INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

INTRODUCTION

Our focus in this chapter is to critically examine relevant literatures that would assist in explaining the research problem and furthermore recognize the efforts of scholars who had previously contributed immensely to similar research. The chapter intends to deepen the understanding of the study and close the perceived gaps.

Precisely, the chapter will be considered in three sub-headings:

 Conceptual Framework

 Review of Related Literature

 Empirical Review

 Theoretical Framework

 Chapter Summary

2.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Academic Performance

Academic performance or "academic achievement" is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement.

Academic achievement is commonly measured through examinations or continuous assessments but there is no general agreement on how it is best evaluated or which aspects are most important—procedural knowledge such as skills or declarative knowledge such as facts. Furthermore, there are inconclusive results over which individual factors successfully predict academic performance, elements such as test anxiety, environment, motivation, and emotions require consideration when developing models of school achievement.

Butter (1987) found home-work to be a correlate of academic performance. The author has stated that homework bear positive relationship with learning outcomes when it is relevant to the learning objectives. Lockheed et al. (1991), indicated that lack of motivation and professional commitment produce poor attendance and unprofessional attitudes towards students which in turn affect the performance of students academically.

Babyegeya (2002:22) has revealed a number of factors that affect students’ academic performance. One of the factors is how students actually learn or intend to learn and what teachers actually teach. In his view, other factor - like shortage of books and materials, teaching and teacher education affect students’ academic performance. He adds that the type of teachers, their experience professional, qualifications and commitment to work may contribute to the students’ achievements. In addition to his findings, he insists on instruction time in which students spend in actual learning activities. The author contends that the more they understand the better they perform.

Social Media

Social media is that means that employs mobile and web based technology to create highly interactive platforms via which individuals and community share, co-create, discuss and 12 modifies user-generated content (Kietzmannn, 2012). Social media is a phrase being tossed around a lot. It is a website that does not just give you information but interact with you while giving you information. It is a group of internet based application that allows the creation and exchange of users generated content. It is easy to confuse social media with social news because we often refer to members of the news as the media. Adding to it, that social news site is also social media site. Some media website includes: •

Social Bookmarking: interact by tagging website and searching through website book marked by others (Blink list, simple). • Social News: interact by voting for articles and commenting on them (Digg, propello). •

Social Networking: interact by adding friends, commenting on photo and profiles, sharing groups for discussions (Facebook, 2go, BB chat) •

Social Photo and Video Sharing: interact by sharing photos or videos and commenting on the user submission. (Youtube and Fliki). •

Wikis: interact by adding articles and editing existing articles. (Wikipedia, wikia). Social media refers to the means of interaction among people in which they create, share, exchange and comment among themselves in different networks.

Andreas and Michael (2010) are of the opinion that social media is a group of internet based application that builds on the ideological foundation and allows the creation and exchange of users – generated content. Social media has become one of the major channel of chatting through platforms such as 2go, BB chat, blogger and wiki a. There has been an increase in the mobile social media which has created new opportunity for browsing. The internet usage effect of social media, in views of Nielsen (2012) is that, students continue to spend more time on the social media than any site. The total time spent on social media across mobile devices increased by 37%, 121 billion minutes in July 2012 compared to 88 billion minutes in July 2011. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) classified social media into six different classes as follows:

 Collaborative Project (Wikipedia)

 Blogs and Micro blogs (Twitter)

 Content Communities (Youtube)

 Social Networking Site (Facebook; 2go; BB chat)

 Virtual Game World (World of war craft)

 Virtual Second World (Second life) Technology includes the blogs, picture sharing, music sharing, crowd sourcing, e-mail, instant messaging and voice over.

These services could be integrated via social network aggregation platforms. Mobile Social Media When social media is used in combination with mobile devices, it is called mobile social media. Social media is a group of mobile marketing application that allows the creation and exchange of users generated content. Due to the fact that mobile social media runs on mobile devices, it differs from traditional social media as it incorporates new factors such as the current location of the user, time delay between sending and receiving. According to Kaplan (2002), social media can be divided into four types: 

 Space-timers (location and time sensitive): exchange of message with relevance for specific location and time (Face book, 2go, BB chat) 

 Quick-time (time sensitive): transfer of traditional social media application to mobile services to increase immediacy (posting twitter messages, status update [2go], and updating display picture [dp] [bbm]).

 Space-locators (location sensitive): exchange message with relevance for one specific location which are tagged to certain place (yelp, sype). 

 Slow-timers (neither location nor time sensitive): transfer traditional social media application to mobile devices (reading a wikipedia entry). Social Networking Sites

It is used to describe any website that enables users to create public profiles within that website and form relationship with other users of the same website who access their profile. It is used to describe community base website, online discussion forum, chat rooms and other social space online. Commonly, the phrase “social networking sites” is used as an umbrella term for all social media and computer-mediated communication, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Myspace, as well as the inaugural social networking sites of Cyworld, Bebo and Friendster. Ellison and Boyd (2007) define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to construct profiles, display user connections, and search and traverse within that list of connections. A social media is an online service or platforms that focus on facilitating the building of social network among people who share interest, activities and background on real life connections. It is a website that allows users to share information within a selected group. It is a great way to stay connected and a convenient way to share 15 photos from trips (Awake, 2012). It consists of a representation of each user (profiles), social links and a variety of additional services.

Impacts of Social Networking Sites

Through email and instant messaging, online communities are created where a gift economy and reciprocal altruism are encouraged through co-operation. 2go and other social networking tools are increasingly the objective of scholarly research. Scholars in many fields have begun to investigate the impact of social networking site, investigating how such site may play into issues of identity, privacy, social, youth culture and education. Several website are beginning to tap into the power of the social networking model for philanthropy. In 2011 HCL technologies conducted research that showed that 50% of British workers are banned from the use of social media during office hours. In this view, when one is chit-chatting, the content of the message reveal a lot about an individual. In chatting, comments, photos, and status should speak less of an individual. Kim in summary says: “if you are mindful of what you are doing, you can maintain a measure of privacy on a social network” (Awake, 2012); and, in reference to this, Proverbs 10:19, states that “In the abundance of words, there does not fail to be transgression, but the one keeping his in check is acting discreetly”. “It’s a vortex that sucks one in and one has no idea you’ve been trapped. One of the ironies of the internet is that it keeps you apart from the most important things’. It is a great way to stay connected with people but you just have to know when to shut it down. Raquel concluded that it seems that when people go on a social network they lose their mind” (Awake, 2012). Features of Social Networking Sites According to the Boyd and Ellison (2007) article entitled “Why Youth Heart, Social Networking Site: the role of networked publics in teenage life?” It shares a variety of technical features that allows individuals to construct a public or semi-public office, articulate list of their users that they share connection with and view their list of connections within the system. In an article titled ‘social networking sites’ definition and scholarship, Boyd and Ellison adopt Sunden’s (2003) description of profiles as unique pages where one can type oneself into being a profile is generated from answer to question, such as age, location and interest. Some site allows users upload pictures’, add multimedia content or modify the look of their profile. For instance, 2go allows the user to update their status and change profile pictures and BB chat that allows them change display picture, name and status. They allow them search for users and share a list of contact and there are sections dedicated to comments from friends and other users. To protect their privacy, they have a control that allows users to choose who can view their profile, contact and add them to their list of contacts

Social Network and Education

The advent of social network platforms may also be impacting the way in which learners engage with technology in general. For a number of years, Prensky (2001) dichotomy 17 between digital natives and digital immigrants has been considered a relatively accurate representative of the ease with which people of a certain age rate, in particular, those born before and after 1980, use technology. Social networking and their educational uses are of interest to many researchers. Living Stone and Brake (2010) in their opinion said ‘social networking site, like much else on the internet representing a moving target for researchers and policy makers’. Recent trends indicate that 47% of American adults use social network. A national survey in 2009 found that 37% of online teenagers use social networking site which increased to 555% three years later (Len Hart, Purcell, Smith and Zickuhr, 2010). It has also, shown that it provides opportunity within professional education but however, there are constraints in such areas.

Student’s addictiveness to social media On the internet

students engage in a variety of activities some of which may be potentially addictive. (kuss and Griffiths, 2011). The mass appeal of social media on the internet could be a cause for concern, particularly when attending to the gradually increasing amount of time students spend online. Undergraduates spend more time on Facebook, Twitter and other social media through smartphones that are now in abundance among these youths. Many student cannot go for two-three hours without checking and updating their profiles on these social networks even at the detriment of other activities such as educational and career pursuit. (Morahan- Martin and Schumacher, 2000) explain social media addiction as the excessive use of the internet and the failure to control this usage which seriously harms a person’s life. In an article on the Daily Trust newspaper, Itodo (2011) posits that there seem to be an alarming rate of social networking obsession among students today; a trend that could affect their academic, social and spiritual lives negatively if not properly controlled.

Many concerned parents have expressed grave concern that they could hardly get the attention of their children and wards, as they seem to have been carried away by the fascinating world of social networks. Some youths are such social freaks that they have now carved out for themselves a world of fantasy and illusion for detached from reality. Bello (2012) of the Sunday Observer observes that if the dangerous trend of social media network “obsession” if left unchecked could further affect an already collapsing education system in Nigeria. The reason students are performing poorly in school these days might not be farfetched. While poor quality of lecturers can quickly take the blame, one might think harder if the phrase “Facebook frenzy” has not been heard of. It is a common sight to see a youth chatting in sensitive and highly organized places like church, mosque and lecture venues. Some are so carried away that even as they are walking along the high way, they keep chatting. Attention has been shifted from visible to invisible friends, while important ventures like study and writing are affected in the process. This phenomenon has become a source of worry to many who believe in knowledge and skill acquisition (McQuail 2008). Jeong (2005) noted that internet addiction is significantly and negatively related to students’ academic performance, as well as emotional attributes. In a study of 884 students of different universities in Nigeria, (Olowu & Seri 2012). Indicated that students in Nigeria are spending too much time on social networking sites at the detriment of other necessary things such as their studies. They explained that Youths’ use of these social networking sites even point towards obsession. The youths have made the social media their top priority and continued to need more usage in order to feel satisfied.

In Ogedebe, Emmanuel & Musa (2012), a study on Facebook and Academic Performance in Nigeria Universities was carried out on 122 university students; they tested six hypotheses to know the effect of Facebook on the academic performance of students in selected universities. The study tested among other hypotheses that the more time a student spends on Facebook, the lower his or her grade point average will be. In Olubiyi (2012), the author observed that the bone of contention of the social media is the obsessive attitude of Nigerian youths towards its use. He pointed out that students waste their time through idle chats and other immoral acts. Students are so engrossed in the social media networks that they are almost 24 hours online. Even in classrooms and lecture theatres, it has been observed that some students are always busy pinging, 2going or Facebooking, while lectures are on. The result is that quality time that ought to be spent on academic research and other productive networking is lost. Students Exposure to Social Media It has been observed in recent times that students have unlimited access to the internet as well as the social media. Students connect with computer to send and receive information’s anywhere on the globe. The manufacturing and distribution of equally sophisticated cellular phones has complicated the situation, as students no longer need to visit a cybercafé before they send and receive messages. Some school are so equipped that there is internet connection made available within the school premises as well as in the library. Online Wikipedia and blogs are the main resource centers for students as attention have been shifted from making research in the library to overall dependence on theses social 28 platforms. It is a common thing to see a student reading in the library and putting the books aside on hearing the sound of a ping on the phone. According to a joint study by Campus2Careers and Study Breaks on the use of mobile devices among students discovered that, an average undergraduate spend 3.6 hours a day with their cell phones and smartphones, while spending less time with computers, TV’s, handheld gaming devices and e-readers. Influence of Social Media Network on Student Academic Performance Though there have been many social, economic, and environmental factors that have added to the pressure of university students in the past ten years, the drop-out rate for students is still a major national problem (Bowen, 2008). Current statistics show that university students in Nigeria are under increased pressure due to higher academic standards in other countries, and it has become more important than ever for educators to encourage graduation and further education (Bowen, 2008). However, with more and more students being preoccupied with social media networks and technological social lives, how will this affect their studies? It is estimated that even those students who do graduate high school, one out of three does not have possess the knowledge and skills that would lead him or her to the next level, such as college or an advanced trade school (Bowen, 2008). The top academic areas that many school professionals are concerned about are English (ELA) and advanced literacy (Williams, 2008). The current generations of teens live in a fast-paced technological world with many different types of communication happening all at the same time. For example, he or she may be on the computer on a SNS, while also talking on the phone, sending instant messages to a friend, and emailing someone else all 29 at the same time (Williams, 2008). While there may be some advantages to this, such as the teen learning how to type faster and multi-task many things at once, there may also be a breakdown in much of that communication (Williams, 2008). Literacy has also taken a dive in the past decade, which has caused many educators to question what can be done to help students improve their reading, writing, speaking, and thinking- all of the most basic skills for a successful future (Wise, 2009). As one researcher stated, “Literacy is, in reality, the cornerstone of student achievement, for any student, in any grade” (Wise, 2009, 373). The question that many school professionals have with regards to communication is whether or not a tertiary institution student is able to follow school curriculum in courses like English or Language Arts (Williams, 2008). Also, will it be possible to teach them without the use of multi-tasking and using new forms of technology.

Academic performance as measured by GPA

Unlike the variables of regulation of time and study environment (attention) and effort regulation (motivation), there have been studies conducted on the impact social media usage has on academic performance, specifically cumulative GPA. Several studies investigating the impact of social media on academic performance were conducted (Apuke and Iyendo, 2017; Peter, 2015; Waqas et al., 2016). In one study, the students were given surveys that inquired about their daily social media usage, whether they used social media sites while completing university work, which sites they used more often, and their GPA (Peter, 2015). The results indicated that students spent a large amount of time in their day on social media, and used social media while working on classroom assignments. The results also indicated that high-frequency social media usage is correlated with lower overall academic performance. However, results also suggested that when social media is used for academic purposes, there was not a negative correlation between social media usage and academic performance. Students in other studies seldom reported using social media for academic purposes (Apuke and Iyendo, 2017; Waqas et al., 2016).

These findings were consistent with another study (Abdulahi et al., 2014) in which students were asked similar questions about their social media usage and their overall academic performance.

The results indicated that a majority of the students reported spending much of their time using social media sites (i.e. checking or posting on social media). Furthermore, students spent time on social media while or instead of engaging in academic assignments and academic performance was negatively affected.

Students who frequently engage in social media may not see the impact of their use on overall academic performance, or the relationships between key strategies and skills important for academic success and social media use. Engaging with social media implies that students are not removing the distractions from their environment to allow them to focus their attention (regulation of time and study environment). Also, choosing a more favorable task such as social media may mean they are not persisting in the primary, study-related task when it becomes difficult or they are not motivated (effort regulation).

Research suggests relationships between these variables; however, there has not been research conducted that explicitly examines the juncture between social media usage, regulation of time and study environment, effort regulation, and academic performance. The study described here addresses these gaps. The purpose of this study was to first explore the predictive relationship between social media usage and academic performance. Second, the purpose was to determine whether regulation of time and study environment (attention) and effort regulation moderate the relationship between social media usage and academic performance.

2.2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Social Media and student academic life in higher education

Academic life in these context is describe as the activities that relates to the work done in colleges and universities especially which involves studying and reasoning rather than practical or technical skills. Higher education on the other hand is an educational level that primarily describes post-18 learning that takes place at the universities as well as other colleges and institutions that awards academic degrees and professional qualification.

A side most deliberations of social media being perceived as either on the very straightforward or the very philosophical, emergent numbers of educationalists exploring and aspiring in this field are beginning to consider the possible significance and likely implications of social media for education practice and provisione specially in terms of higher education. Social media constitute an increasingly important context in one’s academic everyday lives. Indeed, some critics talk of social media as a self-networked acknowledging avenue serving as a key site for sociality and identity recognition in many people’s lives (Papacharissi, 2010). The apparently changing nature of a student, who is entering university, will ultimately see the significance of social media in higher education in a practical sense, the attribute of social media reflects a highly connected, collective and creative qualities application that are more flexible, fluid and accelerated in nature. Social media are therefore associated with an

increased tendency for young people to multitask, to rely on a digital juggling of daily activities and commitments (Subrahmanyam and Šmahel, 2011).

More subtly, the reason with young people associated with these emerging technologies is also associated with the autonomous nature of social media allowing students an increased control over the nature and form of what they do, as well as where, when and how they do it. As Tapscott and Williams (2007) argue that, young people ‘are not content to be passive consumers, and increasingly satisfy their desire for choice, convenience, customization, and control by designing, producing, and distributing products themselves’.

Gender Usage of Social Media

Males and Females use social media at similar rates (Pew research center, 2017). However, according to Lim, Heinrichs and Lim, (2017) females perceive social media differently than males. Social media corporations found out that interest and curiosity are the main factors that affect the social media usage of females, whereas variety of contents is the main factor that affects the social media usage of males. There are also several researches mentioned that there are gender differences in the social media usage. For example one of the conducted studies to analyze this phenomenon showed that females listen to less music on social media sharing platforms than males (Putzke, Fischbach, Schoder&Gloor, 2014). On the other hand, in 2007 a research from Pew research center showed that 70 percent of female teenagers use social media and that only 54 out of the 70 are active members and post photos on different social media platforms, as compared with males with 54 people, only 40 out of the 54 are active members (Ularo, 2014).

Another study by Zheng, Yuan, Chang & Wu (2016) showed that females use to put seductive profile pictures more than males because they believe that the attractiveness of the profile picture influences the number of online followers or friends they have. This study also showed that females gave emphasis to emotional expression while using social media. On the contrary, males enjoy showing that they are having fun while using social media. A study by Chan, Cheung, Na Shi & Lee (2015) showed that the majority of females use social media for socializing and connecting with their family members, whereas males are more focused on task- oriented actions and gaming.

It was also mentioned by that the personality traits affecting the social media usage of males and females differ (Correa, Hinsley&Zungia, 2010) . For example, males who are emotionally stable tend to use social media less than the males who are not emotionally stable. However, emotional stability does not have any effect on the social media usage of the females. It was also mentioned that females who are open to experience tend to use social media more than the females who are introverts. However, openness to experience and extraversion do not have any effect on the social media usage of males.

Gender usage is also altered when it comes to the social media multitasking phenomenon. Research showed that females tend to use multiple social media platforms at the same time while doing other things. Studies showed that 50.5 percent used to talk face to face with other people and 56.2 percent use to talk on the phone while using social media (Ularo, 2014). Researches mentioned that females are better at multitasking than males. For example, Offer and Schneider (2011) reported that mothers spend 10 more hours a week multitasking compared with fathers” as cited in (Mantyla, 2013, para.1)

2.3 EMPIRICAL REVIEW

Raacke and Bonds-Raacke (2008) found out that college students around the age of 20 with accounts on Myspace or Facebook use these systems “to keep in touch with old friends” (96.0%), “to keep in touch with my present friends (91.1%), “to post/look at pictures” (57.4%), “to make new friends” (56.4%), and “to locate old friends” (54.5%). But only 10.9 percent stated that they used it “for academic purposes”, and only 12.9 percent listed their courses on their profiles.

Michikyan, Subrahmanyam, and Dennis (2015) used a mixed-method approach to investigate the relationship between online academic disclosure (namely status updates about their academic experiences) and academic performance for 261 students with an average age of 22 years. Thematic analysis of their posts indicated that 14% of their contributions to Facebook were academic in nature. On the other hand, the majority of students in Camilia, Sajoh, and Dalhtu (2013) used social media for academic purposes.

Several studies suggest that the time spent on social media takes away from the time available for studying. Alwagait, Shahzad, and Alim (2015) investigated to role of social media on academic performance of 108 Saudi students. Survey data revealed that Twitter was the most popular social network followed by Facebook. The average number of hours spent by students on social media was 25.3 hours. Sixty percent of the respondents acknowledged that excessive use of social media negatively impacted their performance, and indicated that 10 hours per week of use would ensure that their academic performance is not negatively impacted. Similarly Krischner and Karpinski (2010) noted that some students do not have control on their social media while engaged in academic activities, and that they spend more time on these networks than they do studying or sleeping. They point out that empirical research suggests the negative impact of multi-tasking, or attempting to simultaneously process different sources of information, on performance. They underscore that this leads to increased study time and an increased number of mistakes on assignments. Junco (2013) examines the relationship between Facebook activity, time taken for class preparation and overall GPA for 1839 students. Hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that time spent on Facebook was significantly negatively correlated with overall GPA, but only weakly related to time spent on class preparation. Moreover, using Facebook to search for information was a positive predictor of GPA while time spent on socializing was a negative predictor.

Some studies delve deeper into the phenomenon of spending too much time on social media and almost portray it as a coping mechanism. Student in Krischner and Karpinski (2010) for example, did not believe that it impacted their academic performance negatively. Those who did report a negative influence explained social media as a strategy for guiltless procrastination. The path analysis conducted by (Michikyan, Subrahmanyam, & Dennis, 2015), mentioned earlier, for example, determined that academic performance was a predictor of Facebook use rather than the opposite. Students with low GPA are more active on Facebook than students with high GPA; one of the reasons of this is the fact that students, who are facing academic or social problems turn to Facebook as a way of distraction from the difficulties that they are facing. Similarly, Fogel, and Nutter-Upham (2011)’s study about the self-reported executive functioning associated with academic procrastination by distributing a thirty minutes questionnaire on 212 university students, showed that there is a relationship between social media use, procrastination and poor academic performance, between 30 to 60 percent of college students stated that they use social media to procrastinate on their academic duties and socialize or surf the internet.

Very few studies have investigated variables that might impact how, when, and to what extent students used social media. Krischner and Karpinski (2010) conducted an exploratory survey study to examine if and how 102 undergraduate and 117 graduate students in public US University used Facebook, and how this usage related to hours of studying and GPA. The survey they used also elicited information about students’ own perceptions on Facebook use. Facebook users reported lower GPA and fewer hours studying. Users and non-users did not however differ in terms of the amount of time they spent on the Internet, but their studying strategies differed. These results held regardless of student status (whether they were an undergraduate or graduate) or their major (humanities, social sciences, medical, STEM or business). The study also suggested that personality and hours spent working are related to Facebook use.

Boogart (2016) conducted a study in four universities to investigate the impact of Facebook on campus life at four higher education institutions, analyzing the responses of 3134 students. He found significant relationships between time spent on Facebook, and several demographic variables. Females spent significantly more time on Facebook. Students with a GPA of 2.99 or less reported being longer on Facebook than those with a higher GPA. Also, students who are in their first and second years of undergraduate study spend more time using Facebook than those in their third year – the majority of the third year students (almost 70%) spent less than 30 minutes on day using it.

Julia, Langa& Miquel (2015) underscored the importance of social and relational factors in for educational attainment within higher education. They examined the impact of the connectedness afforded by social media tools on the performance of students within desperate disciplines of study – creative and non-creative – at the bachelor’s level, 76 students participated from the business administration and management discipline which is considered as non-creative and 78 students participated from the industrial design engineering discipline which is considered as creative. The results of their study suggested that close social ties within the network of their discipline helped students within the non-creative discipline perform better. The same was not true for the creative discipline in which the relationship between social ties and performance was inversely proportional.

A few studies suggested a more positive potential for social media, but also the variation of how students interacted and perceived these tools. Camilia, Sajoh, & Dalhtu (2013) investigated this relationship in the Nigerian context. The responses of 536 students to a survey revealed that 97% of students used social media networks. Facebook was the most popular social network site, followed by “2go” and YouTube. The majority of students (91%) spent less than 4 hours a day on social networks. A quarter of the students reported that they believed that social media impacted their academic performance positively, 32% indicated that it impacted it negatively; the rest though it had no effect. About 75% of the students reported that they used it for academic assignments.

Wodzicki, Schawmmlein and Moskluik (2012) pointed out the potential of social media to develop students’ self-directed learning skills because they give students a platform to explore subjects and gather information through accessing existing data on the web or interacting with like-minded students to constructively exchange ideas and build knowledge through informal and formal activities. Wodzicki et al (2012) however note that little is known about how these informal learning opportunities are harnessed and about the characteristics of the students who engage in these activities. To examine these relationships, they conducted three studies to investigate academic knowledge exchange via StudiVZ, an equivalent to Facebook on 774 users of StudiVZ students. The sample consisted of 498 women and 276 men between 19 and 29 years, which is a typical age range for German students. Analysis revealed that one fifth of students employed this social media tool to build knowledge. However, the majority, especially freshman, used it for social purposes such as networking and getting oriented to the university environment. The researchers concluded that knowledge exchange and social functions for using social networks should be regarded as intertwined rather than mutually exclusive.

Rambe (2012) employed an ethnographic approach to examine the impact of social media on meaningful learning and pedagogical strategies. To do that they examined the Facebook postings of students and instructors enrolled in an Information Systems course within the South African context. The results of the study showed that 165 participants posted 154 wall posts, 121discussion board posts, and 139 posts to the administrator‘s inbox over two semesters. Rambe concluded that Facebook constituted a collaborative “safe” “third space” that facilitated student expression, the development of learning communities, and encouraged knowledge construction. On the other hand, Rambe suggested that postings fell short of manifesting deeper levels of conceptual engagement and learning.

Junco, Heiberger, &Loken (2011) examined the impact of twitter on university students’ engagement and GPA. Using an experimental design, students from a first year pre-health seminar were assigned to an experimental group (N=70) in which Twitter was used for a variety of academic activities and a control group (N=55). The analysis of engagement and GPA via an ANOVA test showed that students in the experimental group were significantly more engaged and had a higher GPA. Analysis of Twitter postings also reflected that high level of engagement on behalf of students and faculty. They concluded that social media has no negative impact on student academic performance if they learned to allocate their time effectively.

As per Mingle and Adams (2015), Likert scale was used to survey the social media effect on grade performance amongst 526 students. A Likert scale is a scale used for research that involves questionnaire. Out of these 526 students, majority confirmed that the use of social media affected their grades negatively. 62 (11.8%) students strongly agreed, while a majority of students of strength 255 (48.5%) agreed that their grades dropped owing to the use of social media. In addition, 60 (11.4%) students neither agreed nor disagreed. Finally, (8.2%) and 106 (20.2%) students disagreed and strongly disagreed respectively that their grades dropped, due to the use of social media.

2.4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Student Involvement Theory

Originally developed by Alexander W. Astin in 1984, the theory highlights the influences of mediating factors between the personal and psycho-social amount of commitments that students give to attain desired learning outcomes. Astin (1999) defines students’ involvement as “the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience”. This theoretical model suggests that a highly involved student is one who; “devotes considerable energy to studying, spends much time on campus, participates actively in student organizations, and interacts frequently with faculty members and other students”. The uninvolved student is directly the converse of this quoted definition of involved student (Astin, 1999).

Student involvement theory is found to be relevant to this study looking at the scope of engagement of students in the contemporary Web 2.0 literacy of the 21st Century vis-à-vis their concurrent involvement in studying and the relationship between the two could spell out in terms of academic performance. Web 2.0 is the general outlook on the development of the World Wide Web to a phase where static nature of the Internet to the user-generated content phase which include the social media. At this phase the involvement of the users is higher and more demanding than that of Web 1.0.

As shown below, a look at the core concepts and the basic postulates of these theories will serve as a framework in examining the aim/s of this study and in developing the survey tool:

Core Concepts:

Inputs: demographics, student background, previous experiences.

Environment: range of experiences encountered during college.

Outcomes: characteristics, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, values, etc. that exist after college.

ii) Five Basic Postulates about Involvement

Investment of psychosocial and physical energy.

Involvement is continuous, students invest varying energy.

Involvement has qualitative and quantitative features.

Development directly proportional to quality and quantity of involvement.

Educational effectiveness is related to the level of student involvement.

An intense look on the propositions of the Uses and Gratifications theory along with the postulates of the Student Involvement theory will reveal, on the part of a student Facebook user, the place of the fulfillment of the needs for non-curricular (social) gratifications, on the one hand, and the needs for being an involved (academically committed) student, on the other hand. The use of the theory of student involvement provides that despite the possibility for lower than expected academic performance resulting from the use of Facebook, the investment of personal involvement in studying helps students to improve their academic performance. It is viewed that using the two theoretical arguments will complementarily help in achieving the aims of this study.

User and gratification theory

User and gratification theory was developed in 1974 by Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch (Wimmer& Dominick 2011:294).

Basically, the theory places more emphasis on “what people do with media” rather than “what media do to people” (Katz, 1959 cited in Idakwo, (2011:24). Uses and Gratifications theory is the study of the gratifications or benefits that attract and hold audiences to various types of media and the types of content that satisfy their social and psychological needs.

Social networking sites as new media of communication also lends itself to uses and gratifications approach, in part due to its interactive nature (Grant, 2005:627). Uses and gratifications research has typically focused on how media are used to satisfy cognitive and affective needs involving personal needs and entertainment needs (Rubin, 2002:46).

This hypothesis specifically puts power in the hands of the crowd. Instead of expecting that media messages have immediate, uniform impacts on the individuals who devour them, the Uses and Gratifications point of view suggests that beneficiaries make planned, purposeful choices about the media messages they open themselves to and at what recurrence taking into account individual needs and cravings independent of its impact on them-positive or negative.

Relating this theory to this current study, it shows that students use Social networking sites like facebook, whatsapp, instagram, twitter etc just to satisfy their needs- which may either be physical or psychological irrespective of the direction of its influence on their academic performance. Besides, it offers explanations to suggest that students use this site for varying reasons. In other words, users select media based on how well each one helps them meet specific needs or goals. Hence, this study tries to find out how this uses and gratification derived from the use of social media by students of Veritas University impacts on their academic performances.

2.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY

In this review the researcher has sampled the opinions and views of several authors on scholars on different social media concepts. The works of scholars who conducted empirical studies have been reviewed also. The chapter has made clear that social media has its positives and negatives. The outcome is usage dependent. However, taking a leaf from the gratification theory, social media usage is more of psychological-need fulfilling than academic. This means that students participate or join social media not to meet an academic goal per se but to satisfy their psychological need. While satisfying one’s psychological need is necessary for increased productivity, it poses danger of reduced productivity if the time spent and content fed on do not directly or indirectly reflect on the students’ academic progress. In this chapter also, the researcher has been able to review some literatures comparing social media and gender usage. This chapter is thus fulfilled the conceptual, theoretical and empirical requirements.