Research Topic: The Impact of Facebook on

Academic lives of Secondary School

Students: A Case Study at Hagen Park Day
Secondary School in Mt Hagen, Western
Highlands Province

By: Josiah Pup

Introduction

Background of study
Facebook is at the leader of the social media race with more
active users worldwide.
It became one of the most frequently accessed website at
the moment.
Facebook founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg.
There are 1.57 billion mobile active users (Mobile Facebook
MAU) for June 2016 (Source: Facebook as of 7/27/16) an
increase of 20 percent year-over-year.
Worldwide, there are over 950 million Facebook users.
500 million people log onto Facebook daily, which represents
a 48% increase from 2010 to 2011(The Social Skinny 2012) .

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Faculty of Medicine - University of Khartoum,
Sudan. It was established in 1924; it is the biggest
and the oldest medical school in Sudan, with over
2000 students enrolled. It is recognized
internationally and has a leading role in
developing the community. Today, more than ever
before, people are finding ways to connect with
friends, family members, co-workers, classmates,
and those they have just met using social
networking sites. One of the most commonly used
sites with 800 million active users is a site most
are familiar with, Facebook.

Research Problem
The quick rise in popularity of social networking sites began in the second half of the last decade
partlybecause of their extensive usage by school and university students. According to Ellison, Steinfield &
Lampe (2011), for example, a significant number (approximately 73%) of Internet-using teenagers have
joined social networking sites by the end of 2009, with almost half of them (38%) visiting social networking
sites daily.
Currently Facebook is used by many people to connect with their friends and relatives around the globe
(Brydolf, 2007). And the use of Facebook platforms has grown so fast that it has even attracted the
attention of university students; they are so engrossed in the sites that they have almost completely
forgotten about their academic work. University students are considered victims of the social media sites
more than any group of people as they negatively impact their academic performance (Pasek & Hargittai,
2009). Students easily get tempted to use the various social media platforms when trying to obtain
learning materials online. In most cases, the students end up spending almost all their times on the social
media and forget about the course materials they originally intended to look for.
Furthermore, Ellison et al (2011) claim that students tend to participate in such website activities while
doing their homework so that it may have negative effect on their academic performances by interrupting
them from the learning process. Therefore, it is becoming difficult to ignore the fact that there might be a
direct correlation between Facebook usage and student academic performance shown at schools and
universities. Since the problem is relatively new, the researcher believes several attempts to be made for
an idea of answering this question. As well as, there is no research conducted yet on this topic in college
under the study and those research conducted in developed countries on this area has methodological
gaps. Consequently, the researcher was much indebted to conduct research on this topic to fill those gaps.

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The emergence of Facebook and online SNs has become a major
trend over the years with growing popularity amongst the
younger generation. As online social networking becomes more
popular, literature, however, suggests that there is an ongoing
debate on the role of online SNs in the social life and academic
performance of users. While many researches claim they can be
tempting and addictive with the use of features such as dating,
photo and video-sharing, instant messaging, etc., others claim
they can be advantageous as they lead to better interaction and
cooperation among users. While this debate goes on, there is still
lack of strong empirical evidence to show how the use of these
tools affect social life and academic performance especially for
undergraduates in Sudan universities, hence, the need to clearly
establish how these tools relate to undergraduate social life and
academic performance which is the focus of this study.

Research Questions
Major Question
Is Facebook the contribution Factor towards the poor
academic performance of secondary school study at Hagen
Park Day Secondary School?
Specific Questions
- Does Facebook usage have impact on students academic
performance?
- What are the special motives that drive students to use
Facebook?
- On average how much time do students spend on this site
collectively per day?
- To what extent student are addicted to Facebook usage?

Significant of Studies
It is anticipated that the results obtained would add to the wealth of information currently
available on Facebook usage, its impact on college students academic performance as it is
newly emerging and instantly advancing technology which would be indispensable for policy
makers, development practitioners, service providers, current users, and potential users.
Hence, the output of this research can contribute to these endeavours by creating awareness at
the grass root level. More specifically, it will assist any interested body as showcase who are
responsible for academic performance of students at College level in general and Wollega
University in particular.
In addition to the above mentioned, in the academic world, everyone viewed social media as a
distraction and lead the student to procrastination in their academics. Some students, however,
also claim that visiting social media sites during class time helps them deal with the boredom
they experience in college. This study would provide information on the impact of Facebook to
college students and how it can be used in-relation with their academics. In addition, the
findings of the study are expected to contribute a little towards bridging the existing literature
gap on understanding the impediments and blessing opportunities of Facebook in the academic
environment. And also helps the researcher to gain Masters Degree in Business Administration.
Rationale: This research will give information about the impact of Facebook and others SNs
usage on academic performance and social life among medical students because it is essential
to know the magnitude of the problem in order to solve it for a better academic performance
and social life.

Literature Review

Pempek et al., (2009) found that students spend approximately 30 minutes on

Facebook throughout the day as part of their daily routine. Facebook was used most
often for social communication, mostly with friends with whom the students had a
pre-established offline relationship. They discussed suggestions through the use of
social networking sites for the development of identity and peer relationships.

Junco (2011) studied the relationship between Facebook usage and student
engagement, a construct related to positive college outcomes. Facebook was
found negatively correlated with engagement scale score and positively
correlated with time spent in co-curricular activities.
Ellison et al., (2007) conducted research to examine the relationship between
use of Facebook, and the establishment and maintenance of social capital
and ones ability to stay linked with members of a previously settled
community.
In the study of Kirschner and Karpinski (2010), they found a significant
negative relationship between Facebook use and academic performance.
Facebook
users reported lower mean GPAs and reported spending fewer hours
per week
studying on average than Facebook nonusers. A majority of students claimed
to use Facebook accounts at least once day.

Junco (2012) examined the relationship among numerous measures of frequency of

Facebook use with time spent preparing for class and overall GPAs. Hierarchical
linear regression analysis showed that time spent on Facebook was strongly and
significantly negatively correlated with overall GPA.

Knowledge Gap Found from the

Literature Review

Methodology

Research Method for data collection

Research Site

Research Participants

Theoretical frame Work

 Study Design: Descriptive, analytical cross-sectional

institutional-based study.
Study Area: The study was conducted at Faculty of
Medicine - University of Khartoum, Sudan.
Study Population: The study population consists of the
medical students of the Faculty of Medicine - University of
Khartoum.
Sample Size: The sample size was found 275 and it was
calculated assuming a prevalence of 23.3% of satisfaction
regarding the teaching methodology, a 1.96 confidence
level and a sample error of 5%.
Sampling Technique: Stratified random sampling technique
was used for this study.
Data Collection: A self-administered structured (close
ended) questionnaires was used to collect the data from
the research respondents.

Main Research Findings and

Analysis

Theme 1

Theme 2

Theme 3

Conclusion

Recommendations


What do you recommend for how the
problem would be solved?

References

Pempek, T. A., Yermolayeva, Y. A., & Calvert, S. L. (2009). College students' social
networking experiences on Facebook. Journal of Applied Developmental
Psychology, 30, 227-238.
Junco, R. (2011). The relationship between frequency of Facebook use ,
participation
in Facebook activities, and student engagement. Computers & Education, 58,
162 171.
Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The Benefits of Facebook
Friends Social Capital and College Students Use of Online Social
Network Sites. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 12, 1143
1168. Facebook (2011) Statistics [Electronic] Available:
http://www.Facebook.com/press/info.php?statstics
Kirschner, P. A., & Karpinski, A. C. (2010). Facebook and academic performance.
Computers in Human Behavior, 26, 12371245.
Junco, R. (2012). Too much face and not enough books: The relationship between
multiple indices of facebook use and academic performance. Computers &
Education, 28, 187-198

Acknowledgement
A research paper like this is never the work of anyone alone. The
contributions of many different people, in their different ways, have
made this possible. I would like to extend my appreciation especially
to the following: Thank God for the wisdom and perseverance that he
has been bestowed upon me during this research project, and
indeed, throughout my life: "I can do every thingthrough him who
give me strength." (Philippians 4: 13)Mrs. Mamaril, for making this
research possible. Her support, guidance,advice throughout the
research project, are greatly appreciated. Thanks Ma'am!Of course,
to my friends and classmates for their endless friendship
andencouragement. You guys are the best, thanks you!Last but not
least, I would like to thank my parents for their unconditionalsupport,
both financially and emotionally throughout my high school career. In
particular, their patience and understanding shown by my mother,
father and brothersis greatly appreciated. I know, at times, my
temper is particularly trying