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TO WHAT EXTENT DO SOCIAL NETWORK SITES AFFECT

STUDENTS ACADEMIC LIVES?

Mustafa olak

Bilkent University

Abstract

The aim of this research is to investigate the role of social network sites in academic life.

The social network sites come into peoples lives in the recent years. With the increase of usage

of social network sites, every user of social network sites is affected from this undeniably.

Unless some scientific research have been done, we cannot determine actual effects of social

network sites on their users. This research focuses on analysing the effects of the social network

sites on teenagers and young adults academic lives. The construction of this research is

description of social network sites (SNS), the ways that help to access users to SNSs, the effects

of SNSs on teenagers and young adults and after all of these, association between the effects of

usage of SNSs and teenagers and young adults academic lives.

Categories

Media, social media, social networking, social network sites, effects of social network sites

Keywords

Social network sites, students academic lives, learning process, effects of SNSs on teenagers

and young adults

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1. Introduction

Communication has been a necessity for every person during their lifetime. With the

development of the technology, media has undertaken a responsibility to carry out this

necessity. Social media which is a sub-category of the media has become very popular since

starting of this millennium. People tend to prefer social network sites to communicate with each

other. There are some reasons under these preferences of people. Firstly, this paper

investigates these reasons of usage of social network sites. Then, research will be narrowed

down to the 14-22 age range. The reason for this specialization is to understand that why this

age group uses SNSs and to what extent social network sites affect this specific age range.

Finally, we will search that whether there is a link between usage of social network sites and this

age groups academic success. The causative factor of this research is to clarify some claims

about the effects of SNSs on academic success. In the recent years, many instructors and

parents have started to moan about decline of their students or childrens success in academic

lives. Some of them claim that social network is directly main factor of this decrease. They have

held social network sites responsible to create addiction so, this addiction has affected students

time managements and study arrangements. This research will based on this hypothesis; social

network sites cause addiction for teenagers and young adults so, this harms their academic lives

negatively.

2. Social Networking

Media has created a significant branch to maintain its effect on people for every period in

history. Social networking is a contemporary branch of media. With the development of the

Internet, social networking become a popular facility to communicate and be informed because,

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social networking uses the Internet to reach billions of people. Social network sites are the arms

of this huge communication network. All of these sites have some different aspects and by this

way, they can attract a great number of peoples attention to turn them into users. However,

there are some common features which all of these network sites coalesce.

2.1. The aspects and benefits of social network sites

Social network is a web based facility which allows its users to create their own profiles

and communicate with their followers and friends. Users can add their personal and private

information to their social network profiles, which their friends or followers can access these

profiles and make comments or like. According to some, first reason of preference to use

social network sites is to be known by others and desire to be popular among friends

(Calvert et al.). Sandra Calvert and her colleagues use a specific social network site,

Facebook, to clarify aspects of SNSs in their research; College Students Social Networking

Experiences on Facebook.

Facebook offers several options for communicating with others. Users can

interact by sending private messages, similar to emailing. Members who are

friends may post public messages on each others walls, which are personal

message boards on their profiles. Communication may also occur in groups,

which Facebook members can create and join. Groups may be formed on any

topic (Calvert et al.)

With these several options of Facebook and similar network sites, people tend to prefer

social network sites to communicate with each other. Also, there is another reason, which

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we can come up in the same research, to prefer SNSs. Online interactions can affect

developmental results through peer feedback. For instance, in a content analysis of personal

webpages which their users are in the 14-22 age range, these teenagers and young adults

were often found to express their emotions or thoughts through posting information about

their interests and their identities.(quoted in Calvert et al.) On the other hand, users can

learn others thoughts from their comments and reform themselves by these comments. In

this way, they can get rid of the obstacles which prevent from being popular. In addition to

these, users may use social network sites only like a phone. They can reach their friends and

relatives who live away or cannot get together. With the usage of social network sites,

distances among people become shorter. According to some research, teenagers and

college students use social network sites in order to stay in touch with their friends who see

rarely or often (quoted in Calvert et al.). As a result, social network sites provide some

opportunities for their users so, the amount of social network sites users has increased

dramatically since the emergence of social network sites.

2.2. The reasons of use of SNSs more by teenagers and young adults

There are several reasons why teenagers and young adults prefer social network sites

more than other communication facilities. Firstly, social network sites differ from other

communication facilities with free participation. Everyone can join social networking and

become a part of this world. This aspect of SNSs attracts a great number of peoples

thoughts about social networking. The other reason is that social networking uses a

different type of communication to connect people. In this system, there is no face to face

communication. Therefore, the age group between 14 and 22, who encounter face to face

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communication problems, mostly prefers SNSs to communicate with each other. In this

way, young people can access to others profile and they can send messages or making

comments about a topic which is related to owner of profile. It helps to express themselves

without encountering any difficulty. The other side of usage of social networking is

environment. Many users may feel a force to have a social network profile by their

environment. The bad side of issue is that people tend to deny social influence on

themselves. Therefore, surveys cannot find certain answer for this effect. However,

environment effect can create a fear of exclusion on a person unless this person has any

social network profile. Environment effect indicates its effect on people mostly during 14

to 22 age period because of effort to form character. The final reason that will be discussed

in this research is a new world of social networking. Social network provides a virtual life for

their users. Teenagers and young adults can have fun and spend their time freely in this

virtual life. All of these reasons lead teenagers and young adults to use any social network

site and while social network sites are providing these opportunities for users, they do not

want to prefer other communication facilities to communicate as much as preference of

usage of social networking.

3. The Ways to Access Social Network Sites

In 21st century, communication facilities have increased in variety. With the increase in

communication facilities, preferences of people to communicate have also increased. Social

networking is one of the preferences of people to reach to someone else. As been mentioned,

social network sites are web based facilities. Therefore, the usage of SNSs to communicate

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requires the Internet access. Therefore, the relationship between SNSs and Internet access the

first area to examine in order to understand how people can access to social network sites.

3.1. The relation between Internet access and usage of social networking

Users have to own an Internet access to be online on social network sites. Therefore, we

may say that the Internet is indispensable element of the social network sites. The Internet

access can direct peoples behaviours towards usage of social network sites. According to

June Ahns study, children who there is an Internet access in their homes tend to participate

social network sites more than other peers who do not have any Internet access. This study

also states that 63.5% of teenagers access to the Internet from their homes. The second

place which children and young adults access to the Internet is their schools at 51.0% rate.

These findings show us that parents may have a significant role on their childrens social

networking participation. This confirms a hypothesis which claims that there is a positive

relationship between families who have the Internet access and their childs social

networking usages. Also, 51.0% rate of teenagers and young adults Internet access from

schools is very important percentage (156). In the same study, June Ahn concludes that;

Surprisingly, teens that report having primary access in other locations (perhaps

friends homes or their mobile phones) were 128% more likely to be SNS users.

Perhaps youth are more likely to use social network sites away from parental or

adult supervision. Another distinct possibility is that with the rising use of mobile

technology such as smart phones and iPods, youth access their social networks

with these devices over their school or home computers (158).

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This result creates a new topic to examine the relationship between youths and their

smart phone usages. The underlying reason of using smart phones to access social network

sites is some opportunities which are provided by only smart phones. The most important

feature of smart phones is being mobile. People can access SNSs via their smart phones

whenever and whatever they want. With the development of the technology, smart phones

become more fast than before to access to the Internet. In addition to these feature of

smart phones, they provide eases for their users such as small sizes to carry and

accessibility. All of these aspects of them turn smart phones into powerful tools to access

social network sites. However, they can also turn into harmful tools for students when

students use these technological tools during lecture times.

3.2. Smart phones and students

The usage of technological tools to access social network sites has some effects on

people, especially teenagers and young adults because, they use their smart phones during

lecture hours to access to social network sites. According to current studies, the rate of

usage mobile phones during lecture hours has been increasing dramatically. Teenagers and

young adults send and read their text messages or play games on social network sites via

their phones during lessons. There are two opposite views about school prohibitions to

access SNSs. First view states that Some students may primarily access the Internet at

school rather than at home. Schools often have policy restrictions on Internet usage, block

websites or restrict access time for non-instructional purposes. Such situations might limit

students participation in social network sites. (Ahn 147). This opinion is nothing more

than conjecture according to supporters of the other view. They claim that the prohibition

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to use mobile phones during lessons does not create deterrent effect for student to cease

to do so. 64% of teens who own cell phones have texted during class, even in schools

where cell phones are technically banned. (quoted in Kuznekoff & Titsworth 223). This

huge ratio indicates that prohibitions are not effective way to decrease the use of social

network sites during lessons.

While this argument continues, the usage of smart phones to access SNSs during lecture

times continues to harm students academic lives. These harms will be examined in the next

parts of this study. On the other hand, teachers who suffer from students usage of smart

phones during lecture hours emphasize that the dependence of social network sites cut off

students attention from lessons. Students cannot be blamed for this completely because of

addiction. Addiction is defined as a strong and harmful need to regularly have something

or do something (Merriam-Webster). This addiction is started by a fear about missing or

not being able to follow the messages on social network sites. After a time period, this fear

turns into addiction to control social networking profile(s) for every two or three minutes.

These controls take over time and students listening and note taking skills are affected

negatively. As a result, the development of communication facilities can be harmful for

someones lives and these effects cannot be irrecoverable for every time.

4. The Effect of Usage Social Networking

The social network sites have various effects on teenagers and young adults. We can

separate these effects into two groups, positive effects and negative effects. There are some

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dissenting opinions against both sides. We will examine the effects of social network sites on

teenagers and young adults from the point of view of both sides.

4.1. Positive effects of use of social network sites on teenagers and young adults

The usage of social network sites has some positive effects on teenager and young

adults. These effects contribute their psychology and social lives. Nowadays, a great

number of people live in the world alone. They cannot find any person to share their

feelings and their opinions about different issues. Social network sites help them to join

groups of people and express themselves. There are a variety of social network sites which

provide their users to make comments or create discussions. In addition to this, some of

them have various groups and organisations which people can join freely. People can

increase their social capitals by joining them. After gaining these social skills, they can live in

real world with this high level of social skills. In College Students Social Networking

Experiences on Facebook, Sandra Calvert and her colleagues have given place to students

thoughts about Facebook:

Through Facebook, I can communicate through messages, wall post, and even events. I

have been able to sustain so many friendships through Facebook, which is the biggest

reason why I use it. (231)

Signing a Facebook wall is a lot easier and less time consuming than picking up the phone

to call a friend. Not many in college have the time for that. (231)

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As seen, students have also accepted the importance of social network sites to maintain

friendships and increase their social skills. On the other hand, initial studies of social

network usage among teenagers and young adults suggest that users can also develop

more social capital on social networking (Ahn 148).

The other side of the topic is benefits of making comments. Making comment or

criticizing others comment is a different way to become self-confident and popular.

Teenagers and young adults are able to express their feelings and opinions on social

networking thus, their confidences develop by this process. Making comment does not

have to mean criticizing others, also it may be contribute to a discussion or a topic which is

related to daily life. The students are socially connected with each other for sharing their

daily learning experiences and do conversation on several topics (Khan 57). Emerging

studies that examine the role of social networking in self-confidence have supported this

hypothesis. The final benefit of social networking that will be discussed in this paper is

creativity. Youths are able to create an event, meeting, party or gathering and this helps

them to increase their self-reliance to create new things. All of these can be mentioned as

benefits of social networking usage. These are main hypothesises which supporters of social

networking state to represent that social networking is beneficial for youths, whereas

people who disagree that social networking is beneficial for this age groups claim that social

networking sites damage teenagers and young adults about many parts of their lives.

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4.2. Negative effect of use of social network sites on teenagers and young adults

Although there are some benefits of usage of social network sites by teenagers and

young adults, some results of usage of social network sites indicate that they turn into

harmful facilities for teenagers and young adults. The first damage of them for teenagers

and young adults is to convince existence of a new world. This virtual world provides them

with no responsibilities. Also, there is no person to check out their actions on social

network sites. It takes away effects of parents and teachers from teenagers and young

adults lives. Fasee Ullah and his colleagues emphasize virtual life issue in their article, The

Impact of Social Media and Social Networks on Education and Students of Pakistan (2012),

as following:

Social networks provide a virtual life to the students, those students who not

even speak in front of anyone could feel freedom in their virtual life. When they

use social networks they feel like in heaven but this addiction kills their inner self

confidence for ever. Becoming addict of social networks feels like you have so

many friends but in real all of the contacts are virtual contacts (409).

This behaviour of going far from parents, friends, instructors and other groups can be

very dangerous for life. The second harmful effect of social networking is creating addiction.

As mentioned before, creating addiction is the main negative aspect of the social network

sites. Users of social networking feel that if I do not to follow my profiles on social network

sites, I can miss events or messages come from the others. This belief causes to check social

accounts at short intervals. After some time, it turns into addiction of checking. In College

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Students Social Networking Experiences on Facebook, there is a remarkable finding about

addiction. The question has asked that Facebook is harmful for your education, the 14.13%

of students have answered this question by saying no. Also, other questions which try to

find out the percentage of addicted students indicate that the 14.13% of students are

addicted to social network sites. Consequently, this survey has revealed that addicted

students do not accept or be unaware harms of social networking on their academic lives.

The last harm of use of social network sites is health problems. Health problems which

are caused by usage of SNSs are related to addiction. Teenagers and young adults lose their

health because of excessive use of social network sites. They spend lots of time to be online

and they look at the same screen for hours. It causes high blood pressure and anxiety (Ullah

et al. 409). These health problems affect their lives and education negatively. As a result,

although there are some benefits of social networking for teenagers and young adults,

actually there are as much as damages of social networking. All of these effects should be

considered together to decide whether social network sites are harmful or beneficial for

teenagers and young adults.

5. The Effects of Usage of Social Networking on Teenagers and Young Adults Academic Lives

Thus far, social networking, the ways to access to them and effects of social networking on

teenagers and young adults issues have been examined in order to build a substructure to

understand the topic detailed. In this part of paper, we will investigate whether social

networking harms teenagers and young adults academic lives or not. Social networking sites

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are affecting teenagers and young adults lives both positive and negative ways. Academic life is

one of the areas that are affected.

5.1. Positive effects on academic life

The usage of social network sites has also positive effects on teenagers and young

adults academic lives. As we look at the effects of social network sites on teenagers and

young adults, some of them help these people to increase their success in their academic

lives. The first benefit of its on academic life is to develop the relationship between teachers

and students. As this relationship increases, students become more successful in school

because, by using social networking, students can contact with their teachers and they can

ask whatever they want about course or any topic. It helps students learning process. In

Impact of Social Networking Websites on Students, this situation has been explained as the

following:

Students use social networking websites to discuss their academic issues

formally and informally and also to interact with their instructor, teachers and

professors. Research [by Mazer et al. 2007] examining student instructor

relationships suggest that professors who have online profiles with high

disclosure levels are associated with increased student motivation and that self-

disclosures decreased uncertainty, increased student motivation, and created

more positive attitudes toward both the course and the professor (Khan 65).

Students motivation is more important factor of education process. High level of

motivation leads students to become more successful. If students and teacher come

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together on social networking, the relationships between them can be improved, students

motivation might be increased. In this way, they can participate in the lecture. In addition

to this, students shyness in the classroom may be disappeared. The other way to turn

social network sites into beneficial facilities for academic life is that students can create

online courses and discussions about lessons. In this way, an online course platform helps

students to discuss some topic and reach a conclusion by themselves. These kinds of

platforms improve students creativities. Also they can have their own thoughts about some

topics and they can discuss them with their teachers during class time. All of these factors

cause to think about benefits of social networking on students academic lives.

5.2. Negative effects on academic life

Although some of social network sites positive effects on teenagers and young adults

academic lives, actually there are various harms of SNSs on students academic success. The

main harm of social networking is creating an addiction. Students are also not able to get

rid of this addiction during lecture hours therefore, their concentration decreases and this

negatively affects their ability to learn new topics. As mentioned, students use their smart

phones to access social network sites during lecture hours so, they cannot carefully follow

lessons. Social networks grab the total attention and concentration of the students and

diverts them towards non-educational, unethical and inappropriate actions such as useless

chatting, time killing by random searching and not doing their jobs (Ullah et al. 409).

According to other surveys, usage of smart phones to access social network sites during

class does not only affect students concentrations, also distracts students short memories

and listening skills. Inevitably, their exam results fall down dramatically. In The Impact of

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Mobile Phone Usage on Student Learning, Scott Titsworth and Jeffrey Kuznekoff have

shared their survey results. In their survey, there are three student groups. First group is

control group, which their use of mobile phone during lecture hour is banned. Second

group is a little bit free to use mobile phone than first group. Third group, high-distraction

group, is totally free about usage of mobile phone during lessons. According to survey

results, control group is the most successful in exams with multiple choices and their free

recall and note details are very well than other groups. High-distraction group is the worst

in all of areas. Their short-time memories are affected negatively because of use of mobile

phone. As a result, usage of mobile phone during lecture hours has a significant effect on

students exam results and memories.

As mentioned, addiction is the main negative effect of social networking on teenagers

and young adults. In this case, addiction causes bad time management to do home tasks

and study lessons. Students do not fulfil their responsibilities because, students spend a

major part of their times on social network sites. As a result, students cannot start their

work and finish them on time. To solve this problem, they appeal to contact elders and

seniors to help them in cloning their educational materials (Ullah et al. 409). The other

issue is virtual life which is provided students by social network sites. Students do not want

to follow lessons because lessons are boring them. They want to be online on social

network sites instead of being in class. The reason behind of this is virtual life opportunities.

In social network sites, there is no obligation for users. Therefore, students like living in this

virtual world because, classroom does not provide same opportunities for them. If they are

in classroom, they have to listen lessons and complete works. This virtual life of student

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destructs his thoughts from education towards other activities and by living inside fantasy

world student slowly starts to hate educated life and studies (Ullah et al. 409). There is a

remark about the issue, The first thing which students have learnt when they start to

school is escape door. If students can escape from lesson via their mobile phones, they

always do that. Consequently, mobile phones are the most dangerous tools for lectures and

students during lessons and this tool should be removed from lectures if efficient lessons

are wanted to give to students.

6. Discussion

Social network sites have entered in our lives since beginning of 21st century with blogs.

After few years, they have captured our daily lives. In addition to this, they have affected all

sides of our lives. Teenagers and young adults academic life is one of them. As seen, there are

various different effects of usage of social network sites on teenagers and young adults

academic lives. However, positive aspects of usage of social network sites cannot be supported

by scientific findings. They are just positive thoughts about the topic. According to scientific

findings, social network usage damages students academic lives. We can list these effects as

creating addiction, killing time, living in a virtual life (escaping from reality) and disrupting

students concentrations. As a result, we can say that, the usage of social network sites can be

beneficial for some areas but, most of the time it affects teenagers and young adults academic

lives negatively.

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7. Future Work

Technology is developing in every second. Therefore we cannot say what will happen in the

future about social network sites and its usage. The question, which is whether there will be

anything which will addict people to itself or not instead of SNSs, is a challenging for people. We

cannot answer this question easily but, it seems that social networks will save their places in

peoples lives for a while. Of course, new research will help to clarify to what extent do social

networking save its places.

8. Conclusion

This research shows us reasons behind the usage of social network sites and results which

are derived from this. It helps us to understand that usage of social network sites is not just one

dimensional issue. It can be seen as a beneficial facility from one side of the topic, but also it can

be seen harmful facility from other side of the topic. However, this paper indicates that the

harms of usage of social network sites are more important than the benefits of it. To save

teenagers and young adults academic lives, parents, teachers and authorities should

collaborate patiently. It seems that the only way to decrease harms of social networking is this

collaboration.

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Works Cited

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http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addiction

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Calvert, Sandra L., Pempek, Tiffany A. and Yermolayeva, Yevdokiya A. "College Students' Social

Networking Experiences on Facebook." Journal of Applied Developmental

Psychology 30.3 (2009): 227-238.

Khan, Shahzad. "Impact of Social Networking Websites on Students." Abasyn Journal of Social

Sciences. 5.2 n. page. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.

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Kuznekoff, Jeffrey H., and Scott Titsworth. "The Impact of Mobile Phone Usage on Student

Learning." Communication Education 62: 233-252. Print.

Ullah, Fasee et al. "The Impact of Social Media and Social Networks on Education and Students

of Pakistan." International Journal of Computer Science Issues (IJCSI) 9.4 (2012)