EWC 661 : IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION ON UiTM STUDENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

Technology is booming rapidly from year to year, and the younger generations are the ones
caught in this rapid change. Social media grab the attention of the students and then diverts it
towards non-educational and inappropriate actions including useless chatting and extreme web
surfing. Based on the above statement we can say that social media may badly affect the study
habits, academic life and students’ personal life. Moreover, enormous increase of the youths
using social media in the world, a lot of concerns in fact cut across from parents, politicians and
educationists on the unknown effect of social media on various aspects of human life. It is
therefore very important to check on the influence of social media and their academic studies
which is a very important activity for them particularly in the life of a student.

Social media has been utilized in so many different ways throughout the years. Malaysia is
known to be one of the heavy users of social media, specifically Facebook. It dominates 70%
with almost 16.8 million users. Based on statistic of active social network as of January 2019,
Malaysia ranked 6th worldwide with social media usage penetration of 78% above United States
and Japan. This scenario shows Malaysians especially young generations spend their time
accessed internet to keep updated with social media users every day. Therefore, at least two
social media apps were downloaded in their smartphone to keep on track with the world’s news.
(abu,2007)On the other hand, social media has impacted on communication, learning, research
and education in general. Liccardi, Ounnas, Massey, Kinnunen, Midy & Sakar (2007) reviewed
that the students are socially connected with each other for sharing their daily learning
experiences and do conversation on several topics. Many established studies have shown the
influence of social media in our society nowadays. Social media has indeed revolutionized the
information era with regard to sharing, speed, storage and retrieval of information in whatever
form regardless of the person’s whereabouts. A variety of web technologies emerged in the
internet, and on technology that is creating a big impact with regard to information sharing and
communication are the social media networks.
 2. BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Addiction could be a neurological disease characterized by compulsive engagement in bounties

stimuli despite adverse consequences .Despite the involvement of variety of psychosocial
factors, a biological process ,the one that induced by continual exposure to associate addictive
stimulant which is the core pathology that drives the development and maintenance of an
addiction. Social media addiction is a projected diagnosis associated with overuse of social
media, like internet addiction and different types of digital media overuse. In recent years the
psychological state community has become progressively fascinated by the impact that modern
technology has on people lives – each positive and negative. On the positive aspect, technologies
like Skype, Instagram, and Facebook enable students to remain in touch with family and friends
on the other side of the planet. Yet, sadly, students spend hours every day updating their status,
uploading photos, commenting on walls, taking part in Facebook games, reading updates from
others, and trying to find new friends to add. The CBS News National correspondent, Hattie
Kauffman reported that individuals who use the web overly, defined as using for over thirty or
forty hours every week the Internet to participate in social medias, check emails and play online
computer games are considered web addicts (CBSNews,2008). She additionally mentioned that a
lot of web users including students are spending lesser time in real-world social activities
however instead of it they spent even longer on online social media (CBSNews, 2008). There
were so many negative impact of social media addiction especially to students. Reduction level
of productivity caused by social media addiction can lead to mental and physical health. Social
media also can increase fatigue and stresses among student. It would affect their studies, daily
routine, confidence and etc. Based on the observation, social anxiety disorder spread widely
among the students. They will never feel fully relaxed, are unable to enjoy themselves in public
and always feel that people are evaluating them (Audrey and friends, 2019). The author also
concluded that the level of social anxiety increases, the amount of time spent on the social media
would relatively increase proportionally and vice-versa.
 3. PROBLEM STATEMENT

To cope with latest news or update from the social media, UiTM Cawangan Permatang Pauh
students spend their time mostly devoted to social media.It is observed that students devote more
attention to social media than they do to their studies. This problems causes bad effect to their
life as student. Moreover, they failed to manage their life as a student such as on managing time.
This scenario can be observed in every 8.00 am classes as some student failed to come class
early or on time. They spent longer time on social media at late night neglecting studies and
revision and only had a little time for sleep results in bad performance of productivity for the
next day. Students’ addictiveness to social networks, students’ frequency of exposure to social
network and social media network that the students are more exposed to has been part of
discussion in recent times and which have imparted on their academic performance. Instead of
students reading their books, they spend their time chatting and making friends via the social
media and this might definitely have influence on their academic .It is a common sight to see a
student chatting in sensitive and highly organized places like library, mosque and lecture venues.
Some are so carried away that even as they are walking along the road in campus, they keep
chatting and update their social media.
 What is the effect of social media addictive to students?
 What social media can do to students’ academic performance?
 How extent student addictiveness to social media?

4. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study generally is to examine the addiction of Social Media on UiTM
students.
Specifically, the study seeks;

a) To identify the level of social media addiction among UiTM students.

b) To investigate how social media addiction affects students' life.
c) To make suggestion on how to overcome social media addiction among the
students.
 5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study will enable the UiTM’s management to know the level of social media addiction on
UiTM Cawangan Permatang Pauh students based on data collected. This data will help to create
good measures to be taken on how to reduce and control the prblems. Furthermore, measures
taken will effectively help by providing the best and suitable with UiTM Cawangan Permatang
Pauh student lifestyle. This is also the proof that UiTM’s management really care about the
student and took this matter seriously to prevent more bad things to happen. It will be relevant in
assisting students in understanding the diversity of social media. It will provide relevance
material for students and other researchers undertaking similar research. Therefore, the level of
addiction on social media can be reduce once this study hit the goal by aware the students on
how social media addictiveness can affect their life and academic performance.

6. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The focus of this research work is to primarily study the impact of social media addiction on
students’ life and academic performance. The study will comprise students in UiTM Cawangan
Permatang Pauh between the ages of 18 to 24 years old.

7. PREVIOUS STUDIES

Kaveri Subrahmanyam and Patricia Greenfield state that using online communication has both
negative and positive effects, because there are harmful ways in which the internet could be
used. They also state that nowadays, schools are trying their best to control how students use
digital media on school grounds (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008).

In some schools, leaders believe that social media has a positive impact on the development of
the students’ education. In other schools, leaders have banned the access of social network sites,
because they fear the students’ interaction on them, although, they know the positive impact
social media has on the students’ education (Ahn, 2010). Ahn says, researchers look at the
profiles of the social media users as part of the process needed for the students to develop their
identity (Ahn, 2010).
Rideout, has interviewed teachers, to find out their opinions regarding the effect entertainment
media has on the students’ academic performance; 71% of the teachers believe it has negatively
impacted the students’ attention span; 58% of teachers believe that social media has negatively
impacted their writing skills, due to their regular use of slang language and word abbreviations.
The rest of the teachers believed it impacted both their face-to-face communication skills and
their critical thinking skills (Rideout, 2012).

Wiley and Sisson (2006) argued that the previous studies have found that more than 90% of
tertiary school students use social networks. In the same way Ellison et al (2007) stated that the
students use social networking websites approximately 30 minutes throughout the day as a part
of their daily routine life. This statement shows the importance of social networking websites in
students’ life. Lenhart and Madden (2007) revealed through a survey that students strongly
recommend social networking websites to stay in touch with friends to keep informed and aware.

8. REFERENCES

Kuppuswamy, S., & Narayan, P. (2010). The Impact of Social Networking Websites on the
Education of Youth. International Journal of Virtual Communities and Social Networking
(IJVCSN), 2(1), 67-79.

Alexander, J. and Salas, G. 2008. Technology for institutional enrollment, communication, and
student success. New Directions for Student Services, 124, 103-116.

Andreas M., Haenlein Michael (2010). "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and
opportunities of social media". Business Horizons 53 (1). p. 61.
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habits on the academic performance of senior high school students of davao doctors college pp.
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Cheak, Audrey & Guan, Gerald & Goh, Gerald & Sook Chin, Tai. (2019). Online Social
Networking Addiction among University Students in Malaysia.

CBSNews, (2008). Social networking: An Internet addiction. The CBS News. Retrieved from
http://www.cbsnews.com/ stories/2008/06/24/earlyshow/main4205009.shtml?tag=contentMain;
contentBody