IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON STUDENTS' ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AT SECONDARY LEVEL

Abstract

The unpredictable growth of social media networks has dramatically changed the communication patterns and leisure interests, as well as school life of teenagers across the world: Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Snapchat have been used. The group of students in the age group of 13 to 18 (secondary level) reflect the most intensive group of social media operators in Pakistan and the penetration and the usage of social media and use of smartphones among the younger demographic are rapidly growing in both urban and semi-urban Pakistan. Although there can be no doubt about the possible of social media in educational communication and learning in groups, the reality of social media as a means of entertainment, socialization, and passive content consumption among secondary schools has prompted serious questions regarding its influence on the study habits, academic attention, coping with sleep, and the end results, which are academic achievements. In spite of these apprehensions, there are relatively few empirically rigorous, locally based studies considering the correlation concerning the usage of social media and academic performing in secondary-level students in Pakistan. This paper is a quantitative, descriptive-correlational research study aimed at exploring how the use of social media influences the academic achievement of Grade 9-10 students in both public and private secondary schools in the Gujrat district, Punjab in Pakistan. Stratified random selection of 200 students (100 in public schools, 100 in private schools) is taken out of the secondary schools in Gujrat. A researcher-constructed, 30-item, Likert-scale Social Media Usage Scale (SMUS) is used to collect data on five dimensions of social media use and academic performance is based on the most recent annual, examination scores of students. IBM SPSS Statistics Version 28.0 is used to conduct statistical analyses such as Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression, independent-sample t-test and one-way ANOVA. The proposed hypotheses suggest that there is a considerable negative relationship between excessive recreational use of social media and academic performance and a weak positive relationship between social media use in education. The research is summarized by evidence-based students, parents, teachers, and education policy recommendations.