Instructors are increasingly using blended formats to interact with the learners

with the use of social media tools (Brady, et.al. 2010, Veletsianos & Navarette, 2012).
With nearly two-thirds of all faculty using social media during class session, online video
is the most common tool used in class, posted outside class, or assigned for students to
view Moran et. al. 2011). So also, students are interested to use social media tools like,
video sharing (58.2%), social networking (52.8%), web conferencing (42.6%), blogging
(40.2%), photo sharing (36.4%) podcasting (33.7%), wikis (31.3%), electronic portfolios
(28.5%), virtual world (19.4%), tweeting (18.5%) and social bookmarking (18.5%)for
academic purpose.

A study conducted by Sukati et.al (2010) in University of Swaziland shows that

overall there are no significant differences in the performance of students in the full time
programme and those in the distance education programme so the authors
recommended that the distance education is equally effective and should be promoted in
order to ensure an increase in access and enhance quality. The University of New
Hampshire agrees, and believes that current college students grew up in the technology
era and social networking is now just a part of a student's daily routine. Their research
show that '63% of heavy users received high grades, compared to 65% of light sers' (U
of NH, 2009). Similarly, Banquil et al. (2009) found a continuing drop of grades among
student users of social networking sites. Students, using internet frequently, scored higher
on reading skills test and had higher grades as well (Linda et al., 2006).

Hence, the effect of social media on academic performance of students has

generated a heated debate among scholars, educators, and policy makers in recent times
(Yang, 2003). Similarly, a study conducted by Moran et. al. (2011) shows that a large
percentage of faculty members (53%) did not consider Facebook as suitable social media
tool for classroom teaching rather they regarded it to have “negative” value for use in
class. A study conducted by Duvall and Schwartz (2000) “shows that no significant
differences in overall academic performance between technology-adept students and
those without technological skills”.This means that there is a need to conduct further
research to judge which are the most appropriate social media tools for instruction
through e-learning.
 Tuckman(1975) defined performance as the apparent demonstration of
understanding, concepts, skills, ideas and knowledge of a person and proposed that
grades clearly depict the performance of a student. Hence, their academic performance
must be managed efficiently keeping in view all the factors that can positively or negatively
affect their educational performance. Use of technology such as internet is one of the
most important factors that can influence educational performance of students positively
or adversely.

A recent survey showed that approximately ninety percent of teens in the

United States have Internet access, and about seventy-five percent of these teens use
the Internet more than once per day (Kist, 2008). This study also showed that
approximately half of all teens who have Internet access are also members of social
networking sites, and use the Internet to make plans and socialize with friends (Kist,
2008). In September, 2005, out of total adult internet users (18-29 years) 16% were those
who were using any social networking site and this percentage increased to 86% on May,
2010

This is in line with the study of Jeong (2005) and Seo (2004) where they note
that internet addiction is significantly and negatively related to students’ academic
performance, as well as emotional attributes. Moon (2011) in the study he conducted on
“the impact of Facebook on undergraduate academic performance”, also finds that social
media has a negative effect on students’ academic performance. Asemah & Edegoh,
(2012) conducted a research on the impact of social media on the academic performance
of high school students, their result showed that the more students use social media, the
more it negatively affects their academic performance. Oye (2012) also found that most
of the adolescents use social media mainly for socialization, rather than for academic
purpose. Similarly, Shana (2012) opined that students use social media mainly for making
friends and chatting not for research and academic purposes.

Since the advent of social media in the mid-1990s many scholars and
educationists assert that students’ academic performance is drastically reducing due to
the neglect, distraction and divided attention between social media and the students’
academic activities. It is observed that students give more attention to social media than
their studies (Ndaku, 2013). Hence, social media is an educational distraction avenue
which offers more educational harm to students than benefit. Senior secondary school
students nowadays often waste their time chatting in the social media at the detriment of
their academic work (Jeong, 2005, Seo, 2004, Oye, 2012, Shana, 2012). Due to their less
activities and commitment in day to day activities of life, female students get more time to
participate in the social media chatting than the male students there by making them more
vulnerable to social media activities (Asemah and Edegoh, 2013, Kietzmannn, 2012).

Among college students, however, searching information online about

course materials helps boost intellectual development and facilitates preparation for
future jobs. In contrast, heavily indulging in online recreation has been closely linked to
impaired academic performance (Kubey, Lavin, & Barrows, 2001; Kuh & Hu, 2001).
Researchers also tried to evaluate the relationship between social media use and
academic performance. Kubey et al. ( 2001 ) revealed that heavy leisure Internet use is
highly correlated with impaired academic performance, particularly when the use is with
synchronous communication applications like chat rooms and Multiple User Dungeons
(MUDs). The researchers proposed that the unique social qualities of such applications
represent a most significant utility for otherwise lonely individual’s able to stay with friends
at any time. An unfortunate result is that many adolescents stay up late at night and feel
tired the next day, which in turn affects their academic performances (Kubey et al. 2001
). . The authors also conducted con-tent analysis of the Twitter messages and found that
both the teacher and the students were more engaged in the learning process using
Twitter than in the traditional classroom (Junco et al. 2011 ). This is experimental evidence
that when used properly and efficiently, social media can facilitate student engagement
in the learning process, thus improving academic performance. A 16-month field study
conducted by Jackson and his colleagues ( 2006 ) discovered that children from low-
income families who used the Internet more had higher scores on reading achievement
tests and obtained higher overall grades than children from low-income families who did
not use the Internet very much. A follow-up study based on these findings concluded that
academic performance can predict subsequent Internet activities and that Internet
activities can predict subsequent academic performance as well (Jackson et al. 2007 ).
In contrast, Barber ( 1997 ) reported that 86 % of teachers responding to a survey believed
that Internet usage by children does not improve performance, probably because the
information that the Internet contains is highly disorganized and unrelated to school
curricula.
REFERENCES

Asemah, & Edego (2012). Social media and insecurity in Nigeria: A critical
appraisal. Journal of Research and Contemporary Issues. Vol. 7(1 and 2),
154 167.

Barber, A. (1997, March 11). Net’s educational value questioned. USA

Today , p. 4D.

Brady, K. Holcomb, L. & Smith, B. (2010). The use of alternative social

networking sites in higher education settings: A case study of e-learning
benefits of Ning in education, Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 9(2),
151-170.

Duvall,C.K.,Schwartz,R.G.,(2000). Distance Education: Relationship

Between Academic Performance and Technology-Adept Adult
Student.Education and Information Technologies, September 2000,
Volume 5, Issue 3,pp 177-187.

Jackson, A., Samona, R., Moomaw, J., Ramsay, L., Murray, C., Smith, A.,
& Murray, L. (2007). What children do on the Internet: Domains visited and
their relationship to socio-demographic characteristics and academic
performance. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10 (2), 182–190.Kist, J.
(2008). New Thinking for 21st Century: Social media. Burlington: Elsevier
Science.

Kubey, R., Lavin, M. J., & Barrows, J. R. (2001). Internet use and collegiate
academic performance decrements: Early findings. Journal of
Communication, 51 (2), 366–382.
Jeong, T. (2005). The effect of internet addiction and self control on
achievement of elementary school children. Korean Journal of Yeolin
Education, 76.

Junco, R., Heibergert, G., & Loken, E. (2011). The effect of Twitter on
college student engagement and grades. Journal of Computer Assisted
Learning, 27 , 119–132.

Moran, M., Seaman, J. & Hester, T. (2011) Teaching, Learning and

Sharing: How Today’s Higher Education Faculty use Social Media. Pearson
learning Solutions and BabsonSurvey Research Group

Moon, A. (2011). Impact of facebook on undergraduates academic

performance: Implication for educational leaders. (Unpublished Ph.D
thesis), Central Michican University .

Ndaku, A. (2013). Impact of Social Media on the Students academic

performance of University of abuja Students. Abuja: University of Abuja.

Oye, N. (2012). Students Perception of Social Networking Sites influence

on academic performance. International Journal of social Networking and
Virtual Communication.

Picciano, A. (2002). Beyond Student Perceptions: Issues of Interaction,

Presence, and Performance in an online course. Journal of Asynchronous
Learning Networks, 21 to 40.

Seo, W. (2004). Internet Usage and life satisfaction of youths. Information

Policy, 11.
Shana, L. (2012, 10 23). The Influence of Social Networking sites on
students academic performance in Malaysia. Retrieved 5 27, 2015, from
http:utechancademic.ed.shanleebrown.

Sukati, C. W. S., M Magagula, C., Chandraiah, E., Simelane H. S. &.

Sithole, M. M. (2010) Conventional versus Distance Education Revisited:
Does Mode Matter? India Journal of Open Learning, 3-22.