Social Networks: Perceived Impact on Student's Academic and Personal Life

Abstract

The present study attempts to explore usage of social networking sites among the students qndtheir perception toward the impact of lhese sites on their academic and personal life. For conducting the stud1,, a sample of 500 students from dffirent colleges and universities of Gopalganj districtin Bangladesh was constrttcted through conyenience sampling technique. Data w,ere collected through a questionnaire survey, following direct interyiew method. Dilferent published articles, books, websites, and conference papers also helped the researchers to take insight into this sttrdy. Frequency distribution and Pearsoncorrelation analysis were condttctedtrsirg SPSS15 version soJhuare. The results of the study indicated that majorit,v of the students, using social networks, are in lhe age group of 1B-20 years and use these sites up lo 5 hottrs a day.for studying, chatting,and watching videos. Social netw'orks qlfect the students' academic and personal liJb posilively when they use these sites for studying and learning plo'poses and negativelv w'hen they use at late night, ignoring personal, .family, and social activities. Thus, excessive and imbalanced use rf-these sites is moking students disobedient, ./rttstcrted, aggressive, and isolaling them .from Jamily tie and real lifb.Results o/- Pearson correlation analysis shov,ed that age and level of education are positively correlated yvith the usage of'sociol networks, whereas gender is negatively correlated. The.findings oJ this shtdy are tentefiive and may be ttsed os inputs ./br.future research on social netw'orks. As such, the stucl-v will be significant Jbr the students, ICT policv makers, educational poliqt ntakers, and the other researchers.