The article embarks on investigating the effects of social media on college students. Over the past few years, the number of social media websites has increased tremendously. As their popularity continues to grow and they become a vital component of the everyday life of college students. These social media platforms provide an avenue for the students to exchange ideas, videos, pictures, documents among other information (Wang, Chen, and Liang, 3). The sharing happens at astonishing speed. However, it is important to analyze the effects of social media on the success equation of the students.
The study employed a descriptive exploratory study design. Random sampling was used to select the participants comprising of 26 females and 24 male students taking courses at Johnson and Wales University. The sample comprised of 65% male students and 35% female students with 39% of them jobless and 30% had part-time employment and Questionnaires were administered to the students and were used as the primary data collection tool. The participants were assured that the data collected would only be used for the study purposes, and they were allowed to answer the questions anonymously. The questions were related to their lives and focused on determining their feelings when using different social media channels. Some of the issues assessed include behavioral aspects concerning the use of social media. For example, the students were asked if they used social media or posted while doing their assignments and the number of times they posted on the sites in a single day (Wang, Chen and Liang, 7). The questionnaire comprised of both open and close ended questions. Two open-ended questionnaires were asked at the end of the questionnaires to determine the biggest advantage or disadvantage of using the social media websites.
The results indicated that almost half, 45%, the participants used social media sites on an average of 6 to 8 hours in a single day. A significant number of the students, 23%, spent an upwards of 8 hours looking through and posting on the social media websites. 20 % percent of the participants spent less than 6 hours on average 2-4 hour in a single day using social media. The remaining 12% used less than two hours on the websites. The high number of individuals using social media coupled with a large number of hours devoted to social media has a negative impact on the college success equation.
While social media is highly attractive as it provides the students an avenue to share and talk about their problems as well as create new friends it negatively affects the lives of the college student sand consumes an enormous amount of effort and time of the students which could otherwise be channeled to other academic and co-curricular activities. The research found that the less time spent by the students on productive educational activities results in a lower grades among the participants (Wang, Chen, and Liang, 8). It is, therefore, advisable for the students to try and limit their use of social media to only a few hour in a single day. This way the students will have more time left to engage in more productive activities. The study recommends that educators come up with ways of helping the students create a balance between social media and school work. A collaborative approach that incorporates all the stakeholders- the students, the educators and the parents- will prove to be efficient and enhance students' efficiency in college.
Work Cited
Wang, Qingya, Chen, Wei and Liang, Yu. The Effects of Social Media on College Students. Nov. 2011. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.
