The Impact of Social Networking Sites’ Usage on the Academic Performance of University Students of Lahore, Pakistan

Social networking sites are more common to the young generation worldwide. Pakistan’s major population is comprised of young generation. Thus, usage of social networking sites has become the trend among the youth of Pakistan which has strong effect on the student’s performance and habits. Thus, this study aims to examine the impact of social network usage on the university student’s academic performance of Lahore, Pakistan. Cross sectional survey technique has used in the current study. The self-administered questionnaire distributed to the 260 students of four universities of Lahore through convenient random sampling. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the data while Chi-square (X 2 ) analysis has performed to test the research hypotheses. The findings of the current study show that the university students of Lahore, Pakistan are using different social networking sites which has negative effect on the student’s academic performance and habits.  Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 3, Issue-4: 267-276


Introduction
Pakistan's population is majorly comprised of the young generation like school students, college going or university students. Thus, out of 180 million of the total population around 60% is the youth. The statistics show that 36 million of youth is of age 20-24 years and 50 million of the youth is of age 18-29 years. However, information technology is developing consistently over the years. The advent of the internet-based facilities and other digital communication technologies contributes a lot in the development of the social networking sites. Internet technology has exposed the human to a new way of broadcasting of information and it has rapidly developed the ways of communication (Owen, 2008). Therefore, extensive development has occurred in the communication technology within the last two decades. Likewise, exposure of android mobile phone to the society in the recent years is an example of how rapidly this technology penetrated in the society (Eijaz, 2013). In addition, internet facilities are available to the citizens at their door steps through the internet devices and networks which can be used with the help of laptops, personal computers (PC) and mobile phone internet packages (Haque, 2013). However, dramatic changes occurred in the internet using capacity by the introduction of 3G and 4G mobile in Pakistan telecom. Thus, young generation of Pakistan especially the students from universities are the major users of the internet facilities (Jilani et al., 2015).
The study revealed that internet has been used for majority of the purposes such as academic, social and other recreational activities but unfortunately there are a large number of university students who use internet mostly for the recreational purposes in the shape of social networking such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube etc. (Griffiths et al., 2005). The numbers of social networking sites to which the consumers can get access are rapidly increasing and numerous internet sites are adding social features or integrations. However, the study mentioned that among other social sites, Facebook and Twitter are considered as the most popular social networking sites (Keenan and Shiri, 2009). Two-third of world's internet users are also the part of social networking sites or other blogging site and they consume around 10% of their time on social networking out of the whole time which they spend on the internet.
The academic performance of the students is measured by the outcome of the students in the examination which is held in the educational institutes. The educational institutions have been built with the aim to share and impart knowledge and skills to those who become the part of these institutes (Hoyle, 1986). But, the study noted that there is no general agreement between the universities and students that they effectively identify the skills like procedural knowledge skills or declarative knowledge skills (Stoker et al.,1996).

Research Article
However, the young generation is well exposed to the social networking sites and almost every student has become the part of at least one social networking site. Networking sites have become very popular around the world and are considered as the modern communication system but a question arises that whether these sites can affect the academic performance of students or not, because majority of social networking sites users is the youth. The study investigates the impact of social networking sites on the student's academic performance in Lahore, Pakistan and the results show that usage of social networking sites has no negative effect on the students' academic performance (Ahmed and Qazi, 2011). But majority of the students nowadays can be seen using social networking sites with an alarming frequency and they even use these networking sites during lectures in the class rooms.
However, the university students of urban cities are more prone to the advanced communication technology, specifically to the internet and social networking sites, therefore, the current study investigates the impact of social networking sites usage on the nursing student's performance.

Research Problem
Social networking sites have transmuted from a few userbased sites to the global phenomenon within last one decade. Thus, popularity of the social networking sites at the large scale among the university students create concerns of the parents and academic institutes as majority of the students are using these sites for entertainment purpose like chatting with friends, online games etc. The study exposed that the addiction of the social networking sites creates feelings of loneliness and sensitive to the connectivity ( Fowler et al., 2009). Now-a-days, university students are using social networking sites with alarming frequencies. It is observed that students spend much of their time on the social networking sites and give very little time to the studies. Furthermore, instead of studying the academic books and journals on the internet they give much of their time to the social networking sites to make new friends. Therefore, the current study investigates the impact of social networking sites usage on the academic performance of the nursing students of universities of Lahore, Pakistan.

Study Significance
The current study will be helpful for the nursing institutes to identify the effects of the usage of social networking sites on the student's academic performance. Similarly, the current study results will be useful for the administrators and authorities of the private and public universities to regulate the usage of social networking sites among the students within the academic environment.
Moreover, the findings of this study will be helpful for the ministry of information and communication technology to know about the penalties of social networking among students and to take productive steps regarding its control.

Literature Review
The increase in the use of social networking sites has become a global phenomenon within last two decades and it has transformed the hobby of usage of social networking sites to a social norm. Similarly, social networking sites has enhanced the approach and communication for the users like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp messenger etc. (Coyle and Vaughn, 2008). Nowadays, teenagers use the social networking sites for different purposes like information gathering and other daily activities. The study revealed that in September, 2005 almost 16 % of the total internet users were using the social networking sites and it has increased to 86% till 2010 ( Lewis et al., 2008).

Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites are the online services which focus to build a connection between people to share their interests. These networking sites allows the individuals to share their information in a particular group. Thus, main purpose of the social networking site is to facilitate the people to create relations in order to share their interests, activities and real life experiences. The study mentioned that social networking sites have deeply penetrated in the lives of the people and perceived as a tool of modern communication (Heiberger and Harper, 2008). Social networking sites are remarkable examples of recent development in the technology field. Social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Skype, WhatsApp Messenger, Google talk, Google Messenger. Moreover, networking sites are used for different purposes but the most basic purpose is to interact with friends and to create relationships (Asemah and Edegoh, 2012).

Academic Performance
Academic performance is usually measured through the exams which is perceived to be a major goal of any academic institution. The study claimed that organizational institutions are established with the goal of providing the knowledge and skills to the individuals (Hoyle, 1986). Academic performance is the result of education, through which the students, teachers and institutions achieve their goals simultaneously. Usually, the academic performance is measured through the periodic examination or by a continuous assessment, however, there is no specific best technique to measure the academic performance.

Gender and Usage of Social Networking Sites
The study emphasizes that studies have revealed different results regarding gender usage of social networking sites among youth either girls or boys (Subrahmanyam and Lin, 2007). Moreover, boys spent more time on social networking sites in the previous decade as compared to the girls as the social networking sites were newly introduced to the society. The study also show that boys enjoyed more on the social networking sites and other communication technology than the girls (Valkenburg and Peter, 2009). In addition, boys feel more difficulty to express the views as compared to the girls.
However, the study emphasizes that teenage girls and boys are equally engaged in the social networking sites (Raacke and Raacke, 2008). Moreover, boys and girls might have social network accounts but the reasons of its usage may differ according to the gender. Similarly, the study described that girls usually utilize the social networking sites primarily to maintain the pre-existing friendship, while boys use it primarily for flirting and making new relationship (Raacke and Raacke, 2008).

Age and Usage of Social Networking Sites
The study reveals that in the past few decades the internet has become the important source of communication and entertainment (Salas and Alexander, 2008). The study depicts that the greatest user of social networking sites are the university students to make the social interactions (Subrahmanyam and Lin, 2007). In the same manner, youth is the greater user of social networking sites as compared to the old generation (Lewis et al.,2008). Nowadays, youth use the internet for social networking sites for sharing daily activities of interest and for information gathering unlike the old generations who had been used the internet sources for reading newspaper and gathering informational material. The study noted that teens usually use social networking sites to express the personality, make friendship and express feelings (Goodman et al., 2007). Consequently, school officials have cautioned parents about the youngsters' use of social networking sites and its influence on the academic performance (Vrijheid et al., 2009).

Students Addictiveness to Social Networking Sites
The study stated that students use social network sites for different purposes and they may become addictive to these sites (Griffiths et al., 2005). University students especially spend much of their time on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites through smartphones. Moreover, the study noted that most of the students have become addictive to these sites and continuously check and update their profiles on these social network sites even in the lectures and important activities (Martin et al., 2009). The addictiveness can be explained as the extreme use of social networking sites and to fail in controlling this usage ultimately harm their personal life. Social networking sites' obsession among the students is alarming as it can affect their academic, social and spiritual lives adversely. Some of the students become so addictive to these sites that they even use it while travelling. Likewise, university students are so much immersed in the social networking sites that they remain online almost 24 hours.

Use of Social Networking Sites and Students' Academic Performance
The study mentioned that almost half of all teens who are using internet have become the members of social networking sites and use these sites to remain connect with their friends, family and other closed ones (Kist, 2008). Thus, use of technology more specifically the networking sites usage is reflected as one of the key factors that may affect the academic performance of the university students. Currently, majority of the youth have various accounts of the networking sites and that is why their academic performance is poor. In addition, students might blame about the poor excellence of the teachers while ignoring their social networking sites' fever. Contrary to this, the time that should be given to learning and academic research have been crushed by the passion for making new friends and other sluggish issues. Henceforth, most of the students' academic performance suffer due the use of social networking sites as it distracts them from their academic goals. The study has provided the detailed and comprehensive perspective on social networking sites usage among the university students and also highlighted its impact on the student's academic performance can be both positive and negative (Jacobsen and Forste, 2011).
Many researchers claim that the social networking sites are beneficial for students as it has no negative effect on their academic performance. The study suggests that internet is beneficial for both students and teachers if they use it as a tool to enhance knowledge (Oskouei and Chaudhary, 2010). The study depicts that social networking sites best serve educational goals and objectives by informally connecting the students which support the students with collaborative sense making (Greenhow and Robelia, 2009).
On the other hand, a lot of research findings indicate that social networking sites' usage is negatively associated with the students' academic performance. The study noted that impairment of educational performance and internet dependency are correlated by utilizing synchronous communication programs including internet sites and forums (Kubey et al., 2001). The study finding indicates that electronic media usage is negatively associated with grades. Similarly, the study emphasizes that two third of the students use social networking sites in classroom, while studying and doing homework (Jacobsen and Forste, 2011). Social networking sites may badly affect the academic life and learning experiences of the students as social network sites grab the attention of the students and then diverts it towards the non-educational activities.

Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework illustrates dependency and independency of variables discussed in this research work. Two variables i.e. gender and age may influence the social networking sites' usage, therefore these variables are independent variables and the social networking sites' usage is dependent variable for these variables. Similarly, two other variables i.e. Students Addictiveness to Social Networking Sites and Use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) among university students may influence the academic performance of the students. In this case, latter two variables are considered to be the independent variables and the academic performance is the dependent variable ( Fig. 1).

Research Methodology
Descriptive survey was the research design adopted for this study. The target population of the current study were the students of the public and private universities of Lahore, Pakistan. Therefore, two public and two private universities have selected through simple random sampling. The participants who were willing to participate in the study were reflected as part of the study. The sample size of the current study was composed of 260 participants; 65 participants were selected from each university after taking valid written permission from the authorities of the four universities. At second step, convenient sampling technique was applied in which only those participants were selected who were easily accessible and willing to participate in the research.
The research instrument was divided into three sections. Section A was comprised of demographic data like name, age, gender etc. Section B was comprised of 7 items that included multiple choice questions and "Yes" and "No" which was adopted (Mehmood and Taswir, 2013). Section C consists questionnaire regarding Social network usage and academic performance based on 16 questions was also adopted (PETER, 2015). The questionnaire is based on 5 point Likert scale which measure responses from "1 Strongly Agree (SA)" to "5 Strongly Disagree (SD)". Furthermore, the collected data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics of Chi-square through SPSS version 21.

Section A: Demographic Analysis
Gender Data was collected from both male and female university students. The statistics of Table 1 show that there were 162 (62.3%) male participants and 98 (37.7%) female participants.

Age Group
Data was collected from the students without any age restriction. The results in the Table 2 shows that 157 (60.4%) of the participants were in the age group of 18-22 years, 70 (26.9%) of the students were in the age group of 23-27 years, 21 (8.1%) of the study participants were in the age group of 28-32 years and only 12 (4.6%) were above 32 years.  Table 3 illustrates about the qualification of the participants. There were 163 (62.7%) bachelor students participated in the study, 58 (22.3%) of the participants were Master students, PhD students participated in the study were 25 (9.6%) and only 14 (5.4%) of the participants were from any other category.

Research Question 1:
Which SNS is mostly used by students?

Research Question 3:
How much time they spend daily on social networking sites? Table 6 illustrates that 38 (14.6%) of the respondents use social networks for about 30 min, 60 (23.1%) of the respondents use SNS for 1 hour daily, 62 (23.8%) of the participated students use SNS for 2 hours per day, 100 (38.5%) of the students use social networking sites for more than 2 hours daily. It is revealed that the preeminent number of university students (38.50%) at Lahore use social networks for more than 2 hours.

Research Question 4:
What is the trend of using social networking via mobile phone among students?
The study findings in Table 7 show that 215 (82.7%) of the respondents use social networking sites on their mobile phone. This indicates the availability of the social networking facility among the students in Lahore, Pakistan. Only, 45 (17.3%) of the study participants responded that they are not using SNS through mobile phones.

Research Question 5:
What is the purpose of using social networks among students?   100.0 Table 10 shows that 178 (68.5%) of the study participants responded that their speaking and writing was affected through SNS usage, 82 (31.5%) students responded that their SNS usage has no impact on their speaking or writing. Hence a significant number of students (68.5%) mentioned that their speaking or writing was affected due to the social network usage.

Research Question 7:
Is there any difference in students' usage of social networking sites by gender? Table 11 shows that 252 (24%) of the responses from the students were strongly Agree that there is a significant difference in students' usage of social network sites by gender. Similarly, a significant number of responses from the students i.e. 496 (48%) were Agree, 224 (22%) responded as disagree and only 68 (7%) responded as strongly disagree regarding the gender difference in usage of social networks.

Research Question 8:
Does age has influence on students' usage of social networking sites? Table 12 show the results that 342 (33%) of the responses from the students were Strongly Agree, indicating that age has a significant influence on students' usage of social network sites. A significant number of responses i.e. 394 (38%) were as Agree, 235 (23%) were as Disagree and only 69 (7%) of the responses were as Strongly Disagree regarding the age effect on the usage of the social networking sites.

Research Question 9:
Does students' addictiveness to social networking sites influence their academic performance?
The Table 13 reveals that 233 (22.4%) of the students were strongly agree that students' addictiveness towards social network sites has significant influence on their academic performance. As 486 (47%) of the respondents were agree, 244 (23.4%) responses were as disagree and only 77 (7.4%) were strongly as disagree regarding the effect of the student's addictiveness on the academic performance.

Research Question 10:
Does social networks usage influence the academic performance of university students in Lahore?
The Table 14 reveals that 182 (17.5%) of the students were strongly agree that usage of social network sites has a significant influence on the academic performance. Moreover, 443 (43.3%) of the respondents were agree, 327 (31.4%) of respondents were disagree and only 88 (8.46%) of the respondents were strongly disagree.

Section C: Chi Square Analysis
For the purpose of testing the stated hypothesis, inferential statistics of Chi Square (χ 2 ) was used.

Hypothesis 1
Ho: There is no significant influence of male and female students on usage of social networking sites.
H1a: There is a significant influence of male and female students on usage of social networking sites. i.e. 16.92. Therefore, the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant influence of male and female students on usage of social networking sites is rejected. Hence it is proved that there is a significant influence of gender on usage of social networking sites.

Hypothesis 2
H2o: There is no significant influence of Age on the usage of social networking sites.
H2a: There is significant influence of Age on the usage of Social Networking Sites. i.e. 16.92. Consequently, the null hypothesis which states that age does not have significant influence on the use of social networking sites is rejected. Hence, it is evidenced that age has a significant influence on the use of social networking sites.

Hypothesis 3
H3o: Students' addictiveness to social networking sites has no significant influence on the academic performance.
H3a: Students' addictiveness to social networking sites has a significant influence on the academic performance. i.e. 16.92. Thus, null hypothesis which states that students' addictiveness to social network sites has no significance influence on their academic performance is hereby rejected. So, students' addictiveness to social networking sites has a significance influence on their academic performance.

Hypothesis 4
H4o: There is no significant influence of usage of social networking sites on academic performance of the students.
H4a: There is significant influence of usage of social networking sites on the student's academic performance. i.e. 16.92. So, null hypothesis which states that use of social network sites has no significant influence on academic performance of university students is hereby rejected. Hence, it is proved that use of social networking sites has a significant influence on academic performance of university students.

Discussion
The findings of this study reveal that the university students of Lahore, Pakistan use Facebook more than any other social networking site followed by WhatsApp Messenger and then YouTube. This means that Facebook is the popular SNS among students of Lahore, Pakistan. This corresponds with the findings of previous study (Camilia et al., 2013) which states that Facebook is one of the most popular SNS among students. The current study reveals that majority of the students use more than 3 social networks which shows how different kinds of SNS are familiar among the students. The study also noted that most of the students spend more than 2 hours daily on social networking sites which is also in line with the previous study results (Camilia et al., 2013). Moreover, the results show that majority of the students use social networks on their cell phones which is similar to the findings of previous study (Mehmood and Taswir, 2013).
In addition, the study also shows that most of the students use social networking sites for social purposes like communicating with friends and family members and reconnecting with people of interests which also approves the previous study results (Mehmood and Taswir, 2013). The study discloses that majority of the students' habits, speaking and writing has been changed while using social network sites.
Hypothesis 1 states that there is no significant influence of male and female students' usage of social networking sites. The findings of our study reveal that there is a significant influence of gender on usage of social networking sites which corresponds with the findings of previous study (PETER, 2015). Similarly, Hypothesis 2 states that age does not have significant influence on the use of social networking sites. Findings of the current study reveal that age has a significant influence on the use of social networking sites which is also in line with the previous study results (PETER, 2015).
Hypothesis 3 states that students' addictiveness to the social network sites has no significance influence on their academic performance. Table 16 shows that null hypothesis is rejected, hence the students' addictiveness to the social network sites has a significant influence on their academic performance. Furthermore, Hypothesis 4 states that use of social networking sites has no significant influence on the academic performance of university students. Thus, table 17 shows that use of social networking sites has a significant influence on the academic performance of university students in Lahore, Pakistan.

Conclusion
The current study examines the impact of social networking on the student's academic performance. The results indicate that the use of social networking site has a significant influence on the students and their academic performance. Students are badly affected due to the usage of social networking sites as they spend a lot of time on these sites, so these sites distract them from their career. Thus, age and gender have a significant influence on the usage of the social networking sites and it is also revealed that academic performance of the university students of Lahore, Pakistan is greatly affected due to SNS usage.
The outcomes of the study suggest that professors and lecturers in the universities should find the methods of students' benefit from the internet and others social network. Likewise, management should formulate the rules and regulations about social networking use in the universities which provoke learning environment. The government should take productive steps towards the regulation and control of social network sites in the academic institutions.

Recommendations
The study is only driven by quantitative method so further studies should approach both quantitative and qualitative methods in order to know about student's opinions. The popularity of social sites is increasing day by day, therefore, educationist must find certain ways to integrate these services for educational purposes.
The following recommendations are based on the findings of this study: 1. The students should be taught about the influence of social networking on their academic performance which will ultimately change the students approach towards social networking sites. 2. Teachers and parents should critically monitor the students' activities of social networking sites. 3. Faculty should ensure the use of social networking sites in their class rooms as a tool of generating and acquisition of knowledge. 4. Students should manage their time properly and should give very little time to surf on the social network sites. Little exposure to the social networking sites will minimize the distractions created in the way of learning.