The Impact of Social Media Usage and Academic Performance Among Students of Advanced Technological Institute

Abstract

Social Media Network (SMN) becomes one of the greater influences on the lifestyle and habits of teenagers which affects the educational environment and performance. There are different arguments about the possible effects of SMN on students’ academic performance. Studies show that it quite appropriates for teachers and students to use social media to socialize by this means for academic purposes. Studies on the impact of SMN on academic performance among students of the Advanced Technological Institute (ATI) is hard to find in academic literature. Therefore, this study examined the use of SMN on academic performance among students of ATI. A self-administrative questionnaire was used to collect data from 148 students in different courses in the ATI– Sammanthurai using a stratified sampling method. The respondents were classified into four categories (non, light, medium, and heavy users) based on average time spent in SMN sites and apps. The students’ academic performance was evaluated through the Grade Point Average (GPA) of respective students in their study program. The ANOVA statistical technique was used to find the impact of SMN on students’ academic performance by comparing the mean GPA of groups of respondents. The study found that light users get the highest GPA than all other groups. Non-users also get a higher GPA than medium and heavy users. The mean GPA differences between the non-users and the medium users were not statistically significant. The light users spend less time relatively other groups of users. The light users may utilize the SMN for educational purposes. However, medium users utilize SMN for entertainment as well as educational purpose. The heavy users are spending much of their study time on SMN which leads to reduce in study time and adversely impacts their academic performance. This study concluded that the reasonable use of SMN helps to increase the academic performance of the ATI students. Keywords: Academic performance, ATI, Education, Social media network