Impact of Social Media Addiction on Academic Performance among SHS Students in

ACLC College of Ormoc

A Research Proposal
Presented to the Faculty of the
ACLC COLLEGE OF ORMOC
Ormoc City, Philippines

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for

Practical Research 2

By

APUYA, REYMARK.
ASMA, JASHTIN L.
BATE, ANGELO M.
CASUNGGAY, NASH T.
HERMOSO, JOHN ROY S.

October, 2022
 Acknowledgement
To Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, for giving wisdom, strength, support and knowledge in
exploring things, for guidance in helping surpass all the trials that we encountered and for giving
determination to pursue our study, and to make this study possible.

The researchers would like to extend their deepest sincerest gratitude to all people who helped
there in any manner, who have shared the effort and knowledge in order to make this research a
reality.

Whatever has been accomplished and whatever has been the product of every and endeavor,
there is a great source of all effort, striving, guidance and gracious blessings without who this
task would have been impossible.

The researchers would like to express our sincere gratitude to our research adviser, Mr.
Christian Miro, for the continuous support to our study and research, for his patience,
enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. His guidance helps us all the time with researching and
writing this research. We could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for our
study.

To the researcher’s loving parents, for their moral encouragement, financial assistance as well as
their spiritual support in every path the researcher's take.

Thank you!

-RESEARCHER’S
Dedication
This humble piece of work is lovingly dedicated to researcher's parents who serve as their

inspiration, to our friends, and all our classmates who always make us happy and inspired all

throughout this research. To ALMIGHTY GOD who serves as guidance and the source of

strength and knowledge for without his guidance everything is futile.

 Table of Contents Page

Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................5

Statement of the Problem .................................................................................6

Variables ..........................................................................................................6

Conceptual Framework ....................................................................................7

Significance of the Study .................................................................................8

Scope and Delimitations ..................................................................................9

Definition of Terms .........................................................................................9

Chapter 2: Research Methodology .................................................................................10

Research Design .............................................................................................10

Sampling..........................................................................................................11

Research Respondents.....................................................................................11

Research Environment.....................................................................................11

Research Interview..........................................................................................12

Appendices......................................................................................................12
 Introduction

Rationale

Knowledge is power. We all recognize this saying but few understand the empowering

role social media has played. Through social media, anyone online is empowered by an

unrestricted flow of information to add to their knowledge bank. In today's world, it is

undeniable that social media plays an important role in impacting our culture, our economy and

our overall view of the world. Social media is a new forum that brings people to exchange idea,

connect with, relate to, and mobilize for a cause, seek advice, and offer guidance. Social media

has removed communication barriers and created decentralized communication channel and open

the door for all to have a voice and participate in a democratic fashion including people in

repressive countries. This media outlet accommodates a wide variety spontaneous, formal,

informal, scholarly and unscholarly writings to flourish. It enables common interest-based

groups such as students to work in a collaborative group projects outside of their class. It fosters

creativity and collaboration with a wide range of commentators on a number of issues such as

education, the economy, politics, race, health, relationships…etc.

Although it has brought about many benefits, allowing us to easily connect with friends

and family around the globe, allowing us to break down international borders and cultural

barriers, social media has come at a price. social media has a negative impact on our lives

because the combination of isolation and global reach has eroded our culture. Social media is

robbing us of trust and comfort we once placed in one another, replacing the human fellowship,

physical and emotional support we once drew from each other with virtual connection. It robs us
from self-control and from the ability to think independently and instead makes us gullible to

join any group that posts perverse messages that tickle our ear and amuse our senses without

evaluating the consequences.

Ironically, social media is in effect turning us into one of the most antisocial generations,

yet. We prefer texting to phone conversations, online chat to a face-to-face meeting, and many

have replaced human interaction with convenient platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and

Instagram. Jonathan Safran Foer in his article, “How Not to Be Alone”, said “Each step forward

in social media has made it easier, just a little, to avoid the emotional work of being present, to

convey information rather than humanity.” With each passing day, these words ring truer and

truer.

It is the objective of this article to present evidence from several researches that were

done by many scholars in different environment that distinctly demonstrates the negative impact

of social media in three main categories. First, social media fosters a false sense of online

“connections” and superficial friendships leading to emotional and psychological problems. The

Second harm of social media is that it can become easily addictive taking away family and

personal time as well as diminish interpersonal skills, leading to antisocial behavior. Lastly,

social media has become a tool for criminals, predators and terrorists enabling them to commit

illegal acts. And the third analysis will consist of showing the link between the psychological

problems caused by social media and criminal activities committed.

 This research effort is targeted at finding the effects of social media on students’

performance. Therefore, the literature review discusses the relevant research that is useful to the

objectives of this research project. Several research studies investigating the topic under review

are found to be very recent. Since most of the innovative features offered by social media

platforms like Face-book, Twitter, LinkedIn and many others are not that old and the

phenomenon of the use of these media has boosted recently with the intro-duction of

revolutionary features and platforms, a volume of recent research on its effects on students’

academic performance is available. Most of the studies chosen have been published in the past

four to five years.

 Review of Related Literature

This chapter includes review of related literature and studies. The materials

utilized in this chapter provided the researchers with better insights; discover the

similarities, differences, and their relationship to the study. With both published

and unpublished studies, report and review, the researchers also have a view of the

relevance of ideas discussed and presented in the study related to its design.

According to Cole (2009) Väljataga & Fiedler (2009) social media can

increase student learning through student interactions, challenges arise when social

media are incorporated into an academic course. The assumption that students are

familiar with and agreeable to using certain types of social media can cause

educators to inadvertently fail to provide the resources or encouragement necessary

to support student usage and learning.

Arnold and Paulus (2010) found that even when social media is used for an

educational purpose, students incorporate the technology into their lives in a way

that may differ from the intentions of the course instructor. For example, off-topic

or non-academic discussions occur on social media because of its primary design

as a social networking tool (Lin et al., 2013). Further, as a student’s age increases,

the frequency of off-topic discussions also increases (Lin et al., 2013).

 This indicates that while social media may encourage broader discussions of

course content, older students may spend more time than younger students

engaging in unrelated discussions. Social media can also negatively affect student

GPA as well as the amount of time students spend preparing for class (Annetta et

al., 2009; Junco, 2012b).

One explanation for this impact is that social media provides too much

stimulation and therefore can distract students from completing their coursework

(Hurt et al., 2012; Patera et al., 2008). Another reason for this may be that students

who spend more time on social media may have difficulty balancing their online

activities and their academic preparation. Social media can also be a challenging

instructional strategy to incorporate because it attempts to balance the authority of

the educator with the active participation of the students.

Collaboration through social media supports more of a constructivist

approach to learning, where students and educators can work together to co-create

understanding of a particular topic, rather than an approach that emphasizes

individual contributions (Stevens, 2009). As a result, students and educators

become equal participants in the knowledge sharing process.

Though this seems beneficial for creating and disseminating knowledge,

social media can also become a privacy concern (i.e. cyber-plagiarism) as well as
an outlet for abuse and cyber-bullying (Chen & Bryer, 2012; Frye et al., 2010;

Jackson, 2011; Smailes & Gannon-Leary, 2011). This suggests that establishing

standards for social media use should include behavior and attitude guidelines

similar to those enforced in the classroom.

According to Kuppuswamy and Shankar (2010) social network websites

grab attention of the students and then diverts it towards non-educational and

inappropriate actions including useless chatting. Based on the above statement we

can say that social networking sites may badly affect the academic life and learning

experiences of the student. Trusov, Bucklin, and Pauwels (2009) noted that the

Internet is no doubt evolution of technology but specifically social networks are

extremely unsafe for teenagers, social networks become hugely common and well-

known in past few years. This research is conducted to explore the effect of social

networking websites and its impact on academic life and learning experiences of

students. As Kuppuswamy and Shankar (2010) explained that the social networks

grabs the total attention and concentration of the students and diverts it towards

non educational, unethical and inappropriate actions such as useless chatting, time

killing by random searching and not doing their jobs. Students and teenagers

mostly use social networks for time killing and sake of enjoyment but it has been

analyzed that internet use for education purpose and any appropriate task including
online tutorials, online lectures and education material downloading is very good

but use of internet for only social network is very useless perhaps dangerous.

According to Lewis (2008) Teenagers now use the internet for the majority

of their daily activities and information gathering as opposed to older generations

who used resources like the television or newspaper. As per the survey conducted

by Pew Research Center, 72 percent of high school and 78 percent of college

students spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. These numbers indicate

how much the student community is involved in this virtual world of social

networking. In a survey conducted by de Villiers (2010), results showed that

there’s a significant number of students studying in University of South Africa

claimed that they were using Facebook for academic purposes. The positive aspect

of online communities is that youths can utilize them for academic assistance and

support (Lusk, 2010). Social media can yield many benefits for the young because

of its ability to enhance connections by making them easily accessible. Students

who may be reluctant to speak up in class are participating in book discussion

blogs and writing for real audiences. There are new Web tools emerging all the

time that are enhancing learning (Brydolf, 2007).

Madden (2011) stated that the utilization of Facebook has been found to increase

users’ sense of personal belonging among college students and also, this sense of
belonging has in and of itself been positively correlated with academic

performance.

Livingstone (2008) stated that affinity for self-presentation is often a mark of

adolescence, and SNS use has made it possible for one’s own display of

personality to reach a larger audience than previous generations.

However, Jacobsen & Forste (2011) concluded that the electronic media use is

negatively associated with grades. They also found out that about two-thirds of the

students reported using electronic media while in class, studying or doing

homework.

On the other hand, in the study conducted by Nayzabekov (2012) identifies

the idea of multitasking, which students perform different types of actions like

visiting SNS to include texting, instant messaging, playing games and searching

information online while studying. This point out that multitasking skill could

affect the concentration of a student not only in academics but also in the everyday

task of a student because for example a student has a lot of assignments and works

on different subjects, instead of doing it on time the student visits social media

first.

This study complements the idea of Yeboah and Ewur (2014) that social media

takes much time of the students’ studies time, results in procrastination related
problems, destroys student’s grammar and spellings, leads to lack of concentration

during lectures and difficulty in balancing online activities and academic

preparation.

In a 2012 news article of the Irish Times, it pointed out that Facebook can

impact study habits of students. This application is easily getting through the phone

and only needs WIFI where you can easily connect everywhere. As a matter of

fact, there are more students who used their phones, iPad while they were supposed

to be reading textbook. As a result, social networking sites can affect the study

habits of students, particularly Facebook.

In addition, the Whitehouse (2011) stated that students may lose

concentration in school because of SNS. For instance, students always feel tired in

class. As a result, they do not understand that their teacher taught them causing for

them to fail exam.

Power (2012) on her research paper sees SNS as “a coin that has two sides”,

meaning that there are dual effects of SNS. She cited the negative side of social

media usage such as distraction to the users, spending fewer hours per week

studying, having a lower mean grade point average, and engages in procrastinating

behavior. She also stated the good effect, with the statement saying that the

potential for using social media sites to further the goal of education is immerse,
and teachers are making the faraway into the world of online social networking site

for educational purpose.

According to Rejie D. Astodello (2016) Tabuk City, Kalinga - People all

over the world have been enjoying the benefits of using technology nowadays.  In

the past, communicating and free sharing of thought between people are restricted

by long distance, race, and even religion.  But now these barriers can no longer

stop the flow of information and knowledge because now the new world of social

networking allows free sharing of thoughts through online social networking sites

such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the like.

Since students are highly motivated to using social media sites the majority

of them use these to satisfy their social needs more than their academic needs.

They have the freedom to do whatever they want – they can upload or download

data, they can make new friends and comment on other people’s lives, and they

can even create other online identities the real world does not allow.  It has been

observed too that the majority of the students nowadays, particularly those in the

secondary level, spend most of their time chatting with their acquaintances, playing

online games, and watching videos instead of reading their lessons, making their

assignments, and other academic requirements. The main reason is when they work

or search their materials online, they get attracted to social networking sites to kill

boredom during study time, diverting their attention from their work. The darker
side of this that has gained the attention of many parents is that some student are

getting lazier and are no longer interested in going to school.  This is probably due

to being extensively indulged to get global access and therefore leading them to

perform less academically.

I have observed from my Grades 7 and 8 students at the Tabuk City National

High School the same positive and negative impact of using social media inside

and outside the classroom.   I found these social sites helpful when one time I

needed to communicate with my students, reminding them of their assignments

and urgent requirements.  In addition, l also used these social sites to refer my

students to helpful resources that could fetch them higher grades in academics.  I

tried to encourage the students, particularly the teens with gadgets having internet

facilities, to use it to supplement their researches in the library rather than the usual

chatting with friends all the time.

As a result, almost 85 percent of them were able cope with their academic

difficulties and at least 65 to 75 percent of the class obtained the average level of

performance.  However, students should be encouraged to limit the time they

spend on social media sites and be advised to rather substitute those hours with

reading some learning materials – short stories, novels, etc. to improve their

vocabulary.  Since the use of social media sites had affected the academic

performance of students negatively, there is a need to introduce the student’s other

information resources or materials that would motivate and help them perform well

in their academics.

We can’t deny the fact as years pass by the demand for internet usage keeps

increasing because it is already a necessity among end users, particularly to

students.  Developers have created online social media sites where people can have

more advanced, more reliable, and more creative ways of communicating. This

shows we, humans, are social animals. We always want to belong in a group where

we also prefer what the group does.

According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, as of 2015 the

largest social networking company, Facebook for example, has 1.49 billion active

users and the number of users is increasing every year. As part of the said survey,

72 percent of high school students and 78 percent college students spend time on

these social networking sites – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Viber, E-

mail, etc.  These numbers evidently indicate how much the student community is

involved in this virtual world of networking.  Students prefer social media sites as

reliable sources of information because everything is a package.  A research

conducted by Gagne sometime in 2003 defined media in general as some kind of

components in a students’ environment that can stimulate them to study better. 

Researchers also found that the use of some types of social media has beneficial
effects to students, not only on their academic needs but also to help them establish

a sense of identity and build and enhance networking skills

Don’t believe everything you read in media. Such a pity that those words are

being taken to heart and mind, as they are the opposite of what was drummed into

our heads by our mentors, i.e., journalism is the purveyor of truth and possible

transformation.

Not even pictures – described as saying a thousand words – can be believed,

as editors cut and paste as they do words, to eliminate bulges in a subject’s chin,

erase creases from one’s forehead, or add a flourish or two to make him/ her look

picture-pretty.

Electoral campaigns, whether abroad or here, are characterized by awful lies

to downgrade opponents and make them look terribly unfit for positions they

aspire for. In past Philippine presidential elections, the art of destruction was so

intense it left a bad taste in the mouth. Some of the accusations were true, but most

of them were simply speculative and false. On television today, one can see saliva

dripping from the corners of critics’ mouths, or the satanic fierceness in their eyes

as they demolish the target of their assassination. There is a term for today’s head-

hunting bloggers: bastes.

 The truthful journalist’s weapon against charges of false and malicious

reporting was – and possibly continues to be – libel. One must be proven without a

doubt that he was out to malign the subject, and a sane court, analyzing the facts of

the case and finds the respondent not guilty, will throw the petition out of the

window.

Such is the case with social media. It can be used to prop up or destroy an

individual and/or commercial product. And who is to distinguish the truth and

falsehood of social media reporting?

Imtiaz Ali of TechMead writes of the positive effects of social media, mainly that

social networks helping businesses in a variety of ways.

Traditional marketing mediums such as the radio, TV commercials and print

ads are completely obsolete now and demand for thousands of dollars,” he writes.

“However, with social media the businesses can connect with their targeted

customers for free, the only cost is energy and time. Through Facebook, Twitter,

LinkedIn or any other social site you can lower your marketing cost to a significant

level.

The increasing popularity of social sites like Twitter, Facebook and

LinkedIn, social networks has gained attention as the most viable communication

choice for the bloggers, article writers and content creators.

 These social networking sites have opened the opportunity for all the writers

and bloggers to connect with their tech savvy clients to share your expertise and

articles. Your audience will further share your articles, blog or expertise in their

social circle which further enhance your networks of the followers.

Social networks have removed all the communication and interaction

barriers, and now one can communicate his/her perception and thoughts over a

variety of topics. Students and experts are able to share and communicate with

like-minded people and can ask for the input and opinion on a particular topic.

Another positive impact of social networking site is to unite people on a

huge platform for the achievement of some specific objective. This is very

important to bring the positive change in society.

On the other hand, one of the negative effects of social media or network is

it leads to addiction. “Spending countless hours on the social sites can divert the

focus and attention from a particular task. It lowers the motivational level of the

people, especially of the teenagers and students. They mainly rely on technology

and the internet instead of learning the practical knowledge and expertise of the

everyday life.”

“Kids can be greatly affected by these social networking sites if they are

allowed to use them. The reason is that sometimes people share photos on social
media that contains violence and sex, which can damage the behavior of kids and

teenagers. It puts the negative impact on overall society as these kids and teenagers

involve themselves in crime -related activities.”

According to Karen Fraxier, public relations specialist, writes that social

media “has changed the way people interact. In many ways, social media has led to

positive changes in the way people communicate and share information; however,

it has a dark side, as well. Social networking can sometimes result in negative

outcomes, some with long-term consequences.”

Karen cites a 2010 Case Western Reserve School of Medicine study that

showed hyper-networking (more than three hours on social networks per day) and

hyper texting (more than 120 text messages per day) correlated with unhealthy

behaviors in teens, including drinking, smoking and sexual activity. Hyper-

networking was also associated with depression, substance abuse, poor sleep

patterns, suicide and poor academic performance.

While on the surface it appears, social networking brings people together

across the Internet, Karen writes that in a larger sense it may create social isolation,

according to a BBC News report. “As people spend increasing amounts of time on

social networks, they experience less face-to-face interaction. Scientists have

evaluated social isolation in many studies, and have determined that it can lead to a
host of mental, psychological, emotional and physical problems including

depression, anxiety, somatic complaints and many others.

Some of the harmful effects people suggest social networking has are:

encouraging poor grammar, usage, and spelling, allowing information that may be

perceived as fact even in light of evidence to the contrary, exposing children to

online predators, creating a culture in which a single mistake such as a racy picture

or poorly thought-out comment can cause irreparable harm to your reputation,

decreasing productivity as workers habitually check social networking sites while

they should be working.

It is inherent on the individual to use social networking constructively, and

parents must be especially careful to monitor their children's use of social

networking to minimize the potential for negative outcomes.

In the related literature and studies most of the topics are how using social

media affects the student’s performance in school. The related literature according

to Arnold and Paulus 2010 stated that social media is use for educational purposes

because it can widen or broader the range of the topic that is being discussed, and it

is stated that using social media instead of preparing in class may affect the grade

of the student because their time is consumed using social media rather than
studying and preparing for their topic for their class, other literature reviews said

that using too much social media can distract the students from their activities and

school works. Mainly the related literature and studies talks about some of the

disadvantage and advantage of using social media to the students and what benefits

can bring them in using the social media accounts. According to Cole 2009,

Valtaja and Fiedler 2009 the use of social media can increase the student’s learning

through the interaction they made this means that the more students are exposed in

using social media they are learning more because of the interaction they made

through using it. Stevens 2009 also added that as a result, students and educators

become equal participants in the knowledge and sharing process through this both

sides are beneficial for creating and disseminating knowledge. Lewis 2008 stated

that most of the time of the students are spent in using social media for their daily

activities and through using it students gather information they gather more

information unlike before that you can only get updates through using the

resources like television or newspaper. Madden 2011 stated that the utilization of

facebook has found to increase users sense of personal belonging among the

students this sense of belonging has in and itself been positively correlated with

academic performance. Livingstone 2008 states that affinity for self-presentation is

often a mark of adolescence and SNS use has made it possible for one’s own

display of personality to reach a larger audience than previous generations.

Different views from different authors gave their comments about the effect of

social media to the students some stated the good effects of it by saying that today

is a modern technology and social media is used to learn in a more advance way

and students and educators can communicate more easier through the use of social

media, and some stated the negative effects saying that social media can affect the

student’s performance in school by using too much social media it can cause them

to get lower grades because their focus is not on their lesson rather their attention is

more on the use of social media. Overall the usage of social media can bring

positive and negative effects to us, but by the right utilization of it we can avoid the

negative effects and turn it into positive effects.

Reference

1. Amedie, Jacob, "The Impact of Social Media on Society" (2015). Pop Culture

Intersections. 2. https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/engl_176/2