A Survey on Social Media Use, Engagement and Addiction as Predictors of Academic Performance

Abstract

Social networking, which is one of the main indicators of the technology era, attracts people of all ages while the virtual world goes beyond the real life via the applications it offers. Especially young people show an intense interest in social media which is an extension of the Internet technology. Social media addiction is increasing both in all around the world. This study aims to determine the use, engagement and the level of social media addiction as the predictors of academic performance in young people. Social media addiction level shows a dramatic increase also in the case of daily time spent on the Internet increases. More frequent daily visits to social media profiles increase the addiction as well. It was a servey based study which was done on the students of East West University. In the survey 300 students participated from Department of Pharmacy. Among the participants 60% were female and 40% were male. Most of them were facebook user and started using SM in urban area from 14 to 17 years age. Majority people used SM for entertainment and easy interaction. Half of the participants agreed on having its negative impact on their academic performance. After going through the research it was found that the amount of time one spends using social media is negatively correlated with their academic performance. It can also be said that among the participants very few were addicted to social media. Most of the participants didn’t have addiction to social media. The study also provides suggestions on possible actions to prevent addiction. Since only the students of a single department cannot reflect the overall view of the world, further research work should be carried out with more number of students and it is also important to increase the level of knowledge and awareness about social media addiction; so that misconceptions don’t arise among the people.