this social network generates billions of dollars for the developer
and assists to contact a relatives detached for long period of time within
fraction of seconds, it has impact on the users in general and on students’
academic performance in particular. So, this research assesses the impact of
Facebook usage on Students’ Academic Performance in Wollega University.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

The quick rise in popularity of social networking sites began in the second
half of the last decade partlybecause of their extensive usage by school and
university students. According to Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe (2011), for
example, a significant number (approximately 73%) of Internet-using
teenagers have joined social networking sites by the end of 2009, with
almost half of them (38%) visiting social networking sites daily.

Currently Facebook is used by many people to connect with their friends

and relatives around the globe (Brydolf, 2007). And the use of Facebook
platforms has grown so fast that it has even attracted the attention of
university students; they are so engrossed in the sites that they have almost
completely forgotten about their academic work. University students are
considered victims of the social media sites more than any group of people
as they negatively impact their academic performance (Pasek & Hargittai,
2009). Students easily get tempted to use the various social media platforms
when trying to obtain learning materials online. In most cases, the students
end up spending almost all their times on the social media and forget about
the course materials they originally intended to look for.

Furthermore, Ellison et al (2011) claim that students tend to participate in

such website activities while doing their homework so that it may have
negative effect on their academic performances by interrupting them from
the learning process. Therefore, it is becoming difficult to ignore the fact
that there might be a direct correlation between Facebook usage and student
academic performance shown at schools and universities. Since the problem
is relatively new, the researcher believes several attempts to be made for an
idea of answering this question. As well as, there is no research conducted
yet on this topic in college under the study and those research conducted in
developed countries on this area has methodological gaps. Consequently, the
researcher was much indebted to conduct research on this topic to fill those
gaps.

1.3. Objectives of the Study

1.3.1. General Objective

The overall objective of this study is to assess the impact of Facebook usage
on Students’ Academic Performance.

1.3.2. Specific Objectives

- To identify the special motives that drive students to use Facebook.

- To find out an average time students spend on this site collectively per day.
- To ascertain the extent of students addiction to Facebook usage.
1.4. Research Questions

On the premises of the stated objectives, four research questions were

formed to guide this study:

- Does Facebook usage have impact on students’ academic performance?

- What are the special motives that drive students to use Facebook?
- On average how much time do students spend on this site collectively per
day?
- To what extent student are addicted to Facebook usage?

1.5 Significance of the Study

It is anticipated that the results obtained would add to the wealth of

information currently available on Facebook usage, its impact on college
students’ academic performance as it is newly emerging and instantly
advancing technology which would be indispensable for policy makers,
development practitioners, service providers, current users, and potential
users. Hence, the output of this research can contribute to these endeavours
by creating awareness at the grass root level. More specifically, it will assist
any interested body as showcase who are responsible for academic
performance of students at College level in general and Wollega University
in particular.

In addition to the above mentioned, in the academic world, everyone viewed

social media as a distraction and lead the student to procrastination in their
academics. Some students, however, also claim that visiting social media
sites during class time helps them deal with the boredom they experience in
college. This study would provide information on the impact of Facebook to
college students and how it can be used in-relation with their academics. In
addition, the findings of the study are expected to contribute a little towards
bridging the existing literature gap on understanding the impediments and
blessing opportunities of Facebook in the academic environment. And also
helps the researcher to gain Masters Degree in Business Administration.

1.6. Scope of the Study

Although it was preferable to conduct this research in all colleges found in

Nekemte town and on impacts of social network as the whole, due to
financial, and time constraints this research only focuses on assessing the
impact of Facebook usage on students’ academic performance in college
under the study specifically on undergraduate regular students enrolled in
main campus of Wollega university. This University is selected as a site of
the current study due to that it is the only government college with large
number of students serving currently for a total population of about 10,255
students as data of this campus registrar office and no study has been
conducted on this topic in the college under the study so far.

1.7. Limitation of the Study

No study is without limitation Creswell (2008). Accordingly, this study is

subject to the following limitations that future studies should address to shed
more light on the subject under investigation.

- The focus of this study is limited with students who maintain a Facebook
account and its impact on their academic performance. However, the result
would have been comprehensive if non Facebook users were included and
their academic performance/CGPA was compared with Facebook users.
Therefore, a study that makes it possible to analyze this issue should be
introduced in further studies.
- Student self-reporting answer regarding the Facebook use and its impact
on their academic performance is mainly the topic of this research but it also
depends on students’ true or false opinions. Thus, implementing a true
experimental design will also provide rewarding research to other
researchers.
- The present study participants were only comprised of traditional full-time
undergraduate students of main campus only. But, the students of branch
and Extension, and weekendstudents have not been given attention in the
study to investigate the phenomenon. Other

1.8 Operational Definition of Key Terms

The definitions adopted by researchers are often not uniform. Therefore, this
section outline the definitions used throughout the thesis.

- Social Media: they are forms of electronic communication which facilitate

interactive base on certain interests. Social media include web and mobile
technology. Boyd & Ellison (2008) defined Social Media as a group of
internet based application that allows the creation and exchange of user
generated content.
- Social Networking: the use of internet to make information about yourself
available to other people especially people you share an interest with to send
messages to them.
- Social Networking Sites: a website where people put information about
them and can send to others.
- Facebook: simply Facebook is a most popular free social networking
website that allows users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send
messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues.

1.9. Organization of the Thesis

This study is divided into five chapters. The introductory chapter provides a
general background of the study and statements of the problem. It also
briefly deals with the research question, the aims and scope of the study as
well the definitions of key terms used throughout the thesis.

Chapter two consists of the related literature. Chapter three provides a fully
detailed account of the research methodology, the reasons that the various
research strategies were selected and the rationale for the sample selection
process. It also deals with the issues of why the particular survey instrument
was selected as being appropriate for the current study.

Chapter four is the section in which the results of the survey are briefly
presented using descriptive analysis. Lastly, chapter five points out the
conclusions drawn, and the recommendations forwarded.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES

2.1. Definition of Social Networks

Social-networking sites (SNS) are the latest online communication tool that
allows users to create a public or private profile to interact with people in
their networks (Boyd & Ellison, 2008). Facebook, MySpace, Orkut,
Cyworld, Bebo, Twitter and other social network sites are the best examples
of SNs that allow individuals to present themselves to other users using a
variety of formats; including text, video and chat services. These sites have
become an increasingly important part of young adult life (Gemmill &
Peterson, 2006). Relative to the general population, adolescents and young
adults are the heaviest computer and Internet users, primarily using it for
completing school assignments (36%), e-mail and/or instant messaging
(26%), and playing computer games (38%) (DeBell & Chapman, 2006).
SNS incorporate a list of other users with whom individuals share a
connection. But unlike any other web service, SNS allow individuals to
make visible their list of connections to others and to traverse their social
networks (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Hence, more than virtual Lessons from
Facebook communities born online, SNS are usually online communities
created and maintained to reflect offline relationships.

SNS can be defined as web-based services that allow individuals to

construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate
a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and
traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system
(Boyd & Ellison, 2008, ). Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg to
help residential college and university students to identify students in other
residence halls. It is described as “an online directory that connects people
through social networks at colleges and universities” (Zuckerberg, 2005).
Websites such as MySpace and the more popular FB have millions of
registered users, with FB becoming the overwhelmingly more popular SNS
(comScore, 2009; Gonzalez, 2009).

2.2. Becoming Social

Over the last decade, and particularly in the last five or six years, SNS has
transformed our thinking about our relationships, our connections with and
affinity to others, and the influence and persuasive power of online
communities on how we think, organize, and act politically. Since the
inception of the Internet and integration of email technology into our
personal and work lives, our ways of communicating began to change.
However, it was not until the creation of social media interfaces like
Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and other
similar applications that have we seen such a massive harnessing of the
potential of the now-pervasive online connectivity in our everyday lives.

Unlike the communication functions of other online technologies, SNS in

particular has provided a virtual landscape mirroring familiar elements of
community as we understood and experienced it prior to the existence of
such technologies. Social media technology links people together in ways
that resemble traditional feelings of connection, belonging, loosely defined
memberships, exchange of feelings and ideas, and the reporting of
experiences and actions. Indeed, some suggest SMT has suddenly lowered
the costs of collaborating, sharing, and producing, thus providing
revolutionary new forms of interaction and problem-solving (Shirky, 2010).
We can now create, maintain, and access both well-defined and
amorphously defined communities online, while also using the social media
technology as a tool to fluidly transition between online and face-to-face
contact via friendships, planned activities, and other more formal
organizational affiliations.

One of the most powerful social media platforms is Facebook. Initially,

Facebook was privately conceived within and navigated through the social
networks of students at Harvard, and subsequently at other elite universities:
Princeton, Yale, and Stanford. If we consider the birth of this particular
social media interface at Harvard, we can recognize it as a telling example
of how components of a university’s social “community” were rapidly
transferred onto this online platform. Since its inception, this interface has
expanded across multiple college communities and then quickly
encompassed a wider range of connected networks of individuals and
groups around the world. Today, the adoption of social media technology
now stretches across the globe, integrating into the lives of individuals of
diverse social, national, racial and ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic
backgrounds.

Traditional-aged college students have embraced social media technology; it

has become a major part of their everyday lives. In this way, the boundaries
between online and “real-world” communities are rapidly stretching if not
completely deteriorating. Particularly, as we consider the generation for
whom such social media technology exchanges have existed their entire
lives, there is a fluid interchange between digital and physical experiences.
For this generation, SNS is a primary means of communication and
information seeking, and possibly, a central component of their identity and
community building.

2.3. Extent of Social Media Technology Use

2.3.1. General Demographics

Smith’s (2011) study for the Pew Internet and American Life Project reports
that African Americans and Latinos had equal or greater rates of usage of
social media platforms, often from cellular devices, as compared to White
Internet users in 2010. In a separate Pew report on Asian

Americans and technology, Rainie (2011) reports Asian Americans as the

leaders in overall Internet usage, mobile connectivity through cell phones,
laptops, and wireless devices, but they remain on par with social media
engagement as other minority groups.
Additional Pew research conducted by Jansen (2010) notes, expectedly, that
individuals with greater income spend more time on connected devices, and
in many cases, increased use is due to the disparity in ownership of
internet-ready devices beyond the mobile phone. However, Flowtown (2010)
reports that this trend does not hold true regarding social media usage. In its
analysis of Google Ad Planner Data, Flowtown found that a curve exists for
users of SNS with regard to income. Those who made less than $24,000 per
year were less social than were those making between $25,000-$74,000 –
who led all users – but were more social than users making >$100,000.
When determining the effects of education on social media usage, Flowtown
found a similar curve, where SNS usage peaked for users with some college
– which may include current college students – and tailed off on either end
for users with less than some college or with a bachelor’s degree and higher.

Lastly and not surprisingly, across the U.S. the use of SNS varies greatly by
age, with older generations participating less often than younger ones. Older
generations have been slower to embrace SNS, struggling somewhat to keep
pace with younger cohorts. However, they have recently begun making a
sharper turn in support of the technology. In 2009, 11% of adults over 30
reported to be engaged online in activities such as blogging. In the same
year, 22% of Internet users over 50 reported being engaged on a social
networking site (Madden, 2010).

Comparatively, younger generations remain by far the greatest beneficiaries

and users of SNS. Among users 18-29 years of age, 86% are actively
engaged in social networking compared to just 61% of users 30-49 years old,
47% of users 50-64 years old, and only 26% of users over 65 years of age
(Madden, 2010).

2.3.2. College-Age Users

The generation of 18-29 year old users has been referred to by many names
– millennial, avant-garde, and most simply, generation Y, many of who are
now traditional college-aged adults. This group of 18-29 year old users has
been crowned as digital natives, a generation who has never known a world
without the Internet (Jones, Ramanau, Cross & Healing 2009). These young
media consumers are more connected than any previous generation, and
they have an expectation to remain that way in all aspects of their lives.

An important dimension to understand when evaluating usage within this

demographic is the wide array of user personalities engaging in social media
conversations. Given the huge proportion of users in this age range,
variation abounds in this vast digital space. Among millennial college
students, for instance, multiple collections of Internet-minority groups exist
rather than a homogenous group of age-restricted users (Jones et al. 2010),
and the variety of subgroups of millennial students use social media quite
differently. For example, one subgroup might consist of infrequent users of
these technologies, while another subgroup might make frequent use of one
or two particular technologies and a larger subgroup might make extensive
and frequent use of a variety of the latest technologies. Furthermore, Palfrey
and Gasser (2008) note that the general online behaviours that comprise
these heterogeneous user types run the gamut from identity exploration to
media piracy or illegal downloading, entertainment, and social activism – all
of which are manifested through socially enabled media.

According to a recent national poll completed by the Harvard Institute of

Politics (2011), over 90% of students at four-year colleges reported having
Facebook profiles. Based on an additional study (Junco, 2011), presumably,
usage is most robust among first-semester freshmen and sophomores among
such students at four-year institutions. College student use of Facebook has
been shown mostly to reflect a one-to-many style, in which students create
content to disseminate to others. Interactions between students were most
often primarily between existing friends rather than new connections and
users were most often observing content rather than producing it.

2.4. An Overview of Facebook

Facebook was created in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin

Moskovitz and Chris Hughes as a site for Harvard students only. But later it
becomes most popular and visited with 34 million unique visitors by
January 2008, and as the 13th most popular website worldwide (comScore,
2008), with 98 million unique visitors by December 2007. As of March
2008, Facebook reported having 67 million active users (those who have
returned to the site in the last 30 days), with more than half of them
returning daily and spending an average of 20 minutes per day on the site
(Facebook, 2008). Like most social network sites, Facebook provides a
formatted web page into which each user can enter personal information,
including gender, birthday, hometown, political and religious views, e-mail
and physical addresses, relationship status, activities, interests, favourite
music and movies, educational background and a main personal picture.
Today, Facebook is comprised of all types of people, but college students
still make up the largest percentage of active Facebook users, which is
roughly 30% of all users (insidefacebook.com, 2009). To date, Facebook
serves roughly 500 million people enabling them to share multitudes of
information and connect with others (Fletcher, 2010).

2.5. Facebook Usage

Facebook usage encompasses both the simple use of the platform and the
extent of cognitive immersion into the site. Its use implies the presence of
individual users on the social website, time spent on this platform, frequent
visits, and the nature of the activities performed. People from different age
ranges interact and exchange content; they share videos and pictures, discuss
subjects, chat, publish advertisements for group events, or play available
applications. Younger generations (e.g., students) spend many hours up to 8
per day surfing this socializing website. We presume that an extensive
presence on Facebook and the resulting increased levels of information flow
management requirement engage students in these tasks while they engaged
in constant interactions and socialization, which prohibit them from
focusing appropriately on their academic tasks (Chen, et al., 2010).

2.6. Students’ Perceptions of Facebook

Recent literature by Martinez Aleman and Wartman (2009) sought to better

understand the campus culture of Facebook through the lens of college
students. The researchers examined college students ‘thoughts and
perceptions of Facebook use through an ethnographic study, where they
found students use Facebook for a myriad of reasons (Martinez Aleman
&Wartman, 2009). The authors devised four consistent themes to portray
their findings of college student Facebook use: (1) use-consciousness, (2)
campus culture, (3) identity factors, and (4) voyeurism and impression
management (Martinez Aleman & Wartman, 2009). The authors captured
four students ‘voices using the aforementioned themes. The four diverse
students shared multitudes of information regarding their experiences with
Facebook.

2.7. Academic Performance

Academic Performance refers to how students deal with their studies and
how they complete different assignments given to them by their teachers.
The popularity of the social networking sites enlarged briskly in the last
span. This is most likely due to the reason that every person used it
extensively to get worldwide access. These social networking sites such as
Twitter and Facebook have become a furious craze for everyone these days.
Students are paying more attention towards these social networking
activities rather than utilizing this time for their studies and this surely
affects their academic performance. The destructive effects of these social
networking sites overweigh the progressive ones. These sites have caused
some latent harm to society. The students become preys of social networks
more often than anyone else. This is because of the reason that when they
are studying or probing their course material online, they get attracted to
these sites to kill the boredom in their study time, sidetracking their attention
from their work & they forget why they are using internet. LaRose et
al. (2001) proposed that student users are affected by the internet and this
impact is determined by the type of internet usage. The misuse of these sites
on a daily basis has many destructive effects on the physical and mental
health of students making them sluggish and unenthusiastic to build
interaction with the people in real life.

2.8. Facebook and Academic Performance

Recent literature found that leisurely Internet use is strongly correlated with
weakened academic performance (Kubey, Lavin, & Barrows, 2001). Kubey,
Lavin, and Barrows (2001) found that students who spent five times more
hours online reported schoolwork problems. In the Kubey et al (2001) study,
10-15% of the student participants felt their Internet visits were out of
control. Although this study did not mention Facebook specifically, the
researchers did mention that the captive social opportunities of the Internet
appeared to be the culprit of the schoolwork problems (Kubey et. al, 2001).
In addition, Vanden Boogart (2006) discovered that excessive Facebook use
was found among students with lower GPAs.

2.9. Hedonic Usage of Facebook and Academic Performance

Hedonic usage results from activities devoted for pleasure. Facebook usage
provided interconnections of people from the same university or all over the
world; people continue to connect through it when they want to get in touch
with someone they lost contact with or meet new people worldwide. Few
other media or channels allow that. However, observed Facebook usage is
mostly embedded in the pleasure experienced by surfers who maintain
profiles and exchange content. Such usage also can offer better functionality
for exchanging videos or pictures, because its integrated application reduces
picture sizes and facilitates video sharing compared with messages sent by
e-mail for example. But this kind of Facebook usage resulted students for
wastage of time on starring on computers rather than studying hard and
scoring good results in colleges (Van der Heijden 2004; Rosen and Sherman
2006; Shin, 2010; Shin and Shin, 2011; Sun et al. 2011).
2.10. Theoretical Review

2.10.1 Flow Theory (FT)

Borrowed from psychology, flow theory helps assess human-computer

interactions and addresses people’s use of the internet. Flow, as defined by
Csikszentimanlyi (1997, p36), is the “holistic sensation that people feel
when they act with total involvement.” It implies absorption in a task, such
that the person is completely attracted by the artefact and the task being
performed. Websites, email tools, and the computer itself are all artefacts;
the tasks refer to an assignment performed using these tools (Firineran and
Zhang, 2003). Thus Facebook is an artefact, and people using this network
engage in tasks that prompt their flow on the platform. Novak et al (1998)
also provide an extensive review of the definition of flow as experienced by
people immersed in a task. Described as total concentration and deep
involvement in the tasks, these activities result in intrinsic enjoyment,
combined with keen curiosity and pleasure that encourages repetition of the
activity, but also the loss of time and an inability to control usage or halt the
activity.

2.10.2 Distraction Effect

Although the use of social networking platform is subject to persuasive

attitude of the social website and the attitudes of users toward social
networking in general (Fogg and Iizawa, 2008), online behaviours also
reflect personality traits, values, and cultures (Hofsted, 1984). The way
people use online social networks especially in terms of their behavioural
patterns and attitudes toward information sharing and privacy is a direct
result of and reflection on their cultural backgrounds (Kiesler, 1997).

Intellectual capabilities to manage time and process information also should

affect their capacity to benefit from online activities and restrict their
efficiency on any tasks performed in parallel. Facebook users usually
interrupt their work to visit Facebook profiles, because of the short-term
capacity needed for the working memory process. Unemployed people
might go online to look for job opportunities and end up interacting on
social platforms, ultimately spending much more on them than expected.
This split attention paid to multiple tasks causes’ distraction. The use of
online social networks also varies across countries because cultures induce
diverse impacts on their members. Absorption in the social networking
activity entails extended immersion in these websites, enjoyment while
interacting, aid curiosity, but people are also temporally disassociated from
their main tasks; whether online or offline, and lose control over the main
activity in favour of chatting or checking new updates. Consequently, this
research will assess the impact of Facebook hedonic usage on academic
performance.

2.11. Impacts of Facebook Usage

Given the high-volume usage of SNS, an obvious and popular concern

among faculty, administrators, and parents is the widespread notion that
students spend far too much time on nonacademic activities related to the
Internet and social media. Countless articles in popular newspapers,
periodicals, and blogs have raised these very same concerns (Bart, 2009;
Ingram, 2011; Ojalvo, 2011; Schulten, 2009). The most salient concern
among scholars, educators, and the public however is related to the effects
of social networking sites such as Facebook on the time dedicated to
studying and offline activities.

Hence, Facebook usage has been associated with both positive and negative
impacts to different aspects of people’s lives, including positive impacts,
such as improving relationships between friends and family and negative
impacts such as low academic performance; health, personal relationships
problems; and social problems. These are discussed below.

2.11.1 Positive impacts

2.11.1.1. Sharing and collecting information

The Social Networking in general and Facebook in particular offers

significant advantages for its users, for example, sharing and collecting
information, searching for jobs, communication, and entertainment. Vast
quantities of information of different types are stored on the Internet.
Usually, the information on the Internet is free of cost and is available 24
hours a day. In addition, the Facebook provides its users with the latest news
of the world and most of the newspapers are available on the Internet, which
are periodically or immediately updated with the latest news (Rice, 2006).
Thus, Facebook users can almost instantaneously learn about news events,
read news articles or opinions about world events, and share this
information and their own thoughts with others like themselves.

2.11.1.2. Communication and entertainment

People around the world can now quickly communicate with each other
through the Facebook using a range of applications: chatting, Wall post, and
helps to download some books. The Facebook also provides different types
of entertainment. For instance, users can play games with other people in
any part of the world, watch movies and listen to music. Above all it helps
users to form new relationships on this site (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe,
2007; Whitty& McLaughlin, 2007).

2.11.2. Negative impacts

2.11.2.1. Academic performance problems

Beside the benefits of Facebook use, negative impacts of its use have also
been identified, including: impaired academic performance, health problems,
personal relationship problems and social dysfunction. For example, a
number of studies have reported the ways in which Facebook usage impairs
students‟ lives. Scherer (1997) found that 13% of his respondents reported
difficulties in their academic work and professional performance due to their
Facebook use. Nalwa and Anand (2003) found that Facebook addictive
users used for long sessions, resulting in personal behavioural problems and
neglect of important work responsibilities. Chou and Hsiao (2000) explored
Facebook Addiction among college that result in more negative
consequences in their studies than non-addicts. This conclusion parallels a
study by Young (1996), who found that Internet addicts experienced
personal, family, occupational problems, and academic difficulties, causing
poor grades and eventually expulsion from universities.

2.12. Student’s behavior

Many years ago emails, instant messaging and blogging all these are the
communication applications of internet are rapidly increased in the youth’s
life and this made the internet a significant social context for development
of youth especially students. However there are some behaviors that can
take place due to frequent use of social networking sites especially students
who are using frequently using social networking sites, results in reduction
of time for other activities that are related academic, physical and social
hobbies that requires face to face meeting (McKenna and Bargh, 2000).
Planned behavior theory provided the foundation for the behavioral factor of
frequently engaging in social networking sites. It is stated that probability of
involving in the behavior for using social networking sites increases when
individual has strong intention of acting upon certain behaviors. Group
norms and self-esteem are two main factors of planned behavior theory in
the context of engaging in social networking sites. Group norms for the
colleagues and friends significantly enhanced the likelihood of intentions of
students of universities to involve in the specific work activity and those
students who identify the use of social networking sites as normative among
friends have the strong intention of using social networking sites frequently.

There is another significant factor that is the behavioral consequence related

to communication technology based behavior and this is self-esteem. Young
individuals having lower self-esteem have the high level of usage of instant
messaging than those who have high level of self-esteem (Nalwa and Anand,
2003). Positive feedback improves the self-esteem and negative feedback
leads to lower the level of self-esteem and that is reason that being
socialized young people uses internet’s communication applications because
it provides more positive interaction with others (DeBell and Chapman,
2006). Ogedebe et al.(2012) conducted a research on usage of Facebook and
its effect on academic performance of students.

2.13 Empirical Review

A relatively small study of Facebook usage and GPA among 219 students at
a large public Midwestern university found the average self-reported GPA
of Facebook users to be significantly lower than that of non-Facebook users
(Kirschner & Karpinksi, 2010). On the other hand, some studies have found
social media use to have no impact on academic performance in college.
Two studies found no relationship between self-reported use of Facebook or
other social networking sites and self-reported GPA in a sample of students
from a public Northeast research university (Kuh, 2003) and in a study
utilizing three data sets: a sample of over 1000 University of Illinois at
Chicago first-year undergraduates, a nationally representative cross
sectional sample 14– to 22– year–olds, and a longitudinal panel of 14 to 23
year old American youth.

Furthermore, additional studies on Facebook impact on both engagement

and academic performance show positive effects. A 14 week experimental
study of 125 university students found increased grades and increased levels
of traditional measures of engagement among students who used the
medium compared to their counterparts who did not (Junco et al., 2010).
This study showed how Facebook can be leveraged to support students’
academic engagement, psychosocial development, and Flowtown (2010)
seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education, including
enhanced faculty-student contact, cooperative and active learning, prompt
feedback, maximal time on task, the communication of high expectations,
and respect for diversity. The deliberate use of Facebook led to a culture of
engagement that deepened interpersonal connections between students as
well. Similarly, these findings are consistent with the teaching tips provided
by Dunlap & Lowenthal (2009) who used Facebook as an additional social
tool to supplement instruction and found that it can encourage free-flowing
just-in-time interactions and enhance social presence when utilized in online
courses.

Other studies of social media use have focused strictly on its impact on
dynamics that have been shown in prior scholarship to indirectly affect
grades – college student engagement and involvement. These studies stop
short of assessing the direct effect of social media use on grades, but prior
research on traditional forms of academic engagement and involvement has
emphasized the role of these dynamics in influencing GPA and other
academic outcomes. For example, Heiberger and Harper (2008) produced
findings that suggest that students who utilized social networking sites such
as Facebook were more engaged in offline activities (i.e., studying,
face-to-face interaction, work), and they also reported greater life
satisfaction and stronger connection to their institutions. In another example,
a 2007 study of first-year students and social networking sites conducted by
the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of
California Los Angeles revealed no relationship between time spent on
social media and the amount of time spent on academic endeavors,
particularly when they compared students who reported spending less than
one hour on social networking sites daily and those who report spending
more than six hours. However, the study did find a positive relationship
between more social media use and higher levels of campus social
involvement. Students who were spending more time using social media
reported a stronger connection to their institution, felt better about their
social life, and were also spending more time on real-life social activities
such as interacting with friends and participating in student clubs or groups.

2.14. Conceptual Framework

On the basis of the preceding theoretical background, the proposed model

posits that addiction to Facebook and time spent on it had a crucial impact
on academic performance of students.

Independent Variable Dependent Variable Extraneous Variables

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Figure 1.Conceptual Framework of the study

Source: The researcher.

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Thus, this chapter provides a fully detailed account of the research
methodology, the reasons that the various research strategies were selected
and the rationale for the sample selection process. It also deals with the
issues of why the particular survey instrument was selected as being
appropriate for the current study. To start with, the study site were
introduced, followed by a presentation of research design, the sample
selection, and data collection process, the data collection tool and further
more a description of how the data will be analyzed.

3.1. Description of the Study Area

Wollega University (WU) is one of the public higher educational institutions

established at Nekemte in 2007. It is located 331km West of Addis Ababa at
the outskirt of Nekemte town on the 150 hectares of land surrounded by
evergreen forest and natural scenery of landscape, and spectacular view of
mount Komto. At present, the University runs 60 undergraduate and 17
graduate programs in three different campuses at Nekemte, Gimbi and
Shambu towns. WU is an innovative institution and a pioneer University to
introduce continuous assessment, student centered & active learning in the
teaching-learning arena to revolutionarize the traditional methods of
teaching by promoting the communicative teaching approach and fully
implementing the continues assessment technique. Today, WU is a
comprehensive University engaged in the provision of all rounded education,
research and community service. Consequently, it is selected as a site of the
current study that providing education for large number of students and no
study has been conducted on the impact of Facebook usage on student’s
academic Performance in the college under the study.

3.2. Research Design

As it has been indicated earlier, the main purpose of this research is to assess
the impact of Facebook usage on students’ academic performance. So, to
attain the intended objectives, mixed approach were chosen as the research
questions contain both qualitative and quantitative natures. On top of this, it
is believed that mixed methods provide better information to understand a
particular phenomenon under investigation than a single method, as the
failure of one method could be compensated by the other (Ary et al., 2010).

Since the present study is intended to respond to research questions of

quantitative and qualitative natures, data collection and analysis techniques
from both methodologies were implemented. Hence, descriptive research
design is chosen as it enables the researcher to describe the current situation
of the study area.

3.3. Population and Sampling

3.3.1 Target Population

The target population for this study were students enrolled at Wollega
University in main campus who specifically fulfil the following inclusion
criteria: A day time (regular) undergraduate students and have Facebook
accounts. These criteria were used to differentiate a day time (regular)
undergraduate students from other students attending their education in the
extension, summer and graduate program and other students in the
university who do not have Facebook account. Hence, students attending
their education in the non-regular program and graduate program were not
included in the study for the following major reasons: The first one is to
make the study more specific and manageable (from the perspectives of
tight budget and time). The second reason is that students attending their
education in the non-regular program were not included in the study because
they are different from most regular students as they have frequent contact
with the outside community, are usually old, relatively stable in life and are
often employed.

3.3.2 Sample Size and Sampling Technique

3.3.2.1 Sample Size

As stated above the target population for this study were regular students
enrolled in undergraduate program at Wollega University in main campus.
Accordingly, the regular students of this campus are about 10,255 (Wollega
University Registrar office, 2014).

From the total population of 10,255 regular program students, sample of 384
students’ were included in the investigation by using Yamane (1967)
formula to calculate sample size:

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Title

Impact of Facebook Usage on Students Academic Performance

Author

Fromsa Bedassa

Year

2014

Pages

63

Catalog Number

V277559

ISBN (eBook)

9783656704966

ISBN (Book)

9783656709824

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English

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Performance, Munich, GRIN Verlag,
http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/277559/impact-of-facebook-usage-o
n-students-academic-performance

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