nvolvement of technology aspects for social needs has become the major communication strategy for most people during past decade. Internet is an inseparable part of human life and it involves in variety of routine activities. Social media has revolutionized corporate communications, rapidly changing the way that public relations campaigns or programs are distributed and measured (Matthews, L., 2010). Social networking has taken the world towards a rich communication society. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace are the most popular social networking sites providing the electronic communication within society. In the last five years the rapid growth of social media that has been observed is indicative of its importance and its integration into the daily lives of many people in Sri Lanka (Thuseethan, S. and Vasanthapriyan, S., 2014).
Facebook is on lead in the social media race with more active users' worldwide. It has become one of the most frequently accessed website present. Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, who are alumni of Harvard. The typical University culture loves Facebook deeply, builds the lifestyle, rather than just a hobby or a fun time passing activity. Academic success is a supreme goal to any student, with the social and family responsibility they have. University students are one of the major group using Facebook for fun, with the main purposes of connecting with their friends, sharing day to day activities, using features such as photo sharing, publishing wall posts, and stating their status updates.
Because of the social media platform's widespread adoption by college students, there is a great deal of interest in how Facebook use is related to academic performance (Junco, R., 2012). Like other social networking sites Facebook ruins the academic life of university students. In 2008, half of the students were completely unaware of Facebook, while in 2009 all our respondents were aware of it and 59% of them were also using it on a regular basis (Nicola Cavalli, Elisabetta Ida Costa, Paolo Ferri, Andrea Mangiatordi, 2011). Facebook use is nearly ubiquitous among U. S. college students with over 90% active participation among undergraduates (N. Ellison, C. Steinfeld, and C. Lampe, 2011). Even in developed countries Facebook is widely access by students.
This paper reviews the influence of Facebook in university students' academic activities and further analyzes both positive and negative impacts of using it. In 2012 the World Bank reported that the Internet users in Sri Lanka were last reported at 2.5 teenagers, Figure 3 shows the distribution of Facebook users in different age groups. Sri Lanka has nearly 1.2 million Facebook accounts, 20% of those are fake accounts (Sri Lanka Police, 2014). Even though there considerable number of legal accounts in Sri Lanka. The above most recent data, collected by the www.statista.com from Sri Lankan Facebook users shows that of the 43% of Facebook users are in between the age 18 and 24. Most users in this group contain university students, Facebook allows them to express themselves, interconnect, and collect profiles that highlight their abilities and capability throughout lifetime.
Social Networking Sites allow students to express themselves, communicate, and collect profiles that highlight their talents and experience. There are several reasons demanding young people to use Facebook and even also few adults addicted to it and need to useFacebook. Based on themeeting had with university students, the following are some of the reason given by the students for using the Facebook III.
Information gathering was done through a web based survey among university students. Students who use the Facebook selected for this study. The web questionnaire was designed and distributed to selected students from five Universities across Sri Lanka -Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, University of Jaffna, University of Peradeniya, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka and University of Kelaniya. To get truthful information the university students were requested to respond the questionnaire anonymously.
The survey was carried out with the participation of 287 students. In the sample, only 32.5% students
The following variables were used to develop and test cases;
In this study, time spend on Facebook measured as how often he/she visits the Facebook and spends how much time by actively using Facebook. We categorized the frequency and time spending on Facebook in following manner. ii. Grade Point Average (GPA) It varies from 0.0 to 4.0 depend on the grades of the students in Sri Lankan universities'. Categorization of GPA considered in following way as given in Table 3.
Table 3 : Categorization of students in terms of GPA Category GPA C-1 0-2 C-2 2-3 C-3 3-4IV.
The test cases we defined will inspect the correlation between the frequency or amount of time spent on Facebook and the amount which a student participates in academic activities. Initially we think that there is an inverse relationship between time or frequency with GPA, as the more frequent/time spent on Facebook, the less time a student engage with his/her academic activities. Since majority students falls in to A-2 category, most of the students are moderate users' of Facebook. Table 4 and Table 5show the distribution of students in each category.
In this case, occasional Facebook users (A-1) analyzed with corresponding GPA categories, prime factor of student academic performance. Category A-1 students are less interested in Facebook; there may be inverse relationship with academic activities.
The study found the correlation between social media usage and academic performance. Most of the heavy or frequent users received low grades, compared to light users. We found similar results with lower grades. By considering Test Casest here is a significant However, the unanticipated finding was that there are numerous positive usage of Facebook still employed. In future weexpect to expand the positive usages of Facebook among university students which help them to increase their academic performance. difference in Grade Point Average between those considered to be heavy or frequent users of social media and those considered to be light or occasional users. As we employ more time on Facebook, there should be a significant decrement in performance. The results of our study indicate that time and the frequency of using Facebook were predictors of academic performance. In addition, it could predict the quality of life as well.
Category | Number of times per day |
A-1 | Below 2 |
A-2 | 2-5 |
A-3 | More than 5 |
Category | Number of hours per day |
B-1 | Below 2 |
B-2 | 2-5 |
B-3 | More than 5 |
C-1 | C-2 | C-3 | |
A-1 | 17 | 44 | 20 |
A-2 | 18 | 101 | 11 |
A-3 | 37 | 33 | 6 |
distribution of students with time | |||
spending in Facebook | |||
C-1 | C-2 | C-3 | |
B-1 | 8 | 90 | 30 |
B-2 | 12 | 71 | 5 |
B-3 | 52 | 17 | 2 |
We would like to thank universities participate in this survey. Extend our sincere thanks to students who spent their precious time and for their assistance and support. Further we would like to acknowledge all friends who assisted us in conducting survey. In this case, medium time spending Facebook users (B-2) analyzed with corresponding GPA categories. Category B-2 students are somehow interested to stay in Facebook for some time.
In this case, heavy Facebook users (B-3) analyzed with corresponding GPA categories. Category B-3 students are addicted in Facebook and spend much more time.
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