Association Between Students Social Media Use and Their Academic Performance: The Case of Preparatory Schools in Adama

Abstract

This study aimed at examining the relationship between students’ social media use and academic performance, the case of preparatory schools in Adama City. The study employed a descriptive research design (concurrent embedded research method) in which 222 student respondents were selected by using simple random, systemic and stratified random sampling techniques whereas 26 respondents, viz., principals, teachers, and class monitors, were selected purposively. The questionnaire, interview, and focus group discussions were used as the instruments of data collection. The quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and Chi-Square tests of independence and supplemented by qualitative results. The study pointed out that all students under study were engaged in using social media using mobile data as a source for access at home and during evening time.  The study also found out that students had an experience of login on social media more than five times and spent more than three hours on average per day. The study also confirmed that students tend to use social media dominantly for non-academic activities (chatting and entertainment). It was also observed that there was a trend of decreasing in students’ academic performance as the time they spent on social media was increasing. Finally, it was recommended that students need to be encouraged to use social media for educational purposes and the school should also have to organize the training on meta-cognition skills (training on Growth Mind Set) which helps students to develop self-regulation skills.