Abstract:

Social media has been used for various purposes and its applications especially Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Twitter are tremendously used among students. These are not only used for communication and entertainment but also as portal for accessing knowledge and information. On one hand, students use social media platforms for accessing information about their studies while on other hand it is generally perceived that it effects academic performance negatively. The current study aims to highlight the impact of social media platforms on academic performance among students in Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad and aims to highlight the association between time spent on social media and their reported CGPA. Quantitative research approach has been used to assess the role of social media application on academic performance. Through simple random sampling, a self-administrated questionnaire was used for data collection. The data was collected from three hundred and ninety students and their responses were inserted into SPSS, and were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. The former technique incorporates frequency tables and crosstabulations while later includes linear regression based on the research question and nature of the question. The findings of the study reveal that despite accessing information from social media students perceived that social media applications affects academic performance negatively and more time is spent on chatting and recreational purposes than studying. As majority of the students use it for recreational purpose, to chat with friends and to get information easily. Linear Regression Model has been applied to predict the association of time spent on social media and reported CGPA. The results of linear regression highlight that slope of time spent on social media and reported CGPA is not equal to zero. It means time spent on social media and reported CGPA are dependent on each other.

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