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The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of social networking sites i.e.

Facebook on students'
academic performance. ... And the findings of this study shows that time spent on Facebook and addiction to
it negatively and significantly affects students' academic performance.
Background of the Study
Introduction of infrastructure and technological innovations into countries have always been the adversaries and
blessing opportunities for socio economic and political life of human beings. Every technological innovation
has been a topic of debate and centre of researchers’ attention and same is the case with the development of
social networking sites. Various researchers have conducted studies to pinpoint the several impacts of these
sites on their users and findings suggested both bright and dark aspects. Hence, many countries gained open
access to the Internet due to rapid advances in information technology within last twenty years (Kuppuswamy &
Narayan, 2010).

In fact, the Worldwide Web, originally created in 1990 for US military forces, has become not only an effective
instrument for the management of US army, but later a convenient tool that issued by civilians for
communication, entertainment, and learning purposes. One ofthe most popular and recognized platforms used
on the Internet are social networking sites such as Facebook.

Facebook being at the forefront of the social media craze, has over 500 million active users on its website every
month. It is emerged on February 4, 2004, when a 19-year-old sophomore Harvard student named Mark
Zukerberg founded the revolutionary site to connect Harvard University students (Grossman, 2010). But later,
this site allows users to build social networks with hundreds or even thousands of people around the world of
which university students are one of the primary demographics using Facebook, with features such as photos,
wall posts, and status updates becoming seemingly irresistible to those who want to connect with their friends
(Gold, 2011).

Even though Facebook is by now used by a much wider variety of users, university students are still its “biggest
fans”. Results from a recent paper Ellison et al. (2007) reported that 94% of College students are active
Facebook users, spending 60-90 minutes online each day communicating with their Friends List of 150–200
people. Similarly, Wiley and Sisson (2006; as cited in Pempek et al, 2009) conducted a large survey on college
students from universities in the developing countries indicated that 91% of students use the Facebook. Ethiopia
is also as one of developing countries has intoxicated with around one million users of Facebook in which half
of them are higher education students (Kassashow, 2012)

Though this social network generates billions of dollars for the developer and assists to contact a relatives
detached for long period of time within fraction of seconds, it has impact on the users in general and on
students’ academic performance in particular. So, this research assesses the impact of Facebook usage on
Students’ Academic Performance in Wollega University.

Significance of the Study


It is anticipated that the results obtained would add to the wealth of information currently available on Facebook
usage, its impact on college students’ academic performance as it is newly emerging and instantly advancing
technology which would be indispensable for policy makers, development practitioners, service providers,
current users, and potential users. Hence, the output of this research can contribute to these endeavours by
creating awareness at the grass root level. More specifically, it will assist any interested body as showcase who
are responsible for academic performance of students at College level in general and Wollega University in
particular.

In addition to the above mentioned, in the academic world, everyone viewed social media as a distraction and
lead the student to procrastination in their academics. Some students, however, also claim that visiting social
media sites during class time helps them deal with the boredom they experience in college. This study would
provide information on the impact of Facebook to college students and how it can be used in-relation with their
academics. In addition, the findings of the study are expected to contribute a little towards bridging the existing
literature gap on understanding the impediments and blessing opportunities of Facebook in the academic
environment. And also helps the researcher to gain Masters Degree in Business Administration.

1.6. Scope of the Study


Although it was preferable to conduct this research in all colleges found in Nekemte town and on impacts of
social network as the whole, due to financial, and time constraints this research only focuses on assessing the
impact of Facebook usage on students’ academic performance in college under the study specifically on
undergraduate regular students enrolled in main campus of Wollega university. This University is selected as a
site of the current study due to that it is the only government college with large number of students serving
currently for a total population of about 10,255 students as data of this campus registrar office and no study has
been conducted on this topic in the college under the study so far.

1.7. Limitation of the Study


No study is without limitation Creswell (2008). Accordingly, this study is subject to the following limitations
that future studies should address to shed more light on the subject under investigation.

- The focus of this study is limited with students who maintain a Facebook account and its impact on their
academic performance. However, the result would have been comprehensive if non Facebook users were
included and their academic performance/CGPA was compared with Facebook users. Therefore, a study that
makes it possible to analyze this issue should be introduced in further studies.
- Student self-reporting answer regarding the Facebook use and its impact on their academic performance is
mainly the topic of this research but it also depends on students’ true or false opinions. Thus, implementing a
true experimental design will also provide rewarding research to other researchers.
- The present study participants were only comprised of traditional full-time undergraduate students of main
campus only. But, the students of branch and Extension, and weekendstudents have not been given attention in
the study to investigate the phenomenon. Other

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