The Effect of Social Networking Sites

A. Introduction
With the nature of the cyber world around us today and how students are immersed iit, there is growing concern on how it affects them. The Internet is more than just a means of seeking information. People discovered that the Internet could be used to connect with other people, whether for business or commercial purpose, make new friends, reawaken old friends and long lost relatives. The emergence of social networking site simplifies the whole process as they are easier to use and navigate. Their use does not require advanced knowledge and experience of the internet and are made up of a wide array of different formats and topics; this means that just about anyone can connect Social Networking sites are a popular trend today, especially among teenagers who are also students.

These Social Networking sites have been attracting more and more people every because of its features which can even lead to the addiction of using it. This study examines the impact of social networking sites to a teenager or a student. Social Networking sites had been a part of many teenagers’ lives where in it comes to the point that they became too much in contact with these Social Networking Sites. They spend too much time on it; therefore it even affects their performance at school. This study will determine how social networking sites affect the academic performance of students and to know whether the effect is good at their academic performance or not. This study will help you know if social networking sites help students in achieving their goals or if they only slow them down.

B. Background of the study
When theses social networking sites became popular, many people used it including adults and teenagers. The reason why these sites became popular is because of their special features like communication through the internet, games that can be played and also meeting someone without actual communication. Examples of the social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, Tumblr, Omegle and many more. The said examples leading users are teenagers who are also students. We decided to make this research because the students that are using social networking sites might become addicted and their attention for studying might be used for using these social networking sites.

C. Significance of the Study
The purpose of study is to assess the effect of social networking sites on students’ academic performance and student’s behaviour. The variables that determine the use of social networking sites as the independent variable and the dependent variables are students’ academic performance and student’s behaviour. The population of this research was the students of the science high school curriculum of Marcelo H. del Pilar and other students. By making this study, we would know the impact of social networking through the internet to the students whether it’s good or not. By conducting this study, we will also know the number of students that are addicted to these social networking sites.

D. Statement of the Problem
The problem is to determine the impact of the social networking sites to the academic performance of students. The aim of this study is to make everyone aware of the effects of these social networking sites to a student’s academic performance. This study will help students to know how to use social networking sites properly and moderately.

E. Hypothesis
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages in using Social networking Sites? How do these affect a student’s academic performance? 2. Is it better to let students use social networking sites or not? 3. Why do students continue on using these social networking sites?

F. Scopes and Limitations
We will conduct a study about the impact of Social Networking sites to students and whether these sites help students or not.

Chapter II
Review of Related Literature

Education is very essential for an individual’s life especially for a teenager. For a teenager, being educated is more important than anything. Today, many teenagers, who are also students, are very addicted to social networking using the Internet but sadly, if affects their education badly. Previous researcher says that more than 90% of students use social networking sites. Technology develops fast, leading to the making of gadgets and other portable mobile gadgets that can gain access to the Internet thus gaining the access to use social networking sites. This phenomena leads to the addiction of students to the social networking sites because having portable gadgets gives you the ability to access more frequently the Internet and according to previous researches almost 50% of students have cell phones.

Social networking sites are also prone to crimes so a student shouldn’t expose his or her self with it. There are also some cases where a teenager or an adult committed suicide because of persons all over the internet is making him or her feel bad. This phenomenon is called cyber bullying. Social Networking sites can really be addicting because you can put advertisements, play games, connect to millions of peoples, watch videos, learn more facts and be entertained. These features are the reason why many people are addicted to social networking sites. But social networking sites really have a huge impact to a student’s academic proficiency. They take away the effort and attention that should be exerted to studying. So students shouldn’t always use and be addicted to social networking sites.

Chapter III
Methodology

A. Materials
Survey Form
B. Equipments
N/A
C. Procedure
1. Make questions about your research topic.
2. Produce many copies
3. Identify the people who you will give forms
4. Distribute the survey forms
5. Have them answer it
6. Collect the papers
D. Research Design
80 respondents were randomly chosen from Marcelo del Pilar National High School. Respondents were only students who we asked to fill up the questionnaire given to them. The collected data will be examined as they are needed for the analysis of the study. Out of the 80 students that we ask to fill up the form, 75 of them said that they’re using social networking sites while 5 of them said that they’re not using any social networking sites. When we ask what their grades are, the range of the grades of those who use social networking sites is from Low grades to High Grades. Out of the 75, 15 answered that they have low grades, 45 answered that they have average grades while 15 answered that they still have high grades. Out of the 75 students who answered yes, 35 of them said that they use SNS (Social Networking Sites) 3 hours and below a day, 25 of them said that they use SNS 3 to 5 hours a day while 15 of them said that they use SNS 5 hours and above a day.

Chapter IV
Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

A total of 80 respondents were randomly chosen from Marcelo del Pilar National High School. Respondents were only students whose age ranges from 12 to 16 were asked to fill up the questionnaire given to them. Out of the 80 students that we ask to fill up the form, 94% said that they’re using social networking sites while only 6% said that they’re not fond of Social Networking Sites.

According to our survey, out of the 75 students who use social networking sites, 71 students uses Facebook, 40 uses twitter, 25 uses Tumblr, 4 uses Omegle while only 3 uses Friendster. According to the data we collected, Facebook is very popular among the students. Out of the 71 students who use Facebook, there are 45 who use only the indicated site. Out of the 40 students who use Twitter, there are 27 students who use only the indicated site. Out of the 25 students who use Tumblr, there are 3 students who use only the indicated site. Out of the 3 students who use Friendster, there is only 1 student who use the indicated site.

And in the 4 who uses Omegle, there are none who only use the indicated site. According to the data we collected from the survey, most students would prefer to use social networking sites and therefore spent hours checking these SNS. Out of the 75 students who answered yes, 47% said that they use SNS (Social Networking Sites) 3 hours and below a day, 34% said that they use SNS 3 to 5 hours a day while 19% of them said that they use SNS 5 hours and above. When we asked what their grades are, the range of the grades of those who use social networking sites is from Low grades to High Grades. Out of the 75, 20% answered that they have low grades, 60% answered that they have average grades while only 20% answered that they still have high grades.

When we asked the students what they use these sites for, we learnt that people use social networking websites due to influence of their friends and also for entertainment (time wasting). Out of the 75 who uses social networking sites, 54 students said that they use SNS in order to keep in touch with their friends, 45 students said that they use SNS for wasting time, 20 students said that they use SNS for local events information, 35 students said that they use SNS for planning events and 60 students said that they also use SNS for academic purposes.

Chapter V
Summary of Findings, Conclusion and Recommendations

A. Summary of Findings

From the sample of 80 students who are asked to answer a few questions about social networking sites, 75 answered that they are using social networking sites. When we ask them about which SNS that they are using, they answered various sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Omegle and Friendster. The most common is Facebook, next is Twitter, before Twitter is Tumblr then Omegle and the least common is Friendster. Out of the 75 students who answered yes, 47% said that they use SNS (Social Networking Sites) 3 hours and below a day, 34% said that they use SNS 3 to 5 hours a day while 19% of them said that they use SNS 5 hours and above. When we asked what their grades are, the range of the grades of those who use social networking sites is from Low grades to High Grades. Out of the 75, 20% answered that they have low grades, 60% answered that they have average grades while only 20% answered that they still have high grades.

When we asked the students for what reason they use these sites for, they answered various reasons. Out of the 75 who uses social networking sites, 54 students said that they use SNS in order to keep in touch with their friends and relatives, 45 students said that they use SNS for wasting time such as playing games, watching videos, checking out picture and riding on the latest trend, 20 students said that they use SNS for local events information or getting informed, 35 students said that they use SNS for planning events like when they will do group projects or practicing for their school and 60 students said that they also use SNS for academic purposes like when they are asking for the assignments and activities that they might have missed and informing each other if they have plans for making group projects.

B. Conclusion
Based on the data that we collected, we therefore conclude that almost all of today’s students and youths use social networking sites and almost all of the students who use these SNS are addicted to it. And also what makes them popular is because they are many of them and they also offer some cool and unique features that will make anyone interested on using that. A large response from the student shows that student are using SNS to do various things such as writing of class assignment, checking of result and other related group and social activities. At first it will be easy to predict that too much use of SNS might have adverse impact on academic performance of a student, but the result did not imply the same. Most of the students also use social networking sites for their studies and academic purposes not for only entertainment and for wasting time. After we’ve gathered all the answers, most of the answers said that the using of SNS didn’t affect their academic performance a bit while some people also answered that their academic performance decrease because of the said SNS while fewer answered that the SNS have helped their studies.

Some said that they use SNs to communicate with their schoolmates or classmates and ask them activities or assignments that you might have forgot or missed. They also said that they use SNS for them to plan meetings and making group projects. But they also said that not all things that they learned from the Internet are not always good information. They stated that they keep learning new unpleasant terms and their attitude changed when they started using SNS and getting exposed to it. Also, the attention that should be directed to their own studies is directed to these SNS instead. So instead of studying, they spend a lot of their extra time surfing the Internet and using these SNS and sometimes, the time meant for studying will be used for the SNS this will lead to the grades of those students becoming low. So overall, the effects of these SNS depend on the user or the student. If a student doesn’t manage his time properly, this will lead to addiction and his performance on academics becoming low.

C. Recommendations

After doing this research, I think that every student or youth should know their limitations on using these SNS. As you have read, these SNS have lots of advantages and disadvantages that depend on how one individual would use it.

A student’s parents should also check their child’s academic performance whether he or she is being addicted to SNS and should control the usage of these SNS. But even though the parents can do something about it, the final decision depends on the student itself.

Even though these SNS are enjoyable and addicting, we should learn the limitations of our actions throughout the Internet. If you chose to get addicted then it will affect your studies badly. Learn to manage your time wisely, spend it wisely and learn to balance your schedule, whether you need to study or not. Also, learn to prioritize your plans.

After reading this research, we highly recommend to continue this research and make our topic broader than it was so it won’t be just limited to us students.

References
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