The Impact of Social Media s on Technology Students in Assosa University, Ethiopia

Transcription

1 The Impact of Social Media s on Technology Students in Assosa University, Ethiopia Yirga Yayeh Head of the Department, Department of Information Technology Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Assosa University, Ethiopia ABSTRACT Higher education institutions have a great fear that student academic performance might affect adversely because students are paying more attention towards social media sites. This study tries to identify the impact of social media on technology students in Assosa University. On the study 100 (one hundred) technology students were participated for interview and filling questionnaires, after collecting the necessary data, analysis and interpretation was also done. The social networking websites are continuously distracting students from their educational studies. The main focus of student should be on education but unfortunately today s students are emphasizing on social media sites which can be a complete wastage of time. Social networks were only an online communication between users. However, it has become an addiction for students, young and even adults. Keywords: social media, student INTRODUCTION In the past five years, social media websites have become everywhere, giving young people a new way to interact with each other and communicate with the world. This new form of communication depends on user created content, not mass produced messages coming from large media companies. But as with other media before it, social media's rise to prominence has experienced some very serious growing pains. Companies like Face book, MySpace, and Twitter have struggled to balance an inviting interactive environment with the ultimate pursuit of profits. Social networking sites are small virtual villages. They operate as pools or collects for compatible users. They operate like a bar or a bookstore, a meeting place orbiting a set of ideals. This is apparent just in the age demographic which frequently visits specific sites. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Social media s grasp the total attention and concentration of the students and diverts them towards non educational, unethical and inappropriate actions such as useless chatting and posting, time killing by random searching and not doing their jobs on time. In most Ethiopian higher education institutions students consume their time on using social media s like face book, MySpace and twitter. The other problem is also using social media s for unnecessary posts and comments, leads to the deterioration of Ethiopian culture and norms and ethics. So this study tries to address the issues of the impacts of using social networking and identify the impact of using social media s in technology students. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY Identifying and assessing issues regarding to the impact of social media s usage in Assosa university technology students. SCOPE OF THE STUDY Due to resource and time constraints, this study is restricted only on assessing the impact of social media on technology students in Assosa University. HISTORY OF SOCIAL NETWORK SITES Basically the Internet was an emergency military communication system operated by the Department of Defense s advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA). The whole operation was referred to as ARPANET. The speed of Internet has changed the way people receive the information. It combines > RJSITM: Volume: 04, Number: 11, September-2015 Page 16

2 the immediacy of broadcast with the in-depth coverage of newspapers making it perfect sources for news and weather information. Even with the multimedia excitement of the web, Electronic mail ( ) is the most frequently used application of the Internet. Many people, who have access to the internet at school, home and at work place use the Internet for no other purpose than to send and to receive the mail. It is not just friends and co-workers that are receiving . Wherever you look, the web is providing addresses. This has made communication between the strangers easier than ever. Chatting is one of the more popular activities on the Internet people can talk to anyone across the world. Introduction of social online networking sites has facilitated communication. These are websites where users can create a profile and connect that profile to others to form an explicit personal network. Through social networking, people can use networks of online friends and group memberships to keep in touch with current friends, reconnect with old friends or create real life friendships through similar interests or groups. Besides establishing important social relationships, social networking members can share their interests with other likeminded members by joining groups and forums. Some networking can also help members find a job or establish business contacts. Most social networking websites also offer additional features. In addition to blogs and forums, members can express themselves by designing their profile page to reflect their personality. The most popular extra features include music and video sections. The video section can include everything from member generated videos from hundreds of subjects to TV clips and movie trailers (You tube). Social networking sites have facilitated communication. Members of such sites can easily form groups (called the communities) and share their opinions among themselves through discussion threads, forums and polls. Though these sites serves good in many ways, it has its negative effects too such as cyber crimes which has become a privacy threat to the people worldwide. Although advantageous in many ways by building new relationship and reconnecting with lost or old contacts, it also brought up some behavioral changes among the students, not only the behavioral changes but also their social behavior and approaches. It has also ended up as a nightmare for a few people. IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORKS ON EDUCATION Education is very essential part of an individual s life for every young person. Today young students shows very much interest for using social networks but unfortunately social networks affect education badly. Technology is step towards betterment, no doubt but any technology which can provide ease of social networks can be dangerous for social media addicts. Providing ubiquitous facility of social networks is a straight invitation of addiction to any young and even an adult, as academic satisfaction is not enough for those students who suffers from social isolation. The social network addict becomes a useless node for parents, friends and other associated people. They cannot succeed because they have no sense of upcoming future and competitions in their careers. According to the researcher observation, students do not take their food on time and do not sleep on time which causes a very non serious attitude with education. They are not even bothered to solve their home tasks and they contact elders and seniors to help them in cloning their educational material. Social networks provide a virtual life to the students, those students who not even speak in front of anyone could feel freedom in their virtual life. When they use social networks they feel like in heaven but this addiction kills their inner self confidence for ever. Becoming addict of social networks feels like you have so many friends but in real all of the contacts are virtual contacts. This act of going far from your family, friends, teachers and other associations could be very much dangerous for life and education. It changes the mindset of student completely like fantasies. WHY SHIFT TO SOCIAL MEDIA There are many features that attract the users towards the social networking Sites. The chief among them are: Scrapping is similar to instant messaging but the text is also available to public view. Though there are privacy options to show scraps only to friends, it s not a personal means of communication like e- > RJSITM: Volume: 04, Number: 11, September-2015 Page 17

3 mail or instant messaging. Likeness for communities and friends network states that youth use these sites to satisfy their socialization needs to participate/ join in communities with likeminded users. And also to extend and nurture their friends network which symbolize their socializing personality. Profile setting is a means of exhibiting the profile user s personality/identity as how they want themselves to be perceived by the profile viewers. Photo sharing - User has options such as photo sharing only with friends and also specifically can choose individuals who can view the shared photos while it s not visible to others accessing the profile. METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION Primary data sources: 100 (one hundred) technology students were interviewed and questionnaires were distributed with related to social media concepts and impacts. The researcher also used direct observation at the time of using social media s by students. Secondary data sources: different written documents and internet sources were reviewed to have clear understanding for social media s. Samples were purposively selected from technology departments, because students in technology departments are active members of social media sites. The sample size contains 100 students and they are divided into different categories as follows. Table 1: Respondents Personal Information (N=100) Personal information Frequency Sex Male 50 Female 50 Department Information Technology 40 Computer science 30 Information science 30 Class year/batch 1 st year 25 2 nd year 25 3 rd year 25 4 th year 25 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS Table 2: Raised questions and percentage for respondents NO. Items Percentage 1 Purpose of internet usage? Mail 13 chatting 60 posting 27 2 Membership in social NW sites? Find new friends 20.4 To communicate with existing friends 69.6 For academic purpose Is it creates time wastage? For 1 hour 8.5 >2 hours hours > RJSITM: Volume: 04, Number: 11, September-2015 Page 18

4 7-9hours Does social Media deteriorate Ethiopian social norms and ethics? Yes 59.1 No Is social media used to promote information and knowledge? Yes No Is it used to create political awareness for technology students? Yes 93.4 No Is it religious link for religious followers? Yes 88 No 12 As shown in the above table, with regarding to the purpose of internet usage, 13% of the respondents said that for mailing, 60% of the respondent s responded that for chatting and the remaining 27% said that for posting purposes. With regarding to membership in social media sites, 20.4% of the respondents said for finding new friends, 69.6% of the respondents responded that using for communicating with the existing friends and the remaining 10.15% of the respondents said for academic purposes. For the 3 rd item, 8.5% of the students said that used social medias for about 1 (one) hour, and 63.9% of the students said that used for >2 hours and 13.3% of the students said that we use social media for about 3-6 hours and the remaining 15.3% of the students said that for about 7-9 hours. According to the deterioration of social norms and ethics in Ethiopia, 59.1% of the respondents said that social media have an effect on the norm and ethics of Ethiopia and the remaining 40.9% of the respondents said that social medias does not any significance on the norm and ethics of Ethiopia. With the case of promoting information and knowledge 88.3% of the students said that social media has an advantage, and the remaining 11.7% of the respondents responded that it has no any significance on the promotion of information and knowledge. According to the political awareness creation of the students, 93.4% of the respondents said that social media s have a great significance and the remaining 6.6% of the students said that no significance. With related to religious effect on followers, 88% of the respondents said that it has a great significance and the remaining 12% of respondents said that have no any significance. FINDINGS According to the results after discussion, most of the students use social media for chatting, for easy communication with the existing friends, unnecessary time wastage, the norms and ethics of Ethiopia also deteriorated with unnecessary posts and a student doesn t use social media s for information and knowledge sharing practices. CONCLUSION Assosa university, have tries to block social media s because of the fear of students time wastage for their academic performance. Finally, it is very important to undertake further study in other faculties and schools on social media effects of students academic performance on large samples of students from different universities. > RJSITM: Volume: 04, Number: 11, September-2015 Page 19

5 REFERENCES Neelamalar M. & Ms. P. Chitra Dept. of Media Sciences, Anna University Chennai, Estudosem Comunicac no 6, , Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life danah Boyd University of California-Berkeley, Nebiat Negussie and Girum Ketema, Relationship between Facebook Practice and Academic Performance of University Students, Department of Public Administration, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, India, Volume 2, The Impact of Social Media and Social Networks on Education and Students of Pakistan, IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 9, Issue 4, No 3, July Vijay Paul Reddy, the influence of social media on international students choice of university and course, Jaln, effects of social network on students performance: a web-based forum study in Taiwan, volume 7, Qingya Wang Johnson, the Effects of Social Media on College Students, Jeffrey W. and Paul M. Social Media Use in Organizations Exploring the Affordances of Visibility, Editability, Persistence, and Association Waleed Mugahed Al-Rahmi and Mohd Shahizan Othman, the Impact of Social Media use on Academic Performance among university students: A Pilot Study, Patient Rambe, Exploring the Impacts of Social Networking Sites on Academic Relations in the University, t of So Naghmeh M. Aghaee, Social Media Use in Academia,, 2010.l Media o Charles Obiora Omekwu and Jennifer Nneka Odoh, The Use of Social Networking Sites among the Undergraduate Students of University of Nigeria, 2014.th in California David C. DeAndrea, e tal, serious social media: On the use of social media for improving students' adjustment to college, Collin Michael Ruud, college student social networking and its relationship to perceived social support, > RJSITM: Volume: 04, Number: 11, September-2015 Page 20