A study on the positive and negative effects of social

networking sites on the postgraduate students of Dibrugarh

University

Submitted by-
Sunayna Borgohain(54)
&
Durjoy Bhattacharjee(14)
MBA(FT) 4th SEMESTER
 Introduction

• A social network service or social networking service, most often

called SNS, is a medium for establishing social networks of people
who share interests and/or activities.

• Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events,

and interests within their individual networks. Most social network
services are web based and provide means for users to interact in
various ways, such as e-mail and instant messaging.
2
 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

• To determine the positive effects of social media on academic

performance of the students of Dibrugarh University.

• To determine the negative effects of social media on academic

performance of the students of Dibrugarh University.

3
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• Research Design
The research design adopted for the study was a descriptive survey.
• Universe of the Study
The universe taken for the study consists of all full time postgraduate
students studying in the Dibrugarh University. There are 2399 post
graduate students studying in 39 departments.
• Sample and Sampling Technique
A total sample size of 66 students were selected using 90% confidence
level and 10% margin of error. The sampling method used was quota
sampling and the sample were drawn from 39 departments on a pro rata
basis using convenience sampling technique.

4
 DATA SOURCES
Primary Data:
• For the given study a well-structured and self-constructed
questionnaire was administered to the respondents to obtain the
primary data.
Secondary Data:
• . The secondary data for the study has been obtained from various
journals, books and internet websites.

5
Sl.No. Statement Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
1 Social media can prove to be an excellent platform for 10 35 8 2 11
expressing one’s ideas and feelings (15%) (53%) (12%) (3%) (17%)
2 Social media can be excellent medium to communicate with 25 17 2 9 13
the teachers (38%) (26%) (3%) (13%) (20%)
3 Social media should be utilized by the teacher as an effective 24 42 0 0 0
tool for educational learning (36%) (64%) (0%) (0%) (0%)
4 I use social media sites to disseminate information and 13 53 0 0 0
knowledge with my classmates (20%) (80%) (0%) (0%) (0%)
5 I heavily rely on the information received from educational 9 35 8 13 1
sites like Slide Share, Author Stream, Your Article Library (14%) (53%) (12%) (20%) (1%)
and the likes to do my assignments without consulting other
sources.
6 Engaging in academic forums on Facebook, Youtube and the 15 38 8 5 0
likes increases my rate of understanding (23%) (58%) (12%) (7%) (0%)

7 I use the materials received from various blogging sites to 23 35 5 3 0

complement what I have been taught in class. (35%) (53%) (8%) (4%) (0%)
8 Social networking sites have helped me a lot to improve my 9 22 12 17 6
interpersonal skills (14%) (33%) (18%) (26%) (9%)
9 Social media sites proves to be an effective tool when it 16 50 0 0 0
comes to accomplish group related assignments and projects. (24%) (76%) (0%) (0%) (0%)

6
 FINDINGS
Findings of the positive effects are as follows:
• Form the study it was found out that students often uses social networking sites to express their ideas and
feelings which they hesitate to say in person. 68% respondents have agreed that social networking sites
gives them a freedom of expression. This corresponds to the findings of Ömer Faruk Vural (2015)

• 74% of the respondents have agreed that social networking sites provides an excellent platform to interact
with the teachers.

• The large resources of information available on the various blogging sites as well educational forums in
Facebook, quora, YouTube and so on often complements to increase the rate of understanding of the
students about the concepts they are taught in class.

• 47% respondents have agreed that engaging in social networking sites have helped them to enhance their
interpersonal skills like communicating and interacting with others. This corresponds to the findings of
Ömer Faruk Vural (2015).

• All the respondents are of the view that social networking sites is a very effective tool for completing group
projects or assignments. use social networking sites to impart information and knowledge with their friends
and classmates.
7
 Statement Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree
1 Addiction to social media is a problematic issue 7 28 7 18 6
that affects my study timings (11%) (42%) (11%) (27%) (9%)

2 Online social networks distract me from my studies 45 17 0 4 0

(68%) (26%) (0%) (6%) (0%)

3 Sharing notes and information about classes via 17 35 0 8 6

social media leads students to think that they do not (26%) (53%) (0%) (12%) (9%)
need to attend classes on a regular basis

4 Using social media while doing assignments 6 35 20 5 0

negatively affects the quality of my work (9%) (53%) (31%) (7%) (0%)

5 Use of social networking sites have negatively 2 28 14 13 9

affected my spelling skills. (3%) (42%) (21%) (20%) (14%)

8
Findings of the negative effects are as follows:
• The study shows 53% of the respondents have agreed that addiction of
social networking sites is a problematic issue which often clashes with their
study timings. Easy mode of access of social media networking sites with
the help of wireless devices such as smartphones and laptop can often adds
to the problem.
• 94% of respondents agreed that the social networking sites is major source
of distraction from their academic work. The finding corresponds with the
findings of Ömer Faruk Vural (2015) and Peter Osharive (2015)
• The study shows that sharing notes and information about classes via social
networking sites leads them to think that they do not need to attend classes
on a regular basis.79% respondents have agreed to this
• It was found out that the use of social networking sites by the students while
making assignments leads to divided attention which often deteriorates the
quality of their assignments or other related work.
• The extensive use of social networking sites among the students have
negatively affected their writing skills ,more specifically spelling mistakes
and use of fake characters which is more common among the social media
users 9
Thank you