ABSTRACT

We are living in Cyber or Networking Age. The advancements in the field of communication
technology created a world with no boundary or limitations. We have witnessed the immense
power of the internet and now, with the launch of Web 2.0, social networking sites are redefining
the communication field of communication.

In India, social networking sites are getting more popular and it has become a vital part of our
social life. This study seeks to find out the various dimensions in which social networking sites
are used by the student community. Students use social networking sites for their personal and
curricular activities.

The study shows that the social networking sites are an integral part of their social life. They use
it to maintain and strengthen their offline connections and primarily for communication rather
than entertainment. The study also points out the popularity of mobile social
networkinamong the students community
 INTRODUCTION

Social networking is the practice of expanding the number of one's business and/or social
contacts by making connections through individuals, often through social media sites such as
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

Based on the six degrees of separation concept (the idea that any two people on the planet could
make contact through a chain of no more than five intermediaries), social networking establishes
interconnected online communities (sometimes known as social graphs) that help people make
contacts that would be good for them to know, but that they would be unlikely to have met
otherwise.

Depending on the social media platform, members may be able to contact any other member. In
other cases, members can contact anyone they have a connection to, and subsequently anyone
that contact has a connection to, and so on. Some services require members to have a preexisting
connection to contact other members.

While social networking has gone on almost as long as societies themselves have existed, the
unparalleled potential of the Web to facilitate such connections has led to an exponential and
ongoing expansion of that phenomenon. In addition to social media platforms, the capacity for
social interaction and collaboration is increasingly built into business application.

In the last decades of the 20th century world saw the rapid advancement of information and
communication technologies. During this era “communication” is perhaps the most popular term.
Today the communication revolution has brought us together regardless of geographical
boundaries.

From time to time, we invented new communication technologies for better individual as well
as mass communication. First, by the invention of the Printing technology the mass
communication began its history. Then came the invention of wireless communication; Radio
was a big leap in the field of communication. Later, the birth of Television has made an immense
impact all over the world. And, recently, Internet or World Wide Web has been perhaps the
outstanding innovation in the field of communication in the history of mankind.
The rapid expansion of internet has changed the whole scene. It has brought the world into a
single room. Right from the news across the corners of the world, wealth of shopping
knowledge, a huge scope for job information, lots of opinions to find life partner and information
available about any sort of things in the universe known to mankind is at our fingertip. Internet is
now used for communication, entertainment and information. This contemporary period has
come to be labeled variously as information Age, Communication Age and, the present, Cyber or
Networking Age1. The internet offers a wide variety of communication tools. Billions of people
use facilities like search engines, web pages, e-mails, Really Simple Syndication (RSS),
e-books, e-journals, e-newspapers, internet banking, internet telephony, conferencing, multi-
media

sharing, online news rooms, gaming, shopping, blogging, social networking etc. Today internet
is an essential communication medium in professional as well as personal life.

Among these various tools Social Networking is a global phenomenon. Millions now go online
to engage in social networks. According to Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, there are more
than 300 Social Networking Sites (SNS) and 1.5 billion members worldwide2. In recent decades,
social networks have grown rapidly. It took 38 years to attract 50 million listeners, 13 years for
television to attract 50 million viewers; in 4 years the internet has attracted 50 million surfers3.
IPods took 3 years to reach 50 million users, but Facebook, one of the leading social
networking sites, added over 200 million users in just 12 months4. This shows the
penetration capability and popularity of social networking sites.

Social Networking Sites are a type of virtual community that has grown tremendously in
popularity. Through social networking people can use network of online friends and
group memberships to keep in touch with current friends, reconnect with old friends or create
real-like friendships through similar interest or groups. Besides, establishing social relationships,
social networking member can share interests and their ideas with other like- minded members
by joining groups or forums. They can also participate in discussions through SNS. Members
will be updated instantly about their friends and groups. It also offers micro blogging facility.
In short, a SNS is a hub for communication, entertainment and information.

This paper includes a broad introduction to Social Networking Sites; which includes its
definition, origin and development, global and Indian context and brief description about various
SNS. This followed by Review of Literature, essential to have a picture of the various studies
conducted in this field. Methodology, Findings and Analysis, Discussions and Conclusion,
Bibliography and Appendix are the following chapters.

WHAT IS SOCIAL NETWORKING?

Before going to the further details of the study we must understand the phenomenon called
Social Networking and Social Networking Sites (SNS).

“Social network is a social structure made of individuals or organizations called „nodes‟, which
are tied up by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship,
financial exchange, dislikes or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige5.”

Social network analysis has emerged as a key technique in modern sociology. It has also gained
significance in communication studies, economics, geography, information science,
organizational studies and social psychology. However, our concern is with the internet-based
social networking. Here, the „nodes‟ are the individual actors within the networks and „ties‟
are the relationship between them. There may be one or more ties between the nodes. In this
sense, these individual actors interact or share their interests, ideas or

information with others.

5 Dutta, Ankuran and Ray, Anamika (2010) E-Tools: A New Vista for PR, Vidura, Vol. 2,
Issue.3, p. 46.

There are literally thousands of social networking sites available on internet with various
technological affordances, supporting a wide range of interests and practices. While their key
technological features are fairly consistent, the cultures that emerge around SNSs are varied6.
Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, lists more than 300 major social networking sites7. These
sites give their members a platform to build their own network on the internet.

“Generally we define social networking sites as web-based services that allow

individuals to (1) construct a public or semi- public profile within a bounded system, (2)
articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their
list of connection and those made by others within the system8.”
As we know, today social networking is no longer a niche phenomenon. Millions of
people, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or geographic boundaries, access social networking
sites to communicate, share information, thoughts or ideas, keep in touch with friends, find new
friends, dates and jobs. Thus, social networks are online service, platform or sites that
focus on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people9.

At the basic level an online social network is an internet community where individuals interact
through profiles that represent themselves to others10.

When a person joins a social networking site, he/she begins with creating a

profile, which is a list of information about the person. It may include the person‟s name or
pseudonym, photograph, birthday, relationship/marital status, hometown, current location,
religion, ethnicity, political view, personal interests, activities, hobbies etc. User can post blog
entries or updates for others to read or watch. User generated contents (UGC) are the significant
feature of SNSs.

The user may search for people they know or other users with similar interests and compile and
share a list of contacts, usually as friends list or contact list or fans. They make contacts with
other users by sending a friend request, which must be accepted by the other user in order to
establish a link between them.

„Friending‟ another user gives them access to the information shared in the

network and adds them to one‟s network and vice versa. The term „friend‟ can be misleading,
because the connection does not necessarily mean friendship in the everyday vernacular sense,
and the reasons people connect are varied (Boyd, 2006). This is a typical structure of social
networking.

Some social networks have additional features, like creating and joining groups that share a
common interest or affiliations, upload or stream live videos, hold discussions in forums and post
links of other web sites. A friend can access this information one shared with his/her network
and comment or share it. Some SNSs allow users to enhance their profiles by adding multimedia
content, modules, such as Facebook Apps, or modifying their profile‟s look and feel. What make
SNSs unique is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users
to articulate and make visible their social networks. This can result in connection between
individuals that would not otherwise be made, but that is often not the goal, and these meetings
are frequently between “latent ties” (Haythornthwaite, 2005) who share some

offline connections. On many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily

„networking‟ or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with
people who are already a part of their extended social network. To emphasize this articulated
social network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we label them “social networking
sites”11.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES (SNS): ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

Although the concept of computer based communities dated back to the early days of computer
networks, only some years after the advent of internet, social networking have met public and
commercial success. Computer network was initially envisioned in the heydays of The Beatles as
a military- centric command and control scheme. But as it expanded beyond just a privileged few
hubs and nodes, so too did the idea that connected computers might also make a great forum for
discussing mutual topics of interest, and perhaps, even meeting or renewing acquaintance with
other humans12.

In the 1970s, efforts to support social networks via computer-mediated communication (CMC)
were made in many online services, including Usenet, ARPANET, LISTSERV, and Bulletin
Board Services (BBS). These online meeting places were effectively independently produced
hunks of codes that allowed users to communicate with a central system where they could
download files or games and post messages to other users. There were also many otheravenues
for social interaction, with prototypical features of SNS, such as

America Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe. Though the technology of the time restricted the
flexibility of these systems, and the end-user‟s experience, to text-only exchanges of data that
crawled along at glacial speed, these services, continued to gain popularity throughout the „80s
and well into the „90s, when the internet truly kicked into gear.
The two inventions boosted up the internet were the creation of hypertext in

1990, a system that links together electronic documents, including texts and graphics, which
resulted in the establishment of the World Wide Web (WWW), and the invention of web
browsers in 1993. The first phase of web represents the Web 1.0, which according to Tim
Barners-Lee could be considered the “read-only” web13.

Early social networking on the World Wide Web began in the form of generalized online
communities such as Theglobe.com (1994), Geocities (1994) and Tripod.com (1995). Many of
these early communities focused on bringing people together to interact with each other through
chat rooms, and encouraged users to share personal information and ideas via personal web
pages by providing easy-to-use publishing tools and free or inexpensive web space. Some
communities - such as Classmates.com (1995) – took a different approach by simply having
people link to each other via e-mail addresses. Classmates.com is a social media website created
by Randy Conrad. The site helps members find, connect and keep in touch with friends and
acquaintances from school life but users could not create profiles or list of friends until
yearslater. In the late 1990s, user profiles became a central feature of SNSs, allowing users to
compile lists of “friends” and search for other users with similar interests.

According to the definitions we discussed earlier, the first recognizable SNS was the
SixDegrees.com in 1997. SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles, list their friends and
surf the lists. SixDegrees.com was named after the six degrees of separation concept, i.e.; no
person is separated by more than six degrees from another, and its founders worked hard on the
concept by encouraging users to bring more people into the field. Unfortunately, this ultimately
became a bit too pushy for many, and the site slowly de-evolved into a loose association of
computer users and numerous complaints of spam- filled membership drives14. It was one of the
manifestations of SNS in the format now seen today. SixDegrees.com folded completely just
after the turn of the millennium.

Following the SixDegrees.com experience hundreds of networks, ranging from blogging venues,
to dating and socializing sites, to glorified classified system, have spurred online. From 1997 to
2001, many sites, opted solely for niche, demographic–driven markets, began such as
AsianAvenue.com (1997), BlackPlanet.com (1999), LiveJournal.com (1999) and MiGente.com
(2000). The South Korean social networking service CyWorld.com launched in 1999.
 COMPANY PROFILE

VARIOUS TYPES OF APPLICATION ARE:-

1 – FACEBOOK

This is easily the largest social networking site in the world and one of the most widely used.
And, Facebook was perhaps the first that surpassed the landmark of 1 billion user accounts.

Apart from the ability to network with friends and relatives, you can also access different
Facebook apps to sell online and you can even market or promote your business, brand and
products by using paid Facebook ads.

Recently Facebook has lost the trust of millions of its users by allowing 3rd parties to access
over 87 million users‟ personal data. This is a massive breech of trust and has created a feeling of
unrest amongst the social media platform‟s audience. So much so that there is now a
deletefacebook campaign where people are completely removing themselves from Facebook and
using other networks instead. If you‟re concerned about what Facebook is doing with your data,
then you should check the terms and condition written on facebook policy page. And if you ant
to check the alternative to facebook then check below

Number of active users per month: 1.59 billion approximately

2 – WHATSAPP

Despite having been acquired by Facebook in 2014, this instant messaging platform exists as an
independent entity.

It arrived on the scene much later than Facebook, but has been able to capture the imagination of
millions of people across the world by giving them the ability to communicate and share
instantly with individuals and groups. The WhatsApp voice call and video call feature is just the
icing on the cake. And after that sharing your thoughts and your day to day happening in he
status blog is another ice breaking feature. And it is more secure than facebook , people are more
active in whatsapp than facebook.

Number of active users per month: 1 billion approximately

3– INSTAGRAM

Instagram was launched as a unique social networking platform that was completely based on
sharing photos and videos. This photo sharing social networking app thus enables you to capture
the best moments of your life, with your phone‟s camera or any other camera, and convert them
into works of art.

This is possible because Instagram allows you to apply multiple filters to your photos and you
can easily post them to other popular social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. It is
now part of the Facebook empire and now after continueos upgradtion instagram has allowed to
upload short videos and also to chat with other person like facebook and whatsapp. People used
to upload their work in instagram. Like celebrity use to upload their shoot in insta sometime so
that their fans would know about the upcoming movie.

Number of active users per month: 400 million approximately

4 – TWITTER

This social networking site enables you to post short text messages (called tweets), containing a
limited number of characters (up to 140), to convey your message to the world. With the growing
craze for online shopping, Twitter also makes it possible to promote your businesses and even
shop directly through tweets.now a days after digital india campaign twitter has gained a lot of
importance and government official are a lot active in twitter. People now used to register
complain through tweets and used to get instant solution.

Twitter has mobile application and also web application.

Twitter is one of the 10 most visited websitesin the world.

People can get official page on twitter by getting a blue tick beside their name.

Number of active users per month: 320 million approximately

5– GOOGLE+

Owned by the tech giant Alphabet (Google), this interest-based social networking platform
enables you to stay in touch with people by sharing messages, photos, videos, useful links to
sites and so on. It also extends support for video conferencing through Hangouts and allows
businesses to promote their brands and products through Google+ business pages. Google+,
pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus and sometimes written as G+, was an
Internet-based social network owned and operated by Google. The network was launched on
June 28, 2011 which replaced Google Buzz in the attempt to challenge other social networks
such Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Myspace, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter and Vimeo and it
was designed to link Google's products like Blogger and YouTube. Google+'s user engagement
was lower than that of its competitors

Number of active users: 300 million approximately

6 – YOUTUBE

YouTube is the world‟s largest video-sharing social networking site that enables users to upload
and share videos, view them, comment on them and like them. This social network is accessible
across the globe and even enables users to create a YouTube channel where they can upload all
their personally recorded videos to showcase to their friends and followers. YouTube allows
users to upload, view, rate, share, add to favorites, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to
other users. It offers a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media videos. Available
content includes video clips, TV show clips, music videos, short and documentary films, audio
recordings, movie trailers, live streams, and other content such as video blogging, short original
videos, and educational videos. Most of the content on YouTube is uploaded by
individuals.YouTube and its creators earn advertising revenue from Google
7- WECHAT

This is an all-in-one communications app for messaging and calling (similar to WhatsApp) that
enables you to connect with the people of your choice. It was also developed by Tencent in
China and can easily work alongside QQ. As per the BI intelligence report, the number of
WeChat users are fast catching up with the number of WhatsApp users. People who go to china
for business purpose they use wechat as whatsapp does not work in china.
8 – SKYPE

Skype, owned by Microsoft, is one of the most popular communication-based social networking
platforms. It allows you to connect with people through voice calls, video calls (using a webcam)
and text messaging. You can even conduct group conference calls. And, the best part is that
Skype-to-Skype calls are free and can be used to communicate with anyone, located in any part
of the world, over the internet.

Number of active users per month: 300 million approximate

 LITERATURE REVIEW

Social networking has become a common international trend which has spread its reach to almost
every corner of the world. The use of Social media sites have exploded and evolved into an
online platform where people create content, share it, bookmark it and network at a prodigious
rate. Among the prominent users of the social media are the students. This research assesses the
impact of social media sites on student academic performance

in Samuel Adegboyega University. Four research questions and three hypotheses guided the
study. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The population used as sample were
students from Samuel Adegboyega University in Edo state. A validated questionnaire with 0.96
reliability was used for data collection. Frequency counts, percentage and mean were the
quantitative statistics used. The inferential statistics was applied to assess

the significance of the hypothesis. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was the technique of
estimation and the F-statistic was used to determine whether the hypotheses was significant at
0.05. The result shows that there is significant relationship between time spent on social media
sites and academic works. It also revealed that the nature of social media activities which the
student engages in does not have any significant impact on the student academic performance. In
addition the study also shows that the gender of the student has no impact on the usage and
activities of social media.

Oshraive Peter, 2015

Social media on acedmic performance in lagos state

The purpose of this research study is to examine the influence of Social Media and Academic
Performance Of students in University of Lagos. Five Research questions and five Research
hypotheses guided the study. To achieve this, the descriptive survey research design was
adopted. The study focused on University of Lagos hence, population consists of all the 24,661
full-time undergraduate students. The simple random sampling technique was used to select a
sample of 378 students. A four point Likert Type Rating Scale Questionnaire type, titled: Social
Media and Academic Performance of Students Questionnaire (SMAAPOS) was used to collect
data from the participants. The descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage, were
used to analyze the demographic data while inferential statistics of Chi-square(x2) was used in
testing the research hypotheses. Research findings showed that a great number of students in
University of Lagos, are addicted to social media. To this end, the researcher recommended that
social media should be used for educational purposes as well; Social Networking Sites should be
expanded and new pages should be created to enhance academic activities and avoid setbacks in
the students‟ academic performance; and Students should be monitored by teachers and parents
on how they use these sites This is to create a balance between social media and academic
activities of students to avoid setbacks in the academic performance of the students.

Ahmed mohammad, 2016 Impact of social media on acedmic: A quantitative study Social
networking sites (SNS) have developed from being simply hedonic for private use to powerful
hierarchical apparatuses utilized both inside association and remotely correspondence or joint
effort with different stakeholders. Social networking is a prevalent pattern today, particularly
amongst young students. As online networking is gradually coming into vogue, it is a
commence that technology is a fundamental part in present modern students. Web-based social
networking had exploded as an arrangement of online talk where individual build contents,
share, mark and connect with tremendous speed. Due to its usability, speed and achievement,
social networking is quickly changing people in general talk in the public arena, setting

pattern and motivation in subjects that is selection from environment and governmental issues to
the technology and media outlets. Social Networking Sites (SNS) for example,

Facebook, is currently an essential interchanges medium used to join people and organizations
around the globe. In this paper we will study about utilization of online networking and its
impact on study. Questionnaire survey was indicted to elicitate data. The study has showed that
most of the candidates having cell phone which likewise had the access of internet and they
knew about many social media sites. The study additionally affirmed that many of candidates
visiting social media utilize their smart cells and give 30 minutes to 3 hours every day. The
survey will also highlight that utilization of social websites has a negative impact on studies.
There will be a direct relationship between online

websites and studies. This paper will initiate with introduction and background of current
studies. After this there will be a questionnaire that is based on background of this study.
Today, the impact of social media (SM) and social network services are undeniable. Social web
applications are particularly so pervasive that finding innovative ways to incorporate them into
our everyday lives for profit or educational use is a constant activity for some. The purpose of
this study is to identify best practices acknowledged through scholarly literature for professionals
and to highlight the common ways to improve the use of social web tools. Through a
comprehensive literature review, this study illustrates how an effective communication synergy
can be developed through the use of various social mediums for sustainable user engagement
online.

The extensive use of Social Networking in India has been on the rise among the new generation
youths. In today's world, life cannot be imagined without Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, What-
sApp, LinkedIn or Twitter accounts and online handles. The new age social networking culture
has been well accepted and has met an enthusiastic response and acceptance. There are reports of
cultural changes and in the way traditional interactions and social communications are conducted
in India. Research studies on this new age social media impact and usage within India have been
limited to specific surveys and theories. The objectives of this study is an attempt to investigate
the extent of social networking impact on the Indian youth. The reason for selecting youth as the
target audience is because the direction of a country and culture is decided by the direction taken
by youths of that country. This paper is an attempt to analyse the pattern of social networking
usage and impact in order to determine the social networking addiction.

Social media are web-based services that gives individual the opportunity to create either a
public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, add a list of others to with they share a
connection and view and transvers their list of connections and those made by others within the
system. Therefore, this study was carried out with the aim of examining the impact of use of
social media on students‟ academic performance in Malaysian Tertiary Institution. In other to
measure social media platforms a questionnaire was developed based on past literatures. The
independent variables includes: time appropriateness, time duration, Nature of Usage, Health
Addiction, Friend-People connection and security/privacy problems while the dependent variable
was student

academic performance. This research adopted descriptive and explanatory research design. It
also employed the use of cross sectional survey method using survey questionnaires that contains
42 items with a Likert Scale (Disagree-1 and 5 for Agree). The sample of 102 students from
Erican College was selected using convenient sampling method. The data collected was analyzed
using description means and regression via SPSS 21. The Pearson‟s correlation coefficients of
four independent are correlated with student‟s academic performance while two are not.
However, using the regression analysis four variables is significant which include: Time
appropriateness, people-friend connection, nature of Usage and health addiction while Time
duration and security/privacy problems are not significant. Thus considering the abnormal use of
Social media platforms by students, it is expedient that Universities and colleges in Malaysia
educate their students to positively use these platforms for educational purposes which will
eventually result in a positive impact on their academic performance.
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Online social networking is increasingly the subject of scholarly research. Scholars in many
fields have begun to investigate the various aspects of social networking services and the impact
of social networking sites. Many studies have been conducted around the world to investigate
how these sites may play into issues of identity, privacy, social capital, youth culture and
education. An attempt has been made in this chapter to review studies and articles related to the
topic. The review of literature allows us to study the trend of similar studies conducted in the
same field. This will give a proper direction to the work and enable integration of the past
research leading to the expansion of knowledge.

Alessandro Acquisti and Ralph Gross (2006) conducted a study, titled “Imagined
communities Awareness, information Sharing and Privacy on Facebook”, to understand
underlying demographic or behavioral differences between the communities of the network‟s
members and non-members and impact of privacy concerns on member‟s behavior. In this
research, the researchers found out that age and student status are the most important factors in
determining the Facebook membership, though the privacy concerns also play a role, but only for
non-undergraduate students. Majority of the members are aware of the visibility of their profiles
and they rely on their own ability to control the information they disseminate. However, they
document significant dichotomies between specific privacy concerns and actual

information revelation behavior30

Catherine Dwyer, Starr Roxanne Hiltz and Katia Passerini (2007) studied how trust in a
particular site and other members can affect user‟s willingness to share information and
develop new relationships. The relation between internet privacy concerns and willingness to
share information and develop new relationships was analyzed. The study conducted with a
comparison of Facebook and MySpace. The results showed that online friendships can
develop in sites where perceived trust is low and protection of privacy is minimal. The
comparison study revealed interesting similarities and differences between the two sites31.

Eszter Hargittai (2007) conducted a study titled “Who space? Difference between Users and
Non-users of Social Networking Sites”, which aimed to explore or look at predictors of SNSs
usage with particular focus on Facebook, MySpace, Xango and Friendster. A survey was
conducted among the college students of Illinois and Chicago. Findings of the work suggest that
the use of SNSs were not randomly distributed across a group of highly wired users. A person‟s
gender, race, ethnicity and parental and educational background were all associated with the
use. This throws light on the reasons for the use and non-use of the social networking sites and
how a person‟s demographic characteristics and social surroundings of his/her use might relate to
the use of particular social networking site they embrace32.

Telwall and Halser (2007) conducted a study on the weblog. The main aim of the study was to
explore the capabilities and limitations of weblog search engines. Evaluative study was
conducted for that purpose. Findings show that

although blog searching was a useful new technique, the results were sensitive to the choice of
search engine. The parameter used and the date of search, quantity of the spam also varies by
search engine and search type. Blog searching and web searching are significantly different from
each other. Hence information professionals need to understand its strength and its weakness,
this study is very helpful for that purpose33.

Lars Backstrom, Dan Huttenlocher, Jon Kleinberg and Xiangyang Lan (2006) discussed some
interesting factors about the evolution of online groups in web communities and SNSs. The study
conducted to find out (a) the structural features that influence individual to join a community, (b)
which communities will grow rapidly and how does the overlapping among pairs of communities
change over time? The result tells us that the tendency of individuals to join communities, and of
communities to grow rapidly, depends in subtle ways on the underlying network structure. The
liking of individual to join a community is influenced not just by the number of friends he/she
has in that community, but also crucially how those friends are connected to one another34.

Topper (2007) discussed about the social networking in library. The purpose of the study was to
understand the impact that social networking had on the public and academic library. Literature
review was the important method adopted for the work and the study found that libraries will
have to reach users in their preferred method of communication and they show the value of
planning ahead for the future and the ways patrons were accessinginformation. The
younger generation‟s perspective on the internet generally and on social networking technologies
in particular was identified from the study35.

Ellison, Stainfeild and Lampe (2007) discussed about the use of social networking sites. The
main objective or purpose of the work was to examine the relationship between use of Facebook
and the formation and maintenance of social capital. A survey among undergraduate student was
conducted and regression analysis was done on the result. Findings of the study revealed that
Facebook was used more to meet new people or to maintain and strengthen relationship with
offline connection. This study disclosing the fact that online interaction does not necessarily
remove people from their offline world but may indeed to be used to support relationship and
keep people in contact even when life changes move them away from each other. Very often
SNSs are used by the people to keep in touch with people known to us in the real world and to
make new contacts in the virtual world36.

Mark R Davis and Barbara A Lee (2008) conducted a study on “The Legal Implications of
Students Use of Social Networking Sites in the UK and US: Current Concerns and Lessons
for the Future”. This provides a comparative snapshot of the current state of the law in the US
and UK with respect to potential liability of University and college students for use (and misuse)
of SNSs. It reviews the limited case law on this topic, highlighted the differences in the two
nations‟ law of determination and the various possible legal claims available to individuals
allegedly harmed by posting on these SNSs, and

concludes that neither country currently offers a satisfactory legal or quasi-

legal model for resolving these disputes37. There is scope for such a study in

Indian context too. Anne West, Jane Lewis and Peter Curries (2009) conducted a study on
“Student Facebook „friends‟: Public and Private Spheres”. Findings suggest that social
networking sites, such as Facebook are associated with new ways of constructing some of the
notions surrounding the traditional public/private dichotomy. Notions of what are private and
what are public is fuzzy, with no clear-cut public/private dichotomy. Computer mediated
communication appears to make this fuzziness more apparent than has hitherto been the case38.

In an article Michael Salter and Chris Bryden (2009) discussed on “I can see you: Harassment
and Stalking on the Internet”. The authors further consider the potential liabilities of internet
service providers (ISPs), web hosts and social networking and chat room forum sites, concluding
that a shift in liability for internet harassment from progenitor to facilitator is inevitable39.

Kevin P. Brady, Lori B. Holcomb and Bethany V. Smith (2010) conducted a study, titled as “The
Use of Alternative Use of Social Networking Sites in Higher Education Settings: A Case Study
of E-learning Benefits of Ning in Education”, on the educational benefits associated with the use
of SNSs. The study was focused on the graduate students enrolled in distance education courses
using

based on the students‟ attitudes towards the sites as productive online tools for teaching and
learning. The researchers found out that education based social networking sites can be used
most effectively in distance education courses. They are an excellent technological tool for
improved online communications among students in higher distance education courses40.

In an article, “Understanding the Uses of Social Networks”, Mikolaj Jan Piskorski (2009)
cites that people love to look at pictures, which is the killer application of all online social
networks. Piskorski hypothesizes that the people who post pictures of themselves can show they
are having fun and are popular without having to boast. Another attraction of photos is that they
enable a form of voyeurism. Social networks enable a very delicate way to pry into someone‟s
life without really prying. He also found out deep gender difference in the use of sites. The
biggest usage categories are men looking at women they do not know, followed by men looking
at women they do know and women look at other women they know. Overall, women receive
two-third of all page views41.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology is a systematic way to solve a problem. Essentially, the procedures by

which researchers go about their work of describing, explaining and predicting phenomena are
called research methodology. It is also defined as the study of methodsby which knowledge is
gained. So, Research refers to a search for knowledge. It is a scientific and systematic search for
pertinent information on a specific topic. When you say that you are undertaking a research
study to find answers to a question, you are implying that the process;

1. Is being undertaken within a framework of a set of philosophies (approaches);

2. Uses procedures, methods and techniques that have been tested for their

VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY;

3. Is designed to be unbiased and objective .

A philosophy means approaches e.g. qualitative, quantitative and the academic

discipline in which you have been trained. Validity means that correct procedures have been
applied to find answers to a question. Reliability refers to the quality of a measurement
procedure that provides repeatability and accuracy.Research is to be understood as an "original
investigation undertaken in order to gain knowledge and understanding". It includes work of
direct relevance to the needs of the public, private and voluntary sectors; "the invention and
generation of ideas, images, performances including design, where these lead to new or
substantially improved insights; and the use of existing knowledge in experimental development
to produce new

or substantially improved materials, devices, products and processes, including design and
construction. We can say that its add more in existing invention and provides something new in
the relevant field with such new and researchers own innovative methods and techniques.
SAMPLING

For the study a purposive sample of 100 respondents were taken. “In purposive sampling the
organizers of enquiry purposively chose the particular unit of a universe for constituting a
sample on the basis that the small mass that they so selected out of huge one will be
typical or representative of the whole45”.

The study is focused on the students of professional courses and non- professional courses. The
student community is the one group, in our society, eager to know the new technologies and they
adapt to it too fast. Out of the

100 respondents, 50 were taken from students studying in professional

courses and another 50 from students of non-professional courses in the age group of 18-22 years

The samples of professional students were taken from the students of Government Engineering
College, Wayanad and Medical College, Calicut. The samples of non-professional students were
selected from Farook College, Farook, Calicut and JDT Islam College of Arts and Science,
Vellimadukunnu,

Calicut. The survey was conducted in October 2010.

 OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

1.To study the various mode of social networking.

2.To study the usage of social networking in daily life.

3.To study the various usage of social networking on students.

4.To analysis the impact of social media on acedmic performance.

5.To give suggestions to improve academic performance by using social media.

 NEED OF SOCIAL MEDIA

1. To stay in touch with what friends are doing (42%)

2. To stay up-to-date with news and current events (41%)

3. To fill up spare time (39%)

4. To find funny or entertaining content (37%)

5. General networking with other people (34%)

6. Because friends are already on them (33%)

7. To share photos or videos with others (32%)

8. To share my opinion (30%)

9. To research new products to buy (29%)

10. To meet new people (27%)

33% of social media users are on a platform because their friends were already there.

42% of people use social media to stay in touch with what friends are doing.
 LIMITATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA:-

1)LOSS OF PRIVACY:-

Networking sites put your life on display to an audience. Any files,pictures, details put up on a
networking site can be shared albeit on a limited basis.Often networking sites become a source
for scamsters to glean information.Everybody should be careful about the information they share
on a networking platform.Also off-the-cuff comments made about other people may snowball
into controversies and conflicts.

2) TIME CONSUMING

Networking is time consuming and addictive. Just keeping up to carry out the latest updates takes
up time which could be better utilized. It is never truer than in an office scenario where a lot of
productive time is lost as employees chat online, play online games or just catch up with each
other on networking sites.

3)IMPERSONAL

Social networking is to an extent impersonal as there is no face-to-face contact. It is one of the

causes of people continuing to live and work in silos without the warmth of human
contact.Gullible users should be wary of scamsters so extreme caution is necessary in making
friends with strangers to avoid becoming victims of fraud and identity theft.

4)SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE HABITS AND SLEEP DISRUPTION.

Lastly, since social networking is all done on some sort of computer or mobile device, it can
sometimes promote too much sitting down in one spot for too long. Likewise, staring into the
artificial light from a computer or phone screen at night can negatively affect your ability to get a
proper night's sleep.

5)DISTRACTION AND PROCRASTINATION.

How often do you see someone look at their phone?People get distracted by all the social apps
and news and messages they receive,leading to all sorts of problems like distracted driving or the
lack of gaining someone's fullattention during a conversation. Browsing social mediacan also
feed procrastination habits and become something people turn to in order to avoid certain tasks
or responsibilities.

6)ONLINE INTERACTION SUBSTITUTION FOR OFFLINE INTERACTION.

Since people are now connected all the time and you can pull up a friend's social profile with a
click of your mouse or a tap of your smartphone, it's a lot easier to use online interaction as a
substitute for face-to-face interaction. Some people argue that social media actually promotes
antisocial human behavior.

Statement of the problem

Social media has been seen as one of the most common used medium of
communication among all ages of groups. Specifically, social media was seen mostly among the
students for its easy accessibility and functions to keep in touch with the

people around. Since its existence the numbers of users have been increasing day by day and
especially among the students, they are facing a lot of neglect and challenges on their academic
performance and have certainly brought about rapid decline in the quality of education. It was
observed that student give more attention to social media than they do to their studies. Instead of
students reading their books, they spend their time chatting and making friends via the social
media and this might definitely

haveinfluence on their academic performance, because when you do not read, there was no way
you can perform well academically. It was therefore of great importance to explore some of the
trending issues facing students‟ academic performance as a result of social media. Thus, this
study was to

investigate on the effects of social media on the academic performance of the students.
 SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTION

Data are both primary and secondary source of any research. They determine the existence of
any research study. The researcher collected the data from the main two source primary data and
secondary data.

PRIMARY DATA:

Primary data are collected directly from the respondents through questionnaire, it is the first hand
information received by the researcher from the respondent. The data has been collected through
closed ended questionnaire having 10 number of question from 50 students of P.G and UG
students of MSBS department.

SECONDARY DATA:

The secondary data are collected from the books, e-books, journals, articles, reports, and through
internet.
1. Do you use any social media ?

Yes
No

Gender No of Respondents Percentage

Male 26 40%
Female 24 10%

Male
Female
2. Which type of social media do you prefer to use ?

A. Instagram

B. Facebook

C. Whatsapp

D. Twitter

E. All of the Above.

S NO PARTICULAR NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDENTS
1 Instagram 15 15%
2 Facebook 10 10%
3 Whatsapp 10 10%
4 All of the Above 5 5%

16

14

12

10

8
Sales
6

0
1 2 3 4
3. How long hours on an average you spend on social media ?

A. Less Than 1 Hour

B. 1 to 3 Hours

C. 4 to 6 Hours

D. More than 6 Hours

S NO PARTICULAR NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDENTS
1 Less Than 1 Hour 10 10%
2 1 to 3 Hours 10 10%
3 4 to 6 Hours 10 10%
4 More than 6 Hours 20 20%

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
Sales
30%
20%
10%
0%

1
2
3
4
4. How long you have been using social networking websites ?

A. One Year

B. Two Year

C. Three Year

D. More than Three Years

S NO PARTICULAR NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDENTS
1 One Year 05 05%
2 Two Year 10 10%
3 Three Year 15 15%
4 More than Three 20 20%
Years

1
2
3
4
5. What is your purpose of using social media ?

A. Keeping in touch with Friend & Family

B. To meet new people

C. Just for fun and Entertainment

D. Just for time pass

E. Help in Studies

S NO PARTICULAR NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDENTS
1 Keeping in touch with 05 05%
Friend & Family
2 To meet new people 10 10%
3 Just for fun and 05 05%
Entertainment
4 Just for time pass 15 15%
5 Help in Studies 20 20%

1
2
3
4
5
6. I think that there is a significant relationship between students academic performance and
social media adoption and use.

A. Strongly Agree

B. Agree

C. Neutral

` D. Disagree

E. Strongly Disagree

S NO PARTICULAR NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDENTS
1 Strongly Agree 10 10%
2 Agree 05 05%
3 Neutral 07 07%
4 Disagree 03 03%
5 Strongly Disagree 25 25%

1
2
3
4
5
7. What is your academic results ?

A. Pre Performance

B. Post Performance

S NO PARTICULAR NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDENTS
1 Pre Performance 15 15%
2 Post Performance 35 35%

1
2

\
8. Social media provides a useful platform for academic group work ?

A. Strongly Disagree

B. Disagree

C. Neutral

S NO PARTICULAR NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDENTS
1 Strongly Disagree 28 28%
2 Disagree 10 10%
3 Neutral 12 12%

1
2
3
9. Have you ever been late handling in an assignment because you spend time on a social
networking site instead of doing homework ?

A. Yes

B. No

S NO PARTICULAR NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDENTS
1 Yes 25 25%
2 No 25 25%

25
20
15
10 Sales
5
0
Sales
Yes

No
10. Social Media “ It‟s future for the new generation” .

A. Strongly Agree

B. Agree

C. Neutral

` D. Disagree

E. Strongly Disagree

S NO PARTICULAR NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDENTS
1 Strongly Agree 10 10%
2 Agree 05 05%
3 Neutral 07 07%
4 Disagree 03 03%
5 Strongly Disagree 25 25%

1
2
3
4
5
 CONCLUSION

This study designed to understand the various dimensions in which SNSs are used by the
student community, revealed interesting results. The study throws light upon some important
factors regarding the uses of social networking sites among the students. To materialize the
broad objective of the study the researcher had set some research questions. In this chapter we
discuss these research questions with the results successfully collected from various colleges.
A total sample of 100 students, in the age group of 18-22 years, purposively selected from
professional and arts colleges.

The data collected regarding the membership in social networking sites, frequency of accessing
these sites and time spent for social networking helped to understand the basic facts about the
users. Majority of the users have membership in one social networking and almost an equal
number of respondents have two active memberships in social networking sites. While analyzing
the frequency of accessing the SNSs and time spent in social networking sites, we could know
that the majority of the users access these sites once in a week and spent 0-1 hour for social
networking.

These data shows that a large part of student community uses these sites purposefully and thus,
not just for mere entertainment or time pass. Though, there are a few members of heavy users,
who have more active profiles and spent more time for online social networking.

While answering the first research question, we can clearly say that Orkut is the most popular
social networking site among students, considering the fact that 100% of the population has
active profiles in Orkut and most of them

ranked it as their first preference. In the second place, Facebook attracts more students followed
by Twitter. Most of the students ranked Facebook as their

2nd preference and Twitter as third preference.

In spite of this, a few members of student community have more than three memberships in
SNSs. Some familiar sites for these heavy users are Hi5, MySpace and Zorphia. It‟s also noted
that none of these students have membership in Bharatstudents.com, which is an upcoming
Indian social networking site.

Analyzing the users‟ activities on social networking sites, the study reveals some interesting facts
about extent of use of social networking applications, such as photo/video sharing and chatting.
It shows major activity on social networking site is “commenting” or “scrapping” on other user
profiles. The comment or scrap might be about photos, videos, status updates or blog posts. A
significant number of users often use chatting application in social networking sites.
This result points to the interpersonal or group communication element of social networking
sites. The users are mainly interested in the communicating with others. Here, the
communication aspect of social networking becomes the entertainment element.

On the contrary, though majority (89%) of the users is members in communities or

groups in SNSs, only a few participate in discussions on various topics dealt in the groups.
50.6% of the respondents rarely participate in discussions. The groups or communities can be
about anything. For example, there are a lot of communities in the name of celebrities, films,
products and some communities are dealing with feelings, beliefs or social issues. Many
researches have proved that social networking sites can be a platform for the

people to express their views and comment freely without any restrictions. But this result shows
that the youngsters join interested groups not for active participation in the discussions
conducted in these groups.

Addressing the 4th research question on the entertainment aspect of SNSs, the study shows that
59% of the users do not use gaming or entertainment applications in SNSs. Among the users of
gaming application, the popular applications are Farmville, Quizaz, and Cricket etc. From
these research findings we could know that the students use social networking predominantly for
communication purpose rather than for gaming or entertainment. They do not actively participate
in serious discussions or to propagate ideas or for business networking. The social networks
serve as a platform for these youngsters to express themselves. Communication ultimately serves
as an anchor feature and that triggers the growth of social networking sites.
Answering the 5th research question about the reason of using SNSs, the main reason behind the
users‟ motivation to use SNSs is it helps them to keep in touch with their offline connections
wherever they are. They use it because it is easy to maintain and strengthen their relations even
when they are away. Majority of the respondents opined that they use it to keep in touch with
their existing friends and to find old friends. Most of the users do not have friendship
with strangers. Only 46% are interested in finding new relations through social networking. It
must be noted that social networking gained popularity by word of mouth not through any direct
advertisement or propagation. Friends invite their existing contact by text messages or e-mails.
This is how many of the students came to know about such sites.

The upcoming trend in social networking is the mobile social networks. The mobile social
networks are gaining popularity in India. In this study, majority of students said they use mobile
social networking. It is very viable for them to use social networking in their mobile phones
when most of the mobile networks slashed internet charges. Perhaps, in the future, mobile
social networking will be the hottest feature in mobile service sector with the opening of
the 3G spectrum. This will enable them more faster and easy way to be connected with their dear
and nears.

Though, we can now say that it has become an important part in the lives of the users, there is a
lot of concern over the privacy in social networking sites. Addressing the question about the
privacy concerns of users of social networking sites, majority of them never read privacy policy
of their SNSs while creating the profile and believe that there is no privacy loss in exhibiting
their profiles in social networks. 60% of the students said that they have made modifications on
the default privacy settings while creating their profile. From this notion, one thing we can
understand is that they do not care too much while surfing in social networks. Even though they
are not concerned over the privacy threats, they are satisfied with their ability to control their
privacy settings.

In addition, a greater part of the population believes that social networking sites have made a
positive impact on their social life. It has become and integral part of their life and has a lot
of influence in their personal and professional life. In this study, many of the students opined that
it helps them to maintain and develop contacts all over the world. At the same time, they share
their fear of the threat of fake persons or profiles. Some of them opined
that in long run social networking can be become an addiction and a waste of time.

While analyzing the research findings we can understand there was no significant differences
between the professional and non-professional students other than non-professional students are
more interested in social networking sites. But, considering over all response of these students, it
suggests that the students from arts subjects use actively use social networking sites compared to
professional students.

As a summing up, analyzing the research findings we can know that it has a great influence over
the student community and they use it primarily for maintaining their contacts. It is critical to
understand that the ease of communication and share thoughts is what keeps people in social
networks. Social networking sites, which are rapidly becoming the hottest priority of the
generation, must concentrate and develop their communication aspect as users are mostly
interested in communication element of SNSs. In the near future, with the opening of 3G mobile
services, mobile social networking will be one of the popular features of mobile services. In the
turn of the 21st century social networking is increasing in popularity by leaps and bounds.
 LIMITATIONS

This study will help the future researches on social networking sites and to understand the
different aspects of uses of social networking sites. Though, the research has all limitations and
limited facilities of a dissertation. We could not enhance the research with empirical studies and
broad survey, collecting more samples, to get more accurate on generalization.
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 APPENDIX

QUESIONNAIRE

Dear Respodent,

I am Jyoti Singhal an M.Com Student of MSBS department of Mats University doing a

dissertation project about “THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ACEDMIC
PERFORMANCE”. Please fill up the questionnaire. The information givern by you will be kept
confidential & used for research purpose only.

Part – A

1. Name of Respondents :

2. Gender : Male Female

3. Age : 18 to 20

20 to 22

22 to 24

4. Education Qualification :

Under Graduation

Post Graduation

Part – B

1. Do you use any social media ?

Yes
No

2. Which type of social media do you prefer to use ?

A. Instagram

B. Facebook

C. Whatsapp

D. Twitter

E. All of the Above.

3. How long hours on an average you spend on social media ?

A. Less Than 1 Hour

B. 1 to 3 Hours

C. 4 to 6 Hours

D. More than 6 Hours

4. How long you have been using social networking websites ?

A. One Year

B. Two Year

C. Three Year

D. More than Three Years

5. What is your purpose of using social media ?

A. Keeping in touch with Friend & Family

B. To meet new people

C. Just for fun and Entertainment

D. Just for time pass

E. Help in Studies

6. I think that there is a significant relationship between students academic performance and
social media adoption and use.

A. Strongly Agree

B. Agree

C. Neutral

` D. Disagree

E. Strongly Disagree

7. What is your academic results ?

A. Pre Performance

B. Post Performance
8. Social media provides a useful platform for academic group work ?

A. Strongly Disagree

B. Disagree

C. Neutral

` D. Agree

E. Strongly Agree

9. Have you ever been late handling in an assignment because you spend time on a social
networking site instead of doing homework ?

A. Yes

B. No

10. Social Media “ It‟s future for the new generation” .

A. Strongly Agree

B. Agree

C. Neutral

` D. Disagree

E. Strongly Disagree

11. Do you have any Suggestion for Social Media ?

Ans : ______________________________________________________________________

-- Thank You For Given Your Time --