Social Networking and Its Impact on Students of

Higher Educational Institutions

Outline of the research topic
Introduction
Now a days social networking is becoming more and more popular around the world. One can
observe the great enthusiasm about social networking among youth and new generation. One can
no longer imagine how to catch up with friends and contacts without social networking.
Social networking helped us become closer to our friends, even when they are thousand
miles away. Through the World Wide Web, we are able to connect with people from around
the world, making it easy to keep in touch with friends and family. Today, social
networking is an essential part of life for people around the world. Social networking is a
form of social media used for interactive, educational, informational or entertainment
purposes. Social media comes in many forms, but all of them are related: blogs, forums,
podcasts, photo sharing, social bookmarking, widgets, video, just to name a few. Today,
social networking sites allow users to make profiles, upload photos and videos, and interact
with friends and family. Social networking is a tool to join groups, learn about latest news
and events, play games, chat and to share music and video.
The rise of internet access speeds and smart phones help the use of socia l network easier.
But now a days, university students are spending much time on social sites which affect
the students psycho-social growth and they suffer with the problem of social networking
addiction. Social networking addiction has become a major problem in the society which
limits the proper growth of students. Youth are seen to suffer with the problem of social
isolation. The issue of extensive use of social networking among youth has been emerging
to be a crucial and an interesting topic of study considering the risks and consequences
associated with it. Current study shows Indian students’ alarming smartphone addiction.
Anxiety and FOMO make university students check their mobile devices as many as 150
times in a day on an average. Indians spend 17 hours per week on social media, highest
in the world ahead of China & US. According to market research agency Kantar
IMRB internet user base in India has exceeded 500 million mark and is likely to reach
627 million by end 2019.The number of internet users is estimated to be 566 million
as of December 2018,registering annual growth of 18%. According to the report 87%
of total internet user base in India, or 493 million Indians are defined as regular users.

While social media helps the world connected, social media addiction is becoming a global
problem that keeps growing. As of 2018, 3.1 billion people ( one-third of global
population) use social media. 210 million people are estimated to suffer from internet
and social media addictions. Young, Single females are addicted to social media more
than any other group. Hence it has now become essential to study the Euphoria of social
networking and its impact on youth. Yet social media has great advantages of sharing,
interacting, communicating and a most convenient source of knowledge. But it also creates
the several problems like social isolation,FOMO, Nomophobia, cyber-bullying, unknown
persons accessing personal information, online dating and sleep deprivation, exposure to
unsuitable digital content, outside influences of third-party groups encouraging to transfer
money and low social interactions and limited face to face communications.

Facebook,YouTube,Instagram,Ozone,Weibo,Twitter,Reddit,Pinterest,Google+,LinkedIn
are the few networking sites that are mostly used in the world .

The main aim of the study will be to assess impact of social networking sites on university students.
Use of social networking among university students has both positive and negative impacts. This
study will put an effort to do a realistic analysis of the positive and negative impacts of social
networking among the university students. The effort will be made to understand the impact of
social networking on learning engagement and academic achievement. This study will help to
understand the impact of social networking addiction among university students.

Research Methodology

Research Design: Exploratory and Explanatory research design will be used for this research. The
study will explore the connection between social networking and distress among youth and also it
will try to explain the problems, causes and impact of social networking addiction.

Population and Sample: Two universities will be selected as per requirement of this research
through convenience sampling .Delhi University and Banaras Hindu University will be selected
for the study. Therefore the total strength of the students of these two universities will form the
population of the research.

100 students from each selected universities will be selected by stratified simple random sampling
method for this research. Five departments and 20 students from each department will be selected
through simple random sampling. Therefore total sample size for this study will be 200.

Tools of Data Collection : A structured Questionnaire will be used for the collection of primary
data. The participant and non-participant observation method will also be used for understanding
the pattern of use of social media among youth. The newspapers, articles, journals, social media
documents, e-libraries, books etc. will be used for the collection of secondary data.

Implications

This study will help us to address the causes and impact of social networking addiction. It will
help us to find out the impact of social networking addiction on learning engagement and academic
performance. Study will provide the relationship of virtual networking addiction with social
isolation, unhealthy sleep pattern, unrealistic expectations among youth. It will help us to explain
the causes of the networking addiction, problem of isolation, unhealthy sleep pattern, FOMO and
unrealistic expectations among students. The study will provide us the preventive measures that
should be taken to tackle the problems caused by social networking addiction.
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Yuan Li et al.(2019) “How social networking site addiction drives university students’ academic
achievement: The mediating role of learning engagement”

The main aim of this study was to explore the mediating role of learning engagement on the
relationship between social networking site (SNS) addiction and academic achievement among
406 university students. This study concluded that learning engagement mediates the relationship
between university students’ SNS addiction and academic achievement. SNS addiction has an
indirect impact on university student’ academic achievement via learning engagement.SNS
addiction was found to be a predictive factor for university students’ academic achievement. The
results indicated that there was a significant negative correlation between SNS addiction and
academic achievement. Learning engagement, and academic achievement.

Katherine Ormerod (2018) “ Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life”.

In this book ,Katherine Ormerod involved in curating, building and combating the most addictive
digital force human kind has ever created. Katherine uncovers how our relationships with social
media has rewired our behaviour patterns destroyed our confidence and shattered our attention
spans. The book will provide us with knowledge, tactics and weaponry we need to find a more
healthy way to consume social media and reclaim our happiness.

Basem Abbas Al Ubaidi (2018) “Social Networking Sites (SNSs) Addiction”

“Journal of Family Medicine and Disease Prevention” identified that there are over 500
million SNSs users worldwide. The rise in some active participants in the global consumers of the
Facebook community alone, and it is made up of mostly 55% adolescents and 82% adults. The
SNSs activity is an enjoyable one who is experienced with high appetitive system activation.
Female users are usually at ease communicating with a peer group, while male users do for social
compensation; enhance learning, and identity social gratifications. Furthermore, men tend to
divulge more personal information, more frequent SNSs users, more addicted to SNSs games and
playing online games.

Research Paper published by Jahangir Bharucha titled “ Social network use and youth well being:
a study in India” (2018) concluded that Young generation has put social media at top of their
priority list. Youth selected for this research spent a minimum of five hours on SNSs a week and
were heavy users, spending up to even 50 hours a week on SNSs. These sites have become an in-
built part of the Indian youth today . The youth in this study do acknowledge that they need to
reduce the usage but are seem unable to do so in the majority of cases.

Mark D Griffiths and Daria J Kuss (2017) “Adolescent social media addiction (revisited)”
This study indicated that there is a fine line between frequent non-problematic habitual use and
problematic and possibly addictive use of SNSs, users who experience symptoms and
consequences traditionally associated with substance-related addictions (i.e., salience, mood
modification, tolerance, withdrawal, relapse, and conflict) may be addicted to using SNSs.
Research has also indicated that a fear of missing out (FOMO) may contribute to SNS addiction,
because individuals who worry about being unable to connect to their networks may develop
impulsive checking habits that over time may develop into an addiction.

Mehmet Emin Aksoy (2018) “A Qualitative Study on the Reasons for Social Media Addiction”

“European Journal of Educational Research” showed that participants' reasons for using
social media were lack of friends, social necessity of social media, feeling of fulfillment, fear of
missing out, intertwining of social media and daily life. The study also pointed out that social
media addiction has a beginning and One of the reasons for addiction was the need to socialize,
while male participants were more interested in acquiring new friends, female participants were
more interested in communicating with their real

*Sayantani Basu and Sudheer C.V (2017) “ Addiction to Social Media: A Review”

This study was published in “International Journal of Recent Scientific Research”. Study
found that social media addiction is a condition which is predominantly affecting students and
young adults. It needs to be addressed immediately and is a growing cause of concern. Any form
of addiction needs to be curbed and is harmful for the society. It is important that we make people
around us aware of the situation and the deleterious effects it can have on our work, friends and
family. Social media addiction also hampers the personal development and growth of an
individual. Hence it is necessary to restrict social media usage to a certain limit so that addiction
does not occur.

Khurana N (2015) “The Impact of Social Networking Sites on the Youth”

This study showed that target group prefers spending an abundant amount of time on social
networking sites on an average of more than 2 hours a day which keeps them away from their own
purpose of existence and interacting with their own natural surroundings. Their social gatherings
are hampered because surfing these social networking sites keep them more involved for which
they are bound to ignore other significant social events in their lives.

Jamal J. Al-Menayes (2015) “Dimensions of Social Media Addiction among University Students
in Kuwait”

Results of this study indicated that more time one spends using social media, the more likely they
will exhibit symptoms of social media addiction. Satisfaction with social media was positively
correlated with social media addiction. This means that individuals reporting signs of addiction
are more likely than others to be satisfied with the functions social media. Generally the more
experience a person has with social media, the more likely he or she will be addicted to them.

Paul Metellus* and Jeanna Mastrodicasa, University of Florida (2013) “The Impact of Social
Media on College Students “

This study carried out to see the impact of social media on collage students and state that there are
numerous ways, positive and negative, in which social media impact college students.
Understanding sheer volume of time and the type of activities for which college students use social
networking sites is crucial for higher education administrators. Researchers have begun to
empirically examine impacts on students’ well-being and have found some preliminary results that
call for more research. They find that social media are not the problem—the problem is the specific
use and purpose of social media activities that make the difference.

SNS addiction: SNS addiction refers to the addiction behaviours of over using SNS on
smartphones (Turel and Serenco,2012)

Social networking sites addiction is a term that is often used to refer to someone who spends too
much time on social media like Facebook and Twitter or other forms of social sites. As a result, it
affects the person’s daily life.

Social Isolation: Social isolation is a state of complete or near-complete lack of contact between
an individual and society.

Social Isolation is ‘the lack of contact or of sustained interaction with individuals or institutions
that represent mainstream society’ (Wilson, 1987)

FOMO (Fear of missing out): A feeling of anxiety or insecurity over the possibility of missing out
on something, as an event or an opportunity.

Nomophobia: Fear or worry at the idea of being without your mobile phone or unable to use it:

Learning engagement: Learning engagement is the ability to motivationally and behaviourally

engage in an effective learning process.

Rationale for choosing the topic

The rise of internet access speeds and smart phones help the use of social network easier.
Social networking is becoming more and more popular around the world.One can observe the
great enthusiasm about social networking among youth and new generation. University
students are spending much time on social sites which affect the students psycho -social
growth and they suffer with the problem of social networking addiction. Social networking
addiction among students is causing many challenges like social isolation, low learning
engagement, low academic performance, lack of privacy, waste of time, sleep disorder and mental
health issues, misinformation due to fake news ,FOMO, Nomophobia, unrealistic expectations,
depression, anxiety etc. Hence, now it become essential to address these problems. I also observed
these problems among university students which develop my interest in this topic. Hence, I choose
this topic for my study.

Current state of critical/theoretical debate

What theories suggest

According to the book “Why Social Media is Ruining Our Life”(Katherine Ormerod, 2018),Social
Media has rewired our behaviour patterns, destroyed our confidence and shattered our attention
spans. Many of the adverse effect of social media use appear to be inherently gendered. Its a
women world and women make up majority of audiences across the visual platforms. Women use
social media more than men by a gap of 73 to 65 percent. According to report released by research
firm discout in 2016,the typical mobile phone user touches his or her phone 2617 times a day. For
top 10 percent of users in the study, increase that to 5,427 touches a day.

Research Paper published by Jahangir Bharucha titled “ Social network use and youth well being:
a study in India “(2018)concluded that Young generation has put social media at top of their
priority list. ‘Youth selected for this research spent a minimum of five hours on SNSs a week and
were heavy users, spending up to even 50 hours a week on SNSs. These sites have become an in-
built part of the Indian youth today .Study of Mehmet Emin Aksoy (2018) showed that participants'
reasons for using social media were lack of friends, social necessity of social media, feeling of
fulfillment, fear of missing out, intertwining of social media and daily life Another study of
Basem Abbas Al Ubaidi (2018) “Social Networking Sites (SNSs) Addiction” identified that there
are over 500 million SNSs users worldwide. The SNSs activity is an enjoyable one who is
experienced with high appetitive system activation. Study carried out by Cengiz Sahin (2018)
state that social networking deeply affects the daily lives of students, it reveals the necessity of a
measurement tool to determine social media addiction. The article published in Cambridge
University press suggest that learning engagement mediates the relationship between university
students’ SNS addiction and academic achievement. SNS addiction has an indirect impact on
university student’ academic achievement via learning engagement Study carried out by
*Sayantani Basu and Sudheer C.V (2017) found that social media addiction is a condition which
is predominantly affecting students and young adults. It needs to be addressed immediately and is
a growing cause of concern. Any form of addiction needs to be curbed and is harmful for the
society. Social media addiction also hampers the personal development and growth of an
individual.
Another study carried out by Paul Metellus* and Jeanna Mastrodicasa, University of Florida (2013)
“The Impact of Social Media on College Students” state that there are numerous ways, positive
and negative, in which social media impact college students. Understanding sheer volume of time
and the type of activities for which college students use social networking sites is crucial for higher
education administrators. Researcher found some preliminary results that call for more research.
They find that social media are not the problem—the problem is the specific use and purpose of
social media activities that make the difference.

Critical Analysis

A number of studies have been carried out which have looked at not only internet addiction
generally, but addiction to social media sites especially. Objectives of the researchers were to know
the trends of use of social media, to know impact of social media on gender basis, to know the
problems and issues emerged due to social media addiction, to assess the various factors associated
with social media addiction and to assess the positive and negative impact of social media on youth.
Literature review indicate that it is still to find out the exact connection between social isolation
and social networking addiction among youth. Relationship between socio-economic status and
social networking addiction is also need to be assessed. Few studies have been done to know
the impact of social media on college and university students.The rise of internet access
speeds and smart phones help the use of social network easier. Current study shows Indian
students’ alarming smartphone addiction. Anxiety and FOMO make university students
check their mobile devices as many as 150 times in a day on an average. Indians spend 17
hours per week on social media, highest in the world ahead of China & US. Social
networking have also been emerging as a problem and addiction to social media among students
is causing many problems. Which affect thier psycho-social growth. Hence it become essential to
address these problems.

Scope of the Study

Use of social networking among university students has both positive and negative impacts. This
study will put an effort to do a realistic analysis of the positive and negative impacts of social
networking among the university students. The effort will be made to address the impact of social
networking on learning engagement and academic achievement. This study will help to understand
the impact of social networking addiction among university students.

Broad problems and issues to be investigated

• Social networking addiction and low academic performance.

 • Low learning engagement on social media.

• Social isolation, sleep disorder and unrealistic expectation due to social networking.

• FOMO, nomophobia, depression and anxiety due to social networking.

• Lack of privacy, waste of time and misinformation due to fake news etc. on social media.

Research Questions

RQ1.What is the impact of social media on learning engagement and academic performance ?

RQ2.What are the top networking sites used by students and which networking site has the highest
engagement?

RQ3.Whether there is a relationship between socio economic status and social networking
addiction?

RQ4.What is the connection between social networking and social isolation among youth?

RQ5.What are strengths and weaknesses of social networking sites in present socio-economic
context?

Objectives of the research study

• To assess the impact of social networking sites on learning engagement and academic
performance.

• To study and understand the trends of use of different social networking sites among youth.

• To assess the relationship between socio-economic status and use of social media.

• To analyse the connection between social networking and social isolation among youth.

• To assess the strengths and weaknesses of social networking in present socio-economic

context..

Theoretical Framework
The study will be based on two theories; the Uses and Gratification Theory (U&G) and the Media
Systems Dependency Theory (MSD).These two theories will be used to interpret the use of social
media and its various outcomes. These two theories together assume that users of media rely on it
to fulfil specific needs and in the process develop preoccupations with it and will therefore help
explain how students of the University use social media and whether they have developed
dependencies on the media they use.

1. Uses and Gratification Theory

According to (McQuail, 2005), the Uses and Gratification theory is generally seen as a theory that
is closely linked to research on media effects. It is an approach to gaining insight on how and why
people look for particular media to satisfy particular needs. The theory of uses and gratifications
was first introduced by an American sociologist Elihu Katz in 1959 in an article in which he
explained that communication research was near extinction because researchers only focused on
the effects the media had on people. He therefore suggested that researchers focus rather on how
media is used (Severin & Tankard, 2001).The theory basically has to do with what audiences do
with the media. It explains users’ motivation in choosing media and the behaviours associated with
it. The theory postulates that “people are not passive receivers of media messages but active
influencers of the effects of the messages the media communicates.” In other terms, receivers of
media content are at liberty in choosing and determining their use of media and how they are
affected by it (Rae, 2011). Theorists have stated that users look for a media source that best satisfies
their needs although they may have alternate choices that can meet their needs.

2. Media Systems Dependency Theory

Since its introduction, the Media Systems Dependency theory (MSD) has served as a theoretical
foundation for analysing the relationship between people and the choice and use of media. The
Media Systems Dependency theory was proposed by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur in
1976 in an article that sought to describe why media could have cognitive, affective and
behavioural effects on different people in different ways. Media Systems Dependency theory
regards audience as an active part in the communication process. The theory posits that, individuals
have a goal when choosing the media they use and are active in the making of this decision. It also
suggests that the more a person relies on a specific media to satisfy his or her needs, the more the
media will become significant to him/her (Encyclopaedia of communication theory, 2009). This
therefore shows an affirmative connection between the need for gratification and dependency. The
Media Systems Dependency theory has been used as the theoretical basis for some studies of the
Internet such as Jung et al (2001) and Akua Adoasi Otu(2015) and therefore help explain findings
of this study.
 Research Methodology

Research Design

Exploratory and Explanatory research design will be used for this research. The study will explore
the connection between social networking and distress among youth and also it will try to explain
the problems, causes and impact of social networking addiction.

Population and Sample

Five universities one from each of the Central, State, Deemed, Private and Technological
universities located in Delhi will be selected as per requirement of this research through Purposive
Sampling. The total strength of the students of these universities will form the Population of the
research.

100 students from each of the universities will be selected by Stratified Simple Random Sampling
method for this research. Male and Female students will be selected from UG ,PG and M. Phil
students through Proportionate Sampling. Five departments from each of the universities and 20
students from each of departments will be selected through Simple Random Sampling. Therefore
total sample size for this study will be 500.

Tools of Data Collection

A structured Questionnaire will be used for the collection of primary data. The participant and
non-participant observation method will also be used for understanding the pattern of use of social
media among youth. The newspapers, articles, journals, social media documents, e-libraries, books
etc. will be used for the collection of secondary data.

Measures

Social networking sites addiction

The Social Networking Site Addiction Scale (SNSAS) will be used to evaluate social networking
site addiction. The SNSAS was developed by Turel and Serenko (2012). It is a self-report scale
with five questions: “I sometimes neglect important things because of my interest in this social
networking website”, “My social life has sometimes suffered because of me interacting with this
social networking website”, “Using this social networking website sometimes interfered with other
activities”, “When I am not using this social networking website, I often feel agitated”, “I have
made unsuccessful attempts to reduce the time I interact with this social networking website”. All
questions are scored on a 7-point Likert type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly
agree), and the total score of all items is calculated. A higher score indicates a higher level of SNS
addiction.
Learning engagement

To check the learning engagement a structured questionnaire will be used. The participants will
be asked to indicate their level of engagement on seven point Likert scale ranging from “1”
“ Strongly disagree” to “7” “ Strongly agree”.

Academic performance

Academic performance will be operationalized by serf-reported cumulative grade point

scale(CGPA).The use of the objective measure of CGPA will be appropriate in the study because
it is most common measure of academic performance/ability used in many higher educational
institutions around the world(Junco,2015).At the university under study, the CGPA ranges from
0.00 until 4.00.The higher the CGPA, the better the academic performance. Also, the level of
satisfaction with current CGPA on seven-point Likert scale ranging from “1” “Strongly satisfied”
to “7” “Strongly dissatisfied” will be asked. Subjective assessment will be used to complement the
objective measurement of CGPA because it will be anticipated that many would not want to
disclose the information.

Several questions regarding the participants personal information will also be used to measure
the age, gender, academic program, year of study ,residential context and university of study.

Social Isolation

For measuring social isolation ‘Duke Social Support Index' (DSSI)- 10 items scale will be used.
The DSSI was developed in the United States as a brief, easily administered instrument to
determine an individual’s level of social support. It include the two sub scales i.e. social
satisfaction and social interaction

Social Satisfaction

• Do you feel you have a definite role in the family and among friends?

• Do family and friends understand you?

• Do you feel useful to family and friends?

• Do you feel listened to by family and friends?

• Do you know what’s happening with family and friends?

• Can you talk about your deepest problem?

Social Interaction

• Number of family members within 1 hr that you can depend on or feel close to

• Number of times past week spent with someone not living with you

• Number of times in past week talked with friends/relatives on the telephone

• Number of times in the past week attended meetings of clubs, religious groups, or other
groups that you belong to (other than work)

Ethical Considerations

1.All procedures performed in studies involving students will be in accordance with the ethical
standards of the institutional and/or national research committee.

2. Respect for the dignity of research participants will be prioritised.

Bibliography 3. Adequate level of confidentiality of the research data will be ensured.

4. The protection of the privacy of research participants will be ensured.

5 Full consent will be obtained from the participants prior to the study.

Structure of Research Work/Thesis

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
List of Tables
List of Figures
Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Review of Literature
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
 Research Design
 Population and Sampling Procedure
  Data Collection Procedure
Chapter 4: Tabulation, Analysis & Interpretation of Data
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Findings
Bibliography
Appendices

References
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