Adverse Impacts of Social Networking Sites on Academic Result: Investigation, Cause Identification and Solution

Abstract

Social networking sites (SNS) have become more prevalent over the previous decade. Interactive design and addictive characteristics have made SNS an almost indispensable part of life, particularly among university learners. Previous studies have shown that excessive use of SNS adversely affects learners' academic success as well as mental health. However, still now, there is a lack of clear evidence of the actual rationalization behind these adverse effects. Concurrently, any significant preventive measures are not yet introduced to counter the excessive use of SNS, particularly for students. To bridge this gap, considering a view of 1862 students (male = 1183, female = 659), the current study investigates how and in which way spending time in SNS negatively influences students’ academic performance. Correlation and regression analyses showed that there is a powerful negative correlation between students’ spending time in social media (STISM) and their educational outcome. Simultaneously, our investigation indicates that classroom standing social media use and late night social media use result in poor educational outcome of the students. Based on the findings of the investigation, an Android based application framework called SMT (Social Media Tracker) is designed and partially implemented to minimize the engagement between students and SNS.