Research Objectives

1.The study pursues these objectives through the following questions:

1. Why do college students spend so much time on social media?
2. What academic benefits are available on social media?
3. Which is the best way to spend time on social media?
4. How can college students create a balance between social interaction and constructive social media?
5. Can teachers participate on social media using academic content?

2.From the data, 100% of the students had a social media profile. Out of the 25 respondents, most of them had Facebook and Twitter accounts. The table below summarizes the findings. From its percentage pie chart representation, 22% of the users preferred Twitter because it was more formal. Students pointed out that other popular sites left out of the list were LinkedIn and Pinterest, which had a formal approach than twitter, FB and Instagram.

Social Media	Have an account
Instagram Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	15
Facebook	24
Twitter	20
Other	10

 The table below shows that the students use of social media in professional and nonprofessional approaches. Most students used these sites for social interaction and entertainment and not for academic usage. From figure 2 below, a good number of students use social media for both informal and formal activities.

Student	Number	Used Social Media for Academic Research	Nonprofessional use only	Both professional and non-professional use
Male	M	5	9	8
Female	F	7	15	10

3.Two charts that dispaly key message related to the data.

                                                                     

                                                                              Figure 1: Percentage rates of non-formal Social media usages

                                                                          

Further inquiry found out that 9 out of 10 male users of social media considered the internet a credible source. This is against 10 out of 15 female students. On the other hand, most female students were not using their real personal identity on social media. Hidden identity means no credibility and reliability of data, which is crucial for quality research. From this analysis, a small number of students confessed to having real friends and family members in their networks. This is another point of concern that compromises trust of the social media information used.

4.

1.Research objectives

This research seeks to:

• Identify the connection between social media and college students
• Highlight why students spend so much time on mobile interaction
• Identify whether students have access to academic links via social media
• Confirm whether social media has a positive or negative impact on students’ academic performance
• Make suggestions about how students can make good use of social media

2.Methodology

The research aim was to find out whether students were using social media for academic research. I distributed the questionnaires on Facebook and Twitter inbox to students within campus. I managed to find 25 respondents from one college institution. This was a technology-based institution and learners had the latest gadgets ranging from laptops, smartphones and iPad. I targeted students from different departments. I allowed students to take the research questions during their free time. Participation was on consent and I maintained ethical standards of confidentiality with all interviewees. I withheld personal data but had the permission to state the gender and age details. The participants were 10 male and 15 female students.

Conclusion

The sample comprised of students from diverse social backgrounds. These were male and female students with active social media profiles. Aged between 17 and 20 the students had one day to complete the research questions. I presented the findings in tables and graphs below. Although the data collection process was smooth, simple and cost effective, it had a high chance of bias. The online data faced risks of being compromised and untrue because I was unable to verify the student’s identity of the participants.

3.Conclusion

From this study, it is evident that social media is alive with formal and informal activities. It is also clear that students are spending a lot of time on social sites. This eats up time required to complete assignments and read. In order to encourage college students to seek credible information, scholars should capitalize on social media links to redirect traffic to credible sites of resourceful material. This is a major step towards synchronizing the formal and informal discussions. Attempt to run professional social media sites like Researchgate and LinkedIn have proven fruitful. Students who love knowledge can easily spot informative content in social media. This tactic has been successful in brand sales and marketing activities.

4.Recommendations

This research supports previous findings on the effect of social media on college’s students (Selvaraj: (McCoy). Social networking is a common activity that influences professional decision makers today. In fact, job seekers should be wary of the use of their social media profile as a vetting process for candidates before the selection process (Writer and Driver). Employers capitalize on Google searches, which often incorporate social media links of candidates in question. Although social media accounts are private, they provide critical data about personality traits. Hiding an identity shows mischief and mistrust. This research is a wakeup call for college students and scholars to challenge the falsehood displayed on social media. The first solution to fake news and data misrepresentation is accurate relay of information. Social Media’s popularity is undeniable. However, cybercrime is an endless challenge that capitalizes on the existing loopholes of social media as a non-formal site.

This research supports the existence of formal social media links such as LinkedIn, which are excellent for professional recruitment. However, it identifies gaps on how students can invest more time in academic activities. Therefore, academicians can take advantage of the fact that young people spend a considerable amount of time interacting on social media, to promote ideas. Insightful discussions on the future of Agribusiness is lively and resourceful on Facebook. Social entrepreneurship has grown to great heights because of this type of interaction. Although social media has such discussions, researchers may question the reliability of information displayed on Facebook as reference material for academic work.

Recommendations

Social media is wide and it incorporates SMS texts and WhatsApp communication. Education researchers should pay attention to the evolving nature of online communication and interaction for effectiveness. Digital learning equipment and tools are user centric. Students should be in touch with constructive learning activities instead of wasting time on chats and social media platform fantasizing. The success of e-commerce as a platform for young entrepreneurs is evidence of the need to use social media for serious business. MBA students use ideas on Facebook and Twitter to develop their own projects. Project management and engineering design students also find product ideas that they can use for their projects on Instagram and other sites. The multimedia elements of social media emphasize on creative learning and information sharing. College students making a presentation can use video ideas from Facebook and business applications like data analytics to make inferences.

Every day I observe students walking, talking or sitting with mobile phones in their hand. This created a research interest and I delved deeper into finding out whether social media had an impact on academics (Selvaraj).  Having looked at the increased use of internet solutions by college students I felt the need to find out whether learners in higher education were making good use of their mobile phones and social media sites. Focusing on the most popular sites, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, I decided to make an inquiry about their usage in academic research. I prepared 10 questions (attached in Appendix) focusing on the following research questions and objectives.

References:

Dabbagh, Nada and Kisantas Anastasia. “Personal learning environments, social media and selfregulaated learning: a natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning”.” The Internet and Higher Education (2012): 3-8. Web.

Gandomi, Amir and Haider Murtaza. “Beyond the hype: big data concepts, methods, and analytics.” International Journal of information Management 35.2 (2015): 137-144. Web. 25 April 2018. <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401214001066>.

Gershon, L. “How blackboards transformed American Education.” JSTOR (2017). 24 April 2018. <https://daily.jstor.org/how-blackboards-transformed-american-education/>.

Kay, Holding, Kay. “How do academics use social media?” Researchgate (2016). Web. 25 April 2018. <https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_do_academics_use_social_media>.

Lipschultz, Harris, Jeremy. “Social media trust, credibiity and reputation management.” Huffpost (2013). Web. 25 April 2018. <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-harris-lipschultz/social-media-trust-credib_b_3858017.html>.

McCoy, Bernard, R. “Digital distractions in tthe classroom phase II: Student classroom use of digital devices for non class related purposes.” Journal of Media Education (2016): 5-32. Web.

Meeker, Mary. “Internet trends 2015-code conference.” Glokalde . 2015.

Selvaraj, S. “Impact of social media on student’s academic perfomance.” International Journal of Logistics & Supply Chain Management Perspectives 2.4 (2013). <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288516435_IMPACT_OF_SOCIAL_MEDIA_ON_STUDENT’S_ACADEMIC_PERFORMANCE>.

Weckert, John and Richard Lucas. Professionalism in the information and communciation technology industry. Ed. Michael, J Selgelid. ANU Press, 2013. Web. <https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hgxws>.

Writer, Staff b2B and Saige Driver. “Keep it clean: social media screenings gain in popularity.” Business News Daily (2018). Web. 25 April 2018. <https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2377-social-media-hiring.html>.