To explore the characteristics of social media use on university students' academic performance in Malaysia.
DATA ANALYSIS
Overview
Demographic Profile of Respondents
In this question, most of the respondents turned 22 years old, as they accounted for 29.8% throughout the data. Meanwhile, the study indicates that the 18 age group has the least respondents as it has only 5.9% out of 100% of the 305 responses. This question shows that most of the respondents are Chinese which consists of and 12.1% are Malay and Indian respondents.
Followed by 21% of respondents working part-time, 14.1% of respondents working full-time. This question shows that the majority of respondents are art streams as they occupied 42.3% out of the 305 responses. Respondents who are in business fall in second place, taking up 39% overall.
The least number of subjects chosen by the respondents are natural science streams, as they occupy only up to 18.7% out of 100%.
Characteristics of social media usages
- Purpose of spending times on social media
Although the percentage of respondents is small, 2.6% use other social media platforms such as Twitter, Xiao Hong Shu, etc. The majority of respondents chose “Example source for the latest information”, contributing a total of 35% with 108 respondents as their social media preference. The least selected benefit of social media is 'Provides learning opportunities' with 17.7% of respondents.
The largest percentage of disadvantages of social media is 'Primary source for up-to-date information' which contributed 35% in total with 108 respondents as the advantage of social media. Most of the respondents 'rarely' post the survey content on social media, which consists of 42.3%. In addition, only 15 respondents (4.9%) answered that they only use social media in the morning.
28.2% of respondents answered that they will use social media in self-study to improve their skills. In addition, only 1% of the respondents stated that they use social media for other purposes, such as searching for celebrities, etc. In this question, 173 students (56.7%), which is the majority of them, stated that YouTube helped their academics the most influences, while 14 respondents (4.6%) indicate that the other social media such as TikTok, Weibo influence their academic performance the least.
We can observe that most of the college students spend time on social media for entertainment and only few of them spend time posting information related to their field of study.
Academic performance of Malaysian university’s students
Correlation
- Pearson Correlation Coefficient Analysis
Based on the table, the R value means 0.029, which means there is no relationship between the time students spend on social media and academic performance, as the R value is less than 0.7. It can be seen from the table that the value of R square is 0.001, which means that the independent variables will have 0.1% influence on the dependent variable. In addition, the significant value of perceived ease of use is also <.001, which means that this variable cannot have a significant effect on academic performance in the university.
The test statistic that assesses the statistical relationship, or association, between two continuous variables is called Pearson's correlation coefficient (Statistics Solutions, 2022). It provides details about the magnitude of the association or correlation as well as the direction of the relationship (Statistics How To, 2022). There is a weak correlation between the two variables when the value of r is less than 0.3, and a moderate correlation appears at a value of r between 0.3 and 0.5 (Nickolas, 2021).
Moreover, a value of r between 0.5 and 0.7 indicates a good correlation between the two variables, while a value of r greater than 0.7 indicates a strong correlation (Andrews University, 2005). Furthermore, the correlation between the variables is considered significant when the significant value (p-value) is less than 0.05 (McLeod, 2019). Based on the table, it appears that there are generally weak relationships between the dependent variable and the independent variables, as the Pearson correlation value (r-value) is 0.029.
First, it indicates from the table that the r-value between the academic performance, CGPA and time spent on social media is 0.029, which means that the variables are 2.9% and do not correlate with each other.
Overview
The characteristics of social media usages
Students nowadays prefer to watch and stream videos on YouTube for learning purposes and they stated that watching videos on YouTube for learning helped improve their listening skills (ASU, 2022.).
The students’ purposes on using social media
Impact of time spent on social media on university students’ academic performance
The relationship between time students spend on social media and academic performance is examined by Pearson Correlation Coefficient analysis and the results are shown in Table 4.4.1. Based on the results, the r-value between academic performance and the amount of time university students spend on social media is 0.029, which proves that there is no relationship between the variables. H1 was therefore rejected, indicating that students' use of social media did not significantly affect their academic performance.
Social media platforms are a huge industry where barriers to connection are breaking down and access to information has increased dramatically (Hasnain, 2015). Social media can help youth acquire knowledge that can be used to improve their academic performance if used in a positive way (Hasnain, 2015). It is true that students use a variety of online resources to meet their needs, proving that social media and education in today's world are not mutually exclusive.
With all the free webinars, online courses, and information available today, there is literally no limit to social media's ability to learn. However, the use of social media platforms has evolved into a key component of education and has become more important for both instructional delivery and course evaluation (Coman, 2020). Social media can be used as a tool to assist instructors and students in their educational endeavors (Coman, 2020).
In fact, students' use of social media can improve their academic performance because they can gain more knowledge through data and information (Singh, 2021).
Implication of Study
- Practical Implications
- Theoretical Implications
Time spent on social media is not one of the factors that can affect academic performance based on the example provided. It is more aimed at students' self-control over the use of social media as affecting their academic performance. There are good and bad sides to everything, it just depends on how the students spend their time on social media and balance studies, how they arrange their schedule, how disciplined they are to control themselves on the use of social media, how they interpret and digest the information on their own.
In short, this study effectively identified the components that influence social media use on academic performance using the Uses and Gratification Theory attributed by Jay G. There is no significant relationship between time spent on social media and academic performance, but there are several factors that can influence students' attention and focus on the study as mentioned above. Self-control and students' own discipline are the most important factors that will also affect their academic performance.
Furthermore, students' intention to use social media in both educational and entertainment ways is also another major factor, depending on their consumption and the objective of using social media. In this case, it may affect students' academic performance as a result of social media use and time spent on social media. However, there will also be positive results if they use the social media platform for study purposes in the right way.
There are few positive ways if students use social media platforms for academic purposes such as resourceful information for studies and use the provided resources and learning platforms.
Limitations of Study
This also means that the respondents' answers only show their current behavior and performance on social media use. As the day went on, respondents' behavior could change, which could change their academic performance for a variety of reasons, not just social media use. In addition, the use of radio buttons and questionnaires on a Likert scale is also one of the limitations in this study.
By using radio button questions, respondents are only given the opportunity to select a single answer from among the options. Although this allows the researchers to identify the best answer from the respondents, it also limits the respondents to express their own idea to the questions. In this case, researchers may feel regret for not including specific responses or questions in the survey that could have helped them analyze the survey.
Nevertheless, the likert scale questions only allowed the respondents to choose between the values of disagree to strongly agree. In this type of questionnaire, the researchers often provide respondents with the value in terms of extreme and neutral. The respondents tend to choose the middle point of likert scale as they could not choose the value between options like neutral, agree and strongly agree.
Likewise, the likert scale also leads to consent bias as the respondents tend to give the same answer as they don't want to think about the question, which will make the researcher unsuccessful in analyzing the data better.
Recommendations
Although this type of questionnaire allows researchers to conduct in-depth interval level research, the results may be difficult for them to distinguish vague responses from respondents. When we win the trust, the interview section will be smoother and get more information. Since the verbal communication will take place during the physical approach, it is possible to see the respondents' expressions clearly by approaching them physically.
And this allows the interviewer to observe the non-verbal actions of the respondent and record the additional information of their actions. In addition, a physical method is more effective than an online one, as it can guarantee that respondents fill out the survey form truthfully and correctly and allows researchers to immediately address any misunderstandings from participants. In addition, the physical interview session can prevent respondents from ignoring the online survey they have been given, as researchers can help them conduct it on the spot.
The interview session will be more flexible as the interviewer can ask what he has been thinking at the moment. Thus, it will be better to conduct a physical interview session to make the search more successful.
Conclusion
