Johnson & Wales University

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MBA Student Scholarship

The Alan Shawn Feinstein Graduate School

11-1-2011

The Effects of Social Media on College Students

Qingya Wang
Johnson & Wales University - Providence, qaw733@jwu.edu

Wei Chen
Johnson & Wales University - Providence

Yu Liang
Johnson & Wales University - Providence, yul118@jwu.edu

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Repository Citation
Wang, Qingya; Chen, Wei; and Liang, Yu, "The Effects of Social Media on College Students" (2011). MBA
Student Scholarship. Paper 5.
http://scholarsarchive.jwu.edu/mba_student/5

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RunningHead:EFFECTSOFSOCIALMEDIAONCOLLEGESTUDENTS

TheEffectsofSocialMediaonCollegeStudents

QingyaWang,WeiChen,andYuLiang

Johnson&WalesUniversity

FeinsteinGraduateSchool

RSCH5500Research&Analysis

SubmittedtoProfessorMartinSivula,
Ph.D.November,2011

PeerReviewers:FredericJuillet,AnneCatelotti,JenniferGay,RohanKichlu,Christina
L.Blundin,andVolhaBan

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EFFECTSOFSOCIALMEDIAONCOLLEGE
STUDENTSAbstract
Associalmedia sitescontinuetogrowinpopularity, itisourpremisethat
technology is a vital part in todays student success equation. This descriptive,
exploratoryresearchstudydrewarandomsample(N=48)ofmales(n=26)andfemales
(n=22)whowereadministeredastudentperceptionquestionnaireonhowsocialmedia
affectscollegestudents.Thirtyfivepercentoftheparticipantswereundergraduatesand
65%weregraduatestudents,studyingatJohnson&WalesUniversity.Thirtyonepercent
ofparticipantshavefulltimejobs,30%haveparttimejobsand39%donothavejobs.
Theresultsofthesurveyquestionnaireindicatethat45%ofthesampleadmittedthatthey
spent68hoursperdaycheckingsocialmediasites,while23%spentmorethan8hours;
20%spent24hoursandonly12%spentlessthan2hoursonthistask.Resultsindicate
while mostcollege students usesocial media andspendmany hours checking social
mediasites,therewasanegativeaspecttocollegestudentsuseofsocialmedia.

KeyWords:socialmedia,collegestudents,learningefficiency

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EFFECTSOFSOCIALMEDIAONCOLLEGESTUDENTS

Introduction
Thedefinitionofsocialmediaistherelationshipsthatexistbetweennetworkof
people(Walter&Riviera,2004).Inthelasttenyears,theonlineworldhaschanged
dramatically. Thanks to the invention of social media, young men and women now
exchangeideas,feelings,personalinformation,picturesandvideosatatrulyastonishing
rate. Seventythree percent of wired American teens now use social media websites
(Oberst, 2010). Schill (2011) states that the social media sites encourage negative
behaviorsforteenstudentssuchasprocrastination(catchingupwithfriends),andthey
are morelikely todrinkand drug.However,every day,many students arespending
countless hours immersed in social media, such as Facebook, MySpace, World of
Warcraft,orSimCity.Atfirstglancethismayseemlikeawasteoftime;howeveritalso
helpsstudentstodevelopimportantknowledgeandsocialskills,andbeactivecitizens
who create and share content. At present, whether social media is favorable or
unfavorable, manystudents utilize thesesites onadailybasis.As social media sites
continuetogrowinpopularityitisourbeliefthattechnologyisavitalpartoftodays
studentsuccessequation.Manyresearchershavebeendivingintoaconsiderableamount
ofresearchonhowsocialmediainfluencesstudentretentionatcolleges.Manyparents
areworriedthattheircollegestudentsarespendingtoomuchtimeonFacebookandother
socialmediasitesandnotenoughtimestudying.Therefore,ourresearchascertainsthe
relationshipbetweenthesocialmediaandstudentsstudyefficiency.

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EFFECTSOFSOCIALMEDIAONCOLLEGE
STUDENTSStatementofProblem
Toaddresstheissueoftheeffectiveness ofusingsocialnetworking,thefirst
question raised in this study is: for what purpose is the student utilizing social
networking?Researchonthistopicwillstarttorevealsocialnetworkingsitesaresimply
partofhowstudentsinteractwitheachotherwithnoapparentimpactongrades.Thus,
theobjectiveofthisresearchistoexploretheadvantagesanddisadvantagesofstudents
useofsocialnetworkingforstudy.Themainpurposeofthisresearchistoexpandon
previousresearch,exploretherelationshipbetweentheeffectsofsocialnetworkingand
studentsstudyefficiency,andtodetermine ifsocialmediainterferingwithstudents
academiclives.
ResearchQuestions:
Whichisthemostpopularsocialmediasiteforstudents?
Whatistheamountoftimestudentsspendutilizingsocialmediainvariousacademic
processes?
ReviewoftheLiterature
College students have great interest in social media. For the purpose of this
study,social media wasdefinedasFacebook,YouTube,Blogs,Twitter, MySpaceor
LinkedIn(Martin,2008).Although,providingadetailedperspectiveonsocialmediause
amonguniversitystudentsandunderscoringthatsuchusecanproducebothpositiveand
negative consequences, according to a Nielsen Media Research study, in June 2010,
almost25percentofstudentstimeontheInternetisnowspentonsocialnetworking
websites (Jacobsen, & Forste, 2011). Facebook is the most used social network by
collegestudents,followedbyYouTubeandTwitter.Moreover,Facebookalonereports