Facebook Use and Students Academic

Performance
A Study on the Students of Department of Peace and Conflict
Studies, University of Dhaka

Rifat Islam Rupok

9th Batch BSS ( Hons.)

Department of Peace and Conflict Studies
University of Dhaka
ABSTRACT: With the increasing popularity of Facebook, students are joining and using it in
their social and academic lives. Huge popularity of Facebook among the students has brought the
researchers attention to investigate the phenomenon. Most research regarding online social
networks, particularly Facebook use has explored at these networks in terms of profile
management, identity creation and friending behavior. This study investigates the impact of
Facebook on students’ academic performance. This research has been conducted on the students
from the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and
quantitative methods techniques have been applied for data analysis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would also like to thank to all the students who participated in this research work. Without
their help and support this project has not been accomplished.
 DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate my thesis to my mother

No emotions and words can express my love for you
 Table of Content

Chapter 1: Introduction 7
9
Chapter 2: Literature Review
13
Chapter 3: Methodology
16
Chapter 4 Findings
21
Chapter 5: Discussions
23
Appendix A
27
Appendix B
32
References
List of Figures

FIGURE 1 : THE AGE OF RESPONDENTS................................................................................................................... 17

FIGURE 2: GENDER OF RESPONDENTS .................................................................................................................... 18
FIGURE 3 : THE DISTRIBUTION OF STUDENTS ACCORDING TO YEAR .............................................................................. 18
FIGURE 4 : COMPARISON OF CGPA RANGE OF FB USERS AND NON USERS .................................................................. 18
FIGURE 5 : CGPA RANGE AND DAILY AVERAGE TIME SPENT ON FACEBOOK ................................................................... 19
FIGURE 6 : COMPARISON BETWEEN DAILY TIMES SPENT BY RESPONDENT (CGPA V/S DAILY TIME SPENT) 20
FIGURE 7: FACEBOOK USERS ................................................................................................................................ 20
FIGURE 8 : HAS FACEBOOK HAS BECOME PART OF YOUR DAILY ROUTINE ....................................................................... 21
FIGURE 9 : WHY STUDENTS USE FACEBOOK ................................................................................................. 22
Facebook Use and Students Academic Performance
A Study on the Students of Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Dhaka

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

In the age of information and technology not only the technologies are influencing our daily life
but also they are becoming the part of our life. In other word, it has brought the individual
beyond the magic of ancient story book stories and has entered into new era of the online social
networks (OSNs) such as Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, twitter and Youtube etc. This wave has
taken the new innovation in the field of online social media which has change the traditional way
of messaging into modern way news posting or message posting. Recently it allow users to plug
with multiple communication channels, which facilitate private messages, public display "walls",
updates status, instant messaging, groups and applications Online networks have at the moment
spread round the globe and Facebook is world’s largest social network become so popular for
young people that they hardly use email or other way of communication People use Facebook to
stay associated with friends and family, to be informed and entertained in their social circle, and
to share and express what matters to them. Launched in February 4, 2004 Facebook, an
innovation of a nineteen-year-old Harvard University student in order to connect university
campus students. At time of Facebook launch, Founder had no idea this social network would
turn from small networking site to giant online social network in September 2013, there is more
than 1. 19 thousand monthly active members using Facebook worldwide and 82% of monthly
users are outside the United states and The us The trend of traditional studies regarding students’
lives focus on academics and between student and school relationships Moreover, discussions
and estimates concerning the effects of information technology on campus have mostly link with
educational learning’s and educational tasks. But due to popularity of Facebook in university
campuses the web link with educational learning’s by the information technology may be
affected. Some recent research works are indicating the impact of Facebook on students’
educational tasks. It is necessary to define the educational performance before we go deeper.
Facebook is holding the largest percentage of member in online social network today and most of
them are students around the globe. Use of the Facebook might have good or bad impacts on their
educational performance. The excessive use of Facebook among the students is generating main
question that is Facebook use effecting on students’ educational performance and playing
positive or negative role in their educational life? This study will explore the impact of Facebook
on students’ educational performance. If you use internet, you are likely to use Facebook, it is the
platform of the people to get more from it and new form of communication

Objectives and Goals of the Study:

The purpose of this study is to,

 Investigate the student involvement in most popular online social network site Facebook
 See if impact of Facebook is negative or positive on students’ academic performance.
 Test if student engagement in Facebook influenced academic performance.
For the purpose of this study academic performance is the accumulation of student’s study related
activities.

Research Questions:
The main research question is as follows:
1. Do students involvements in Facebook use have a significant impact on academic
performance (grade point average)?
2. What percentage of students uses Facebook?
3. Why students use Facebook?
Significance of the Study:
The significant point of this study is to explore the relationship between Facebook use and
academic performance. This study investigates the specific ways in which Facebook use could
affect students’ performance in their social lives by asking participants about factors including:
extra curriculum activities, study habits, student’s perceptions towards studies and Facebook use,
procrastination and distraction occurred by Facebook engagement.
This is study is relevant in the face of the fact that, in April 2017 Bangladesh Government
planned to block Facebook for six hours every night so not to hamper students’ academic studies.
This move points to the fact Bangladesh government feels that use of Facebook hampers the
academic activities of the students of the country. With this in mind this kind of study would be
of great help to find any co-relation between Facebook use and academic performance of
Students of department of Peace and conflict studies, University of Dhaka.
This study shall be helpful in understanding the effect of Facebook on the academic standings of
the students. If some correlations are found, it would be of much help for other researchers to use
these findings to benefit the students in the future.
Definition of the Terms:
The definition and explanation of some main terms and words which has been used throughout
this research work is as under:
  Student: Any person enrolled in 1st , 2nd and 3rd year of BSS program of Department of
Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Dhaka as of April 2017
 Online social network site: A web-based network that allows individuals to create a
profile either public or semipublic within bounded system and provide the users different
features according to their groups and interests. It also provides the features to connect,
share information and communicate with people (friends or strangers) on the internet
within the international or local scale. The features and terminology of these connections
may vary from site to site.
 Comment Box: It is used to collect participants’ opinions. A comment box let website
visitors send in their comments via an online form. A user can make the text fields of a
comment box optional or required.
 Facebook: Simply Facebook is a most popular free social networking website that
allows users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch
with friends, family and colleagues

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The research is focused on analyzing the effects of Facebook on students’ performance. There are
numerous research studies that analyze this topic under and they are indeed relevant since most of
the innovative features offered by Facebook platform in collaboration with other social media
forums have been boosted especially with the introduction of revolutionary features and
platforms. The majority of these studies chosen have been published in the past four to five years.
According to the comprehensive literature review by Ellison (2007), the role of Facebook in
higher education is attributed to the creation of virtual classes. The review has analyzed massive
research database around the world to make this review comprehensive in its coverage for almost
all aspects of an endeavor to give an explanation for the diverse roles of Facebook in higher
education classes.
The effects of Facebook usage on students’ academic performance
Facebook being a social networking site, provides an online platform on which students create
profiles, promote and share information and contents and have interactions with contacts both
known and unknown (Kirkpatrick, 2010). Facebook have expanded recently, which have led to
its use by people of all generations extensively. Several types of research examine this online
platform attraction and its persuasive character and the reason that cause people of every kind and
different ages to this community. Other studies show that Facebook extension presence can have
effects that are harmful to academic performance. If students spend most of their time on
Facebook, their academic performance will reduce and thus their grades (Kirkpatrick, 2010). A
day students should spend at least 30-35 minutes surfing Facebook. They actually surf for only
three to four minutes on each visit to be updated, but they severally visit Facebook a day. Others
spend eight hours on the website. Although students consider Facebook is distracting and
consuming a lot of time, they note that they can’t stop visiting the website because they prefer it
and use it to contact family members and friends, whether or not encounter them each day.
With this research, Facebook is found to be characteristically popular among other social
networking sites as well as among students as indicated by its growing user capacity that has
reached over one billion. However, the review has found a mix of opinions attributed to whether
Facebook alongside other social networking platforms ought to be integrated into learning
processes or not. Consequently, this literature survey has established many reasons for this mix
of opinions. Despite many educational institutions having established infrastructure for the
support of Facebook integration into classroom learning, building an effective integration
methodology poses a major challenge for the researchers to counter.
In fact, many practitioners have not fully embraced this technology due to lack of proper skills
and training in this area. The technological researchers who are in support the integration of
Facebook into the educational setup have a perception that conversational procedures that ensure
maximum interaction as well as a mix of reflections are made possible through social networking
platforms. In the reflection of the impacts of Facebook networking on students’ performance,
Tess (2013) argues that there is a variety of correlations that exist in the literature. Other studies
though find a significant negative correlation between a student’s performance and use of
Facebook while others find no correlations or weak correlations. Only a few studies come up
with positive correlations though not with high-level significance. Interestingly, the negative
correlations for the Facebook usage and poor academic performance have been associated with
personality traits or other behavioral or psychological aspects rather than solely with the use of
these platforms.
Other researchers have investigated the effects of using Facebook on academic performance for
undergraduate students at the Lulea University of Technology Sweden in relation to their
personality traits. The suggested research model examines the effects of Facebook usage on the
performance of students with different personality traits. Furthermore, the research endeavors to
justify the relationship between the three aspects i.e. Facebook usage, personality traits and
academic performance (Ellison, 2007). The comprehensive analysis of 239 students’ data reveals
very significant results and establishes that application of Facebook is associated with negative
implications on the academic performance of students with extrovert personalities. However, the
factor of self-regulation amongst students’ population magnificently reduces the negative impacts
since they are deemed to have high levels of effective self-control with Facebook use. Cognitive
absorption, which defines the extent of deep involvement, is another personality factor taken into
consideration while undertaking this research.
Many have used Facebook exclusively as their social life outsource and have a feeling that this
online platform means allowing it to take over their lives, (Kirkpatrick, 2010) which will lead to
them rejecting the platform. Some say that since they started using Facebook, they have become
more organized primarily regarding management contact and sharing information. A study by
Kirkpatrick (2010) done recently also ask questions on the assumed effects that are negative on
Facebook use on the academic achievements of the students and it suggested that this
interdependency is significantly moderated by learners interests in the colleges and capabilities of
performing many tasks at the same time. These results with controversy, additional to
information from Facebook and students’ comments on distinguished groups of Facebook, give
an indication that learners with specific profiles aim at the bridging social network, and getting in
touch with old contacts and making new friends. Some spent most times on Facebook compare to
others; they should have more immersion in tasks related to the many hours they spend surfing
Facebook, so they are distracted likely by parallel tasks performed. Learners and other users who
are active get involved in discussions that are long on issues trending daily, checking their
profiles in Facebook from cell phones and computers.

Effects of Facebook frequency of use on students’ academic performance

Other researchers have successfully made the observation that the extent of cognitive absorption
is an essential determinant of the frequency and duration of Facebook use. Also, they add that the
level of cognitive absorption is defined by self-control and other personality traits. Although,
multitasking skills have little to contribute towards reducing the frequency and use of social
media among students, they moderate the effects of Facebook on students’ performance by
tuning the cognitive absorption.
Kirkpatrick, (2010) examines the impacts of Facebook as being a social platform that has
significant effects on students’ performance in academic courses. His research examines data
from 1839 respondents studying degrees in residential institutes of northeastern USA to find
trends in the frequency of Facebook visits and activities, time spent on Facebook, time spent on
class preparation and academic grades of the students under research. Analysis of the collected
data reveals that time spent on Facebook and frequency of visiting Facebook are negatively
related to students’ performance in terms of their GPA.
According to Newman, (2013) they get distraction from their studies, and a load of their working
memory make it hard for them to have a focus and makes effective preparations of their
homework. This will lead to results that are poor and decrease the achievements. Some studies
show the attitudes, interests of students to the internet and their activities vary with their sex,
personality traits and age. Cultural backgrounds and characteristics differences give the
suggestion that there is a need to address the effects of students using Facebook in various
settings, which prompts queries about the impact of Facebook on students with distinguished
characteristics and in distinguished cultural contexts which is not predictable. Researcher
Newman (2013) indicates that the study on whether Facebook use by students affects their
academic results, hence doing a theoretical background review and depicted the research model
that was proposed before they represented the method adopted to examine it.
From their results analysis, they concluded and made recommendations for further research.
Because of computers being popular among students in college many issues on academic
performance had to be addressed. There are suggestions that students in college use Facebook in
chatting with friends and professors as a way of getting knowledge, be informed, get support and
obtain social acceptance that may cause higher levels of their satisfaction with college life and
proficiency in performance consequently. However, there is a possibility that Facebook quality is
relevant to the effect of the Facebook use on performance in academic. If it is intensively used for
the purpose of academic or on communication that is essential with others, there will be a
positive impact on academic performance. Elsewhere, if it is used extensively in recreational
purposely use for example, playing games and watching video games, there will be a negative
effect on the students’ academic performances However, there is slightly negative correlation
between time spent on this widely used social medium and the time spend in studying for class.
He further adds that although time spent on social media and academic performance is negatively
correlated, this relationship in real world scenarios does not seem to be a major hurdle in
academic success.
Also, Ellison (2007) emphasizes on further investigation into the issue to find some more
variables like focus and intervention that may be strongly related to academic performance. The
negative correlation between Facebook usage and academic outcomes may be justified by some
negative academic impacts related to certain ways students use this social medium. He observes
that some specific uses of this social media relate to improved academic performance while
others contribute to lower academic results. Chand (2012) conducted an investigation on the
popularity of famous social media network (Facebook) among university students with a special
concern for the gender-based comparison and the effect of the selected social medium on their
academic performance. The researcher analyzed the patterns as well as the frequency of using
Facebook among college students with a major focus on gender differences and student opinion
regarding the impacts that this medium has on academic performance.
The research by Ellison (2007) analyzed a random sample comprising of 384 respondents both
male and female. Also, the respondents belong to undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate
programs all bearing a mean age of 21 years. The research analysis indicates that Facebook has
equal popularity among male and female students of the university under study. From the
research, the majority of the users approximately 61% agree that this social medium has adverse
effects on their academic performance. Male comprised a majority of the 61% of majority
respondents. Additionally, the adverse effects of Facebook on academic performance contribute
to the opinion that use of Facebook makes it hard for them to perform the best on their career
performance. However, the researcher is optimistic that the later opinion is rather unclear and
recommends the need for further investigation.
Hypothesis:
Primary focus is the student’s involvement in Facebook use and what are the effects on students’
academic performance. So it has been assumed that most of the students in the Department are
using Facebook and Facebook is influencing the student during their academic hours or study
time. Also many Facebook users are victim of distraction during their study hours. Female and
younger students are more involve in Facebook user than male and older students. Also those
students who are not using Facebook or other online social network services might earn better
grade as compare to Facebook user or other online social network users. Last hypothesis of this
study, Facebook is the most popular communication medium for the Students of the Department.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
Quantitative Methods
Usually in the research one of the most basic principles is the partition between quantitative and
qualitative methods. The selection of both research methods, quantitative and qualitative depends
on the data collections and analysis. It is appropriate to select research methods in the beginning
of research. It is considered that neither qualitative nor quantitative methods are universally better
or worse. Simply the selection should be based on the research questions. Quantitative research
allows the researcher to investigate relationships between variables and generalize real-world
settings and it also can produce the results through the collection of numerical data with the help
of statistical functions. Primarily quantitative research method has been used for this study and
the data was collected through electronic survey form. Quantitative methods are usually used,
when the research area has already been studied and previous results or findings are available in
the literature it is pointed out that even in order to verify qualitative research findings among a
larger population, quantitative methods are needed. It is justifiable to investigate the research
topic with the use of quantitative methods.
Data Analysis and Design
After completion of survey, the data was downloaded from Google Forms. The data is put in
Microsoft Excel 2007 and analyzed using different techniques. Some data has been analyzed by
hand, paper and pen. Calculators were used for data crunching.
Another technique that has been used for data analysis was comparisons among findings. For
instances comparison between “Facebook users and Non-Facebook users”, “Male users, Female
users”, and time spent on study related activities and non-study related activities.
A research design is the logic that links the data to be collected (and the conclusions to be drawn)
to the initial questions of study. A design is used to structure the research, to show how all of the
major parts of the research project work together to try to address the central research questions.
For this study Cross-sectional research designed has been adopted. Research design is providing
convenience to choose a group of respondents for collection of data and eventually analyze data
in summaries to answer the research questions.
Participants and Samples:
Location of sample: Any student currently enrolled in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year in BSS (Hons.)
program of Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
Sample size: Population at the selected university department is 168 and all (N=158) students
have been selected for data sampling.
Method of Data collection: All participants (N=168) have been sent email on their email address
for filling the electronic questionnaire form (Form) with short description and information about
protecting their privacy.
Date of data collection: First email has been sent with E-form link in April 19, 2017 with the
mentioned dead line for E-form filling date April 30, 2017. Approximated 10 days have been
given to students to fill the E-form (Appendix A,).
Response rate achieved: There were in total of 39 respondents that gives us a response rate of
23%.

Data Collection and Processing Tools

The web based survey has been used for this study because it is fast, easy to manage and most
suitable for this research work. A web-based survey is cost effective utility and it has ability to
store a high return rate of answers as compared to a mail-in paper survey. Web-based surveys
offer great flexibility in design, advantage of being fast, inexpensive and can be conducted in a
matter of hours. For this study, I have chosen Google Forms (Online Electronic form generator)
utility.
Microsoft excel 2007 has been used to process the data gathered and various charts and tools
have been used to analyze and understand the data.
Survey Questions and Design:
The focus of this research is to discover participants’ behavior, attitudes and opinions on
Facebook use and impacts. Surveys are beneficial for forming research questions regarding self-
reported beliefs or behaviors. The survey design for this study consists of 15 questions based on
four sections:
1. Demographic information
2. Student’s involvement in study related activities
3. Facebook usage and distraction for studies
4. Reasons not have Facebook account
Some of the questions’ aspirations have been taken from previous relevant research The
demographic section includes eight questions about age, gender, nationality, grade points etc.
These all questions are being used as independent variables for analyzing the results in
summaries. In the second section there are three questions which explore the student’s
involvement in study relevant activities. This section has been designed to know the student’s
time management for studies and also his attitudes towards his/her studies. From the question
(Are you Facebook user? Yes/No) questionnaire divided into two parts. Participants who answers
“Yes” directed to complete section three which has been designed for Facebook users only and
participant who answers “No” directed to complete section four only which is only for those
users who do not use Facebook or do not have Facebook account. Thus the Facebook users can
see Facebook related questions only and non-Facebook users can see and fill questions regarding
to them.
The section three is about Facebook use and Facebook impact on study. It includes four sets of 5-
point Likert scale items (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) designed to measure the
extent to which respondents agree or disagree with statements about intensity of Facebook use
and Facebook Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 impacts on student’s academic
performance and academic lives. In the survey Likert measures, produce information that is
inherently statistical in nature. Last section is for those participants who do not use Facebook.
Participant will answer the reasons not to be involved in Facebook use and does participant has
intention to use Facebook in the future or not? The survey form has been designed with such a
technique that respondents cannot feed redundant data in the E-form and also they can fill the
form in minimum frame of time. Consequently, researcher should not face much difficulty to
categorize and analyze data for generating results.
Variables: An important step in designing all quantitative research projects is defining or
identifying the variables that will be used, measured, described or controlled (Steinberg et al.,
2010; p.13). Researchers frequently use the terms "independent variable" and "dependent
variable" when describing variables studied in their research. Only major types of variables are
described briefly here which might influence the research findings more than others. The
demographic variables describe the sample characteristics. These are the basic variables which
most of the studies used to categories their data into main categories like age, sex, nationality and
year of admission. The participants have chosen the answers from the survey form (questionnaire
options) that best described their choice. The closed answer response options are listed in Table 1
Table 1. Explanation of Independent Demographic Variables

Individual Characteristics Question Response

Gender Female, Male

Age Continuous Variable

Year of Registration in PACS

Degree Program
Country Name where participant
Nationality
belong
Facebook user? Yes (or) No

Outcome Dependent Variable (DV) is the factor that is observed and measured to determine the
effect of the independent variable. Table 2 displayed the outcome variables and with the process
of correlating these variable can predict or find out some useful results. The student participants
recorded their high school GPA, time spent on internet, Facebook etc.

Table 2. Outcome Variables

Outcome Variable Definition Measures

Grade Point Cumulative grade point average 1 to 5 (1 is lowest and

Average in all passed subjects or exams 5 is higher grade)

In a typical day time spent on

Facebook
Facebook

Internet for In a typical day time spent on

Between 0 to 7 hours
entertainment internet for entertainment
(a student time spent
 Internet use for In a typical day time spent on in a typical day)
academic internet for academic

Study and In a typical day time spent on for

schoolwork doing study or schoolwork

Independent Variables (IV) “that are selected or controlled by the researcher, to determine its
relationship to the observed outcome of the research—also called explanatory, predictor, or
manipulated variable” (Steinberg et al., 2010, p.13). Variable regarding Facebook use and impact
have been divided into two categories and measured by 5 Likert scale.
Table 3: Independent Variables for Facebook use and impacts

Independent Variables Definition Measures

Facebook has become part of my daily

routine
I lose track of time when I am on Facebook

I have tried to cut down on my Facebook

use
Facebook is now my recent most time Student’s
consuming hobby attitude

towards
Sometimes I go on Facebook while I am in
Facebook
class
usage 1)Strongly
It is a good tool to meet new people & make
Disagree
new friends

Particularly I use Facebook to keep in touch 2) Disagree

with my friends
 3)Neutral
I think I might be addicted to Facebook

4)Agree
I use Facebook for break during my studying
or doing schoolwork
5) Strongly
The time I spend on Facebook takes away
Agree
from studying or schoolwork time
If Facebook did not exist, I would get a lot
Student’s
more studying and schoolwork done
opinion about
Facebook distracts me from studying or Facebook
doing schoolwork impact on their

academic
I would be getting better grades if I spent performance
less time on Facebook

I am able to control my use of Facebook so

that it does not interfere with studying or
doing schoolwork

There has been a considerable amount of research devoted to studying the relationship between
student involvement in activities and student academic achievement. Although a positive
correlation has been shown in many of these studies, there is still a fierce battle among
educators concerning the need for extracurricular activities.
Reliability and Validity

According to Muijs (2004) the term reliability is explained, the whole process of
research, as being free of measurement error and helped describe the quality of the
survey tool. The term validity figure out whether the questions on the survey are
appropriate to measures of the variables under research (Muijs, 2004). Survey
questionnaire has been discussed with my thesis supervisor (Paivi Harinen) for further
improvement and refinements.. To improve content validity and reliability in the survey,
Fowler (2002) has proposed following criteria: 1) relevance of items, 2) clarity of
wording, 3) absence of biased words and phrases, 4) use of standard English, 5) clarity of
instructions, and 6) formatting (Fowler, 2002). Based on the feedback provided by the
supervisor and students, the survey has been revised before it was administered to the
subjects. Special attention has been given to relevance of survey questionnaire and clarity
of instructions for this research. Before launching the survey questionnaire, it has been
verified that survey was going to fulfill the research purpose.

CHAPTER 4 : FINDINGS
Demographic Information:

Age Distribution:

Figure 1 : The Age of Respondents

The age of the respondents were between 18-24 years with majority of them being 20 and 21
years old and very few (2.6%) 18 and 24 years old. Thus the most enthusiastic group was the age
range of 20-21 years.
Male – Female Ratio :
 Figure 2: Gender of Respondents

Most of the respondents were male ( 64.4% ) and only 35.9% were female , this shows a trend
that male students were more willing to share information to the study as among the sample there
were almost equal number of male and female persons.
Academic Year:

Figure 3 : The Distribution of Students According to Year

Majority of the students are from third year while the second most are from 2nd and the least from
3rd . This shows a trend that, students from higher year are likely to share more information and
less from the lower years. This can be said as the numbers of students from different year are
almost the same and same amount of effort was given to all respondents.

Part 2: Variables Analysis

Research Question 1, Do students involvements in Facebook use have a significant impact on
academic performance (grade point average)?

Some academic studies have shown the inconsistent results of the relationship between
Facebook use and academic performance of the students. In our findings it can be seen
that,

7.14% (2) of the respobndents from first and scecond year didn’t use Facebook and 92.85% (28)
of the users did use Facebook. A comparison between the commulative grade point avarage of
the two groups

User Group Average CGPA Range

Facebook Users 2.98-3.17
Non Facebook Users 3.25-3.62

Figure 4 : Comparison of CGPA Range of FB Users and Non Users

Shows significant high average CGPA range of students who don’t use Facebook compared to
students who do. This is an indication towards the answer of the main research question.

4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
3.75+ 3.50-3.75 3.00.3.50 2.50-3.00 Less Than 2.50

Figure 5 : CGPA Range and Daily Average time spent on Facebook

From figure 5 and 6 , it becomes clear that there is no clear co-relation between CGPA and time
spent on Facebook . So between Facebook users, the time spent on the site doesn’t mean a lower
CGPA. Though people who get CGPA in the range of 2.50-3.00 spend less time on Facebook
(2.33 Hours average ) than people who score above 3.75 ( Average of 4 Hours ).
Low CGPA holders spent less time studying or online as can be seen from the data in Figure 6 .
People with CGPA like the group with CGPA of less than 2.50 spends 1 hour studying or 1 Hour
online doing study related activities. Whereas The group with CGPA of 3.75+ uses Facebook
more (4 Hours on Average) and also studies more (4.5 hours on Average)
Only the group with CGPA of 3.75+ studies more than they use Facebook , but all other
respondent groups spends more time on Facebook than they do studying.
So from the data found in the research study, it can be said that evidence can be seen of a trend
that , use of Facebook affects the users academic performance , but not in a significant way,
other factors such as the time they study on an average day also plays an important role. It is seen
that higher CGPA holders use more Facebook than people with lower CGPA..Though non users
have a better average CGPA than users, but the marginal number of non user’s data isn’t
significant enough to look for trends but the evidence found here doesn’t strongly point out to a
significant role of Facebook on student’s academic performance.
Evidence also points to the fact that, the time students spend studying daily has a direct impact on
their academic performance (as seen in figure 6)
 6

4
Hours Spent on Facebook

3
Hours Spent Studying

2 Hours Spent On Internet ( Study

Related )
1

0
Less Than 2.50-3.00 3.00-3.50 3.50-3.75 3.75+
2.50

Figure 6 : Comparison between Daily Times Spent by Respondent (CGPA v/s Daily Time
Spent)

So in conclusion to this question, People with lower CGPA spend most of their time away from
facebook and academic activities, and there doesn’t seem to be a positive or negative co-relation
between the time spent on facebook and CGPA ( academic performance) , the CGPA of non
Facebook users are higher than Facebook users but their number is so small that , it is not
possible to draw conclusions from this tiny sample.

Research Question 2: What are student’s perceptions about Facebook usage?

Facebook User
Yes No

6%

94%

Figure 7: Facebook Users

37 People (94.9%) were Facebook users and 2 People (5.1%) were non Facebook users. Here
who use Facebook for at least 1 Hour a day are considered as Facebook Users. So most of the
students are Facebook users and only a tiny fraction doesn’t use it.
 45.00%

40.00%

35.00%

30.00%
Strongly Agree
25.00% Agree
Neutral
20.00%
Disagree
15.00%
Strongly Disagree
10.00%

5.00%

0.00%
Facebook has become part of my daily routine

Figure 8 : Has Facebook has become part of your daily routine

When it was asked if Facebook usage had became part of their daily lives, 42% agreed and
21.05% strongly agreed with only 18% disagreeing and 5.2% strongly disagreeing. This is also
an evidence to the fact that almost all students use Facebook.
Research Question 3: Why students use Facebook?
 Figure 9 : Why Students Use Facebook

Here is (1) Strongly Disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Neutral, (4) agree, (5) strongly agree.
So here most people agree that they use Facebook to keep in touch with their friends but 13
People (33% ) agreed that they might be addicted to Facebook . Most answered negatively to the
fact that, they use Facebook in their classrooms. Which is a good sign? Most people also
disagreed on the fact that, they lose track of time when using Facebook. So from this data it can
be seen that most people use it particularly to get in touch with their friends.

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION

Testing Hypothesis
Mainly the focus of this research was to investigate the students’ involvement in Facebook use
and its impacts on students’ academic performance and their social lives. First hypothesis of this
study is that most of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students of Peace and Conflict Studies , University
of Dhaka are engaged in Facebook use. Results show that 94.9% students from participants are
Facebook users, so it is verified.
In second hypothesis, many Facebook users are victim of distraction during their academic hours
but in our findings there is no such evidence found. Most of the students use Facebook during
their studies as a break and in their opinion Facebook does not distract them from doing studies
or school work. Because Facebook is such an application that can run in the background of
internet devices so users do not need to engage with Facebook constantly. Third hypothesis, those
students who do not have Facebook account might have some security prejudice. It is also found
most of the Non-Facebook users have chosen that they do not use Facebook because they do not
want to put their personal information on internet and other big category of the students was
those students who are not interested at all in Facebook use. Next hypothesis, Female students are
more Facebook users than male students. This hypothesis is not verified as result shows the
number of female Facebook users are less 35.9% than male Facebook users 64.1%.
Another hypothesis, those students who are not using Facebook or other online social network
services might earn better grade as compare to Facebook user or other online social network
users. Study found that Non-Facebook users have better grade point average than Facebook users
but the difference is not very significance and as most students use facebook , sample for non
facebook users wasn’t sufficient to draw any conclusions.
Limitations of the Study

The focus of this study is limited into the use of Facebook and its impact on students’
academic performance. The investigation of this phenomenon is difficult due to the
methodologies involved and definition and measurement of the variables of interest.
Researches struggling with new and evolving media usually face controversial results, as the
changing nature of Facebook use may itself lead to change its effects on students. We should
not be content to assume that this study or any other for that matter provides a definitive
answer on the implications of a medium. Student self-reporting answer regarding the
Facebook use and their perceptions towards Facebook is mainly the topic of this research but
it also depends on students’ true or false opinions and implementing a true experimental
design may not be viable. Internet considered being a back bone of most of the online social
networks. Internet use regarding advantages and disadvantages have been discussed in
several studies but this study pay less attention on internet use and orbiting around Facebook
mainly. The research is exploring the impact of Facebook, only on PACS students of
University of Dhaka excluding other lower or higher degree programs within the university.
Moreover, a significant limitation of this research was how to measure the time spent on
Facebook. Because Facebook is the utility which is running in the background as an
application in user’s internet devices (computer, laptop, mobile etc) and students check
Facebook if some updates comes.

Actually it is difficult to answer the question that “how much time you spent on Facebook”
for students because they themselves do not know exactly how much time they spent on
Facebook in a typical day. In the last limitation of study, part time students and questions
regarding them have not been given much attention in the study to investigate the
phenomenon. Because the present study was only comprised of traditional full-time students
it is not possible to evaluate whether part-time or full-time students have more impact from
Facebook.
Furthermore with this limited scope of research and access to limited scholarly journals,
research materials means various elements might have been missed.

Recommendations for Additional Research

Particularly this research is based on quantitative method; it would be interesting to add a
qualitative method to drive the research with both method approaches. Both methods approach
will investigate a statistical analysis as well as the student’s opinions and behavioral side of the
study through interviews. So the research can explain better the students’ behavior about
Facebook use and impact on academic performance.
This study is conducted only on 1st , 2nd and 3rd year students of PACS,DU. It will be also
interesting to expand the research and include more junior and senior students. Because the
expansion of the study can bring more findings and that would be more result oriented study to
compare the results of the junior and senior students with the present study that only investigate
certain department students only. This type of study could look for changes between upper and
lower ranking students’ attitudes and behaviors towards Facebook use. Due to the different class
ranks, coursework and approaches among students, the new study may have different results than
the present study. A significant difference may be found between upper and lower ranking
students in terms of their Facebook use and academic performance.
Another recommendation for an additional research study could be to investigate teenage
students behaviors on Facebook, would also be a good contribution into the current literature. For
instance, studying high school and collage student’s behaviors on Facebook and investigating
their Facebook use and its impact on academic performance. It would also be exciting to see the
differences in University students Facebook habits and behaviors compared to the younger
students.
Availability of the Internet in universities, school, public places, work, airports is now more
common than recent past and with that facility the use of the Facebook on mobile devices is
accessible almost everywhere. With rapidly increasing use of social media, like Facebook,
educationist must work on solution that how to integrate these services in educational ways that
student can use it positively. Conducting research on the use of Facebook as a tool for education
in the University environment and group work also can be an appealing future study. University
staff and students can use Facebook for educational purposes and the study can direct the patterns
of use. It will be quite interesting to investigate how professors and teachers are incorporating
Facebook into their classrooms, long distance studies and learning projects.
For Instance, other studies show that Facebook can facilitate informal communication around
classroom activities and Facebook can facilitate collaboration among learners .Most of the
students have integrated the use of social media for purposes such as communication with their
classmates in schools. In addition, other research shows that learners use as a social networking
site in order to both formal and informal communication to discuss academic subjects .These
results show that Facebook can enable the achievement of educational goals. Indeed, connecting
students through these informal methods, students can learn through collaborative and time
saving environment. Learning more about Facebook as a resource and educational tool would be
a great addition to the recent literature on Facebook.

Closing Thoughts
Facebook use and academic performance have very little co relation. As almost all the students
(and people in general) use Facebook on a daily basis it is difficult to assess the effect it has on
users independently. This research project is tiny in scope and measure. As power and influence
of Facebook will grow over time, more research is needed on this topic to further our
understanding on the effects of Facebook and help everyone excel at their academic goals.
 APPENDIX A
Electronic form can be viewed at: https://goo.gl/VrVcYI
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What is your Age: ______
2. What is your Gender: ___________
3. What is your Nationality: ________________
4. What Year are you studying in?

 1st
 2nd
 3rd
5. When did you start your program in PACS?
YEAR: ____________
6. On a typical day, how much time do you spend studying or doing
schoolwork?
Hours __________
7. What is your average grade (in all subjects which you have passed already)
in your degree program?
o 3.75 and above
o 3.50-3.75
o 3.00.3.50
o 2.50-3.00
o Below 2.00
7A. If you are in 1st year then what was your GPA in HSC/ Dakhil examinations?
______________
Student’s involvement in study related activities: -
8. On a typical day, how much time do you spend on the Internet for study
related activities?
Hours ________
9. Please evaluate the following statement from your personal point of view.
(Yes/No)

Yes No
I am going to take some extra courses for increasing my knowledge
I usually make a plan or list, what to do daily for my studies
I have clear idea how much studies I am going to cover during every month
I rarely find myself working on the assignment on the due date
My friends think I am a very punctual student
I am able to manage my course load without any difficulty during the
semester

10. Are you a Facebook user? Yes / No

Please answer the following questions about your use of
Facebook:
11. On an average day, how much time do you spend on Facebook?
Hours ________
12. Please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with the following
statements about your use of Facebook:
(1) Strongly Disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Neutral, (4) agree, (5) strongly agree

1 2 3 4 5
Facebook has become part of my daily routine
I lose track of time when I am on Facebook
Facebook is now my recent most time consuming hobby
Sometimes I go on Facebook while I am in class
It is a good tool to meet new people & make new
Friends
Particularly I use Facebook to keep in touch with my
Friends
I think I might be addicted to Facebook

13. Please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with the following
statements about how your use of Facebook impacts you academically:
(1)Strongly Disagree, (2) Disagree, (3)Neutral, (4)agree, (5) strongly agree

1 2 3 4 5
I use Facebook for break during my studying or doing
Schoolwork
The time I spend on Facebook takes away from
studying or schoolwork time
If Facebook did not exist, I would get a lot more
studying and schoolwork done
Facebook distracts me from studying or doing
Schoolwork
I would be getting better grades if I spent less time on
Facebook
I am able to control my use of Facebook so that it does
not interfere with studying or doing schoolwork

The following questions ask you about your reasons for not
being involved on Facebook.
14. Please indicate the reason(s) you have chosen not to be involved on
Facebook. (Mark all that apply)
o Not Interested
o I have no Time
o Don’t know how to use Facebook
o Don't Want to Put Personal Information Online
o I use other similar services
o Others: __________________
15. Would you like to start using Facebook in future?
Yes / No / Don’t Know
Closing Message
Thank you for participating into the survey. Your contribution is greatly valued
and helps us to form the research towards the purpose of the studies. If you
have any questions regarding this study, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Rifat Islam Rupok

rifatislamrupok@yandex.ru
 APPENDIX B
Summary of all data

Screenshot of Facebook users Homepage

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Kashif, M. (2013). IMPACT OF FACEBOOK ON STUDENTS´ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
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in Human Behavior, 26, Page.1237–1245.
Facebook facts (2013). News room Facebook key facts. Retrieved Feb 20, 2013, from
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Valenzuela S, Park N & Kee K F (2009). Is there social capital in a social network site?:
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