CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter deals with the discussion of facts, principles and presents a

review of previous researchers which have a significant bearing on the problem under

investigation. Subsequently, this chapter provides information from the related

literature gathered by the researchers that are appropriately connected to this study.

The researchers believed that the work of different authors have contributed numerous

to provide enough the following evidences that would help us and give strengthen

more results of this study.

Social Media

Social media is defined by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) as ‘‘internet based

applications that allow the creation and exchange of content which is user generated’’.

Social media allows users as well as communities to create, collaborate and edit user

content. Key features of Web 2.0 included providing a rich user experience, where

users interact with the data which is dynamically created from users’ input, users act

as contributors to a site through reviews as well as comments and allowing users to

classify and find information through the art of tagging. Features of Web 2.0 have

formed a solid foundation for social media as highlighted by Kaplan and Haenlein

(2010) and the reverse of the relationship is noted by Hendler and Golbeck (2008).

Social media users can use to communicate and interact with other users, whether

they are friends, work colleagues or strangers. The popularity of social media

illustrated by statistics Curtis, (2011) in 2013 such as Facebook had 1.1 billion users,

Twitter had 500 million users registered on its site, has highlighted the success of

Web 2.0. Studies conducted in the USA (Salter & Junco, 2007; Subrahmanyam,
Reich, Waechter, & Espinoza, 2008) have found that that social media connectivity

has become an integral part of the students. Subrahmanyam et al. (2008) study which

took place in a Los Angeles university identified that 94% of first year college

students use social media more specifically SNS. This data can be used to analyze

behavior. Grosseck and Holotescu (2011) is an advocate of using Twitter for

education activities such as research as it eases the analysis of information. Al-Khalifa

(2008) has identified that 58% of the students in his research showed positivism for

using Twitter for academic purposes while 37% had resistance in using Twitter for

academic purposes. The use of social media has a variety of disadvantages especially

for students. Some of those disadvantages include cyber bullying, personal data

leakage, recruitment for jobs and time wasting. Cyber bullying is the act of bullying a

person through the use of electronic communication, by sending message which are

threatening or intimidating (Dictionary, 2014). Direct attacks of cyber bullying

involve sending messages to the person directly via means such as text message,

instant messaging, SNS, blogs, creating websites to tease or hurt the person, stealing

passwords for accounts such as email as well as social media accounts to pose as the

person in order to hurt other people, sending malicious code (Viruses and Malware),

sending pictures via email or mobile phones and interactive gaming (WiredSaftey,

2009).

The use of social media involves displaying personal details via user profiles.

Posting personal information on a user profile which has tight security setting does

not guarantee privacy. Friends and third party applications granted access to the

profile information by the user may leak the information. The greater the amount of

personal information posted on a profile, the increased risk of social engineering

attacks to a user and their network of friends. Attacks include phishing, identity theft
and re-identification of information. Personal information can be of value to business

competitors, hackers and predators who analyzed social media sites looking for

personal information to design attacks (FBI, 2013; Lytras et al., 2013). Personal

information can also be valuable to employers. Many students work during and after

attending university. When employers are looking for candidates to recruit, user

profiles provide a useful source of information. However there are items of personal

details which can cause concern for potential employers. Also the use of user profiles

by current employees can cause headaches for a company. One example was a nurse

who had just return from a stressful and long shift at a hospital, updated her Facebook

status. Unfortunately the status disclosed confidential medical information and this

created liability for the hospital that was employing the nurse. This scenario

illustrated how no comments or thoughts are secret when published on a user profile

and the importance of separating your work and social life (Cox & Rethman, 2011).

Social media is a term that is broadly used to describe any number of technological

systems related to collaboration and community (Joosten, 2012). While it appears that

a specific definition may be elusive (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010), social media is often

described by example. Social networking sites, blogs, wikis, multimedia platforms,

virtual game worlds, and virtual social worldsare among the applications typically

included in recent illustrations (Barnes & Lescault, 2011; McEwan, 2012). To narrow

the range for this review, social networking sites (SNSs) were chosen to be the focus

in recognition of the prevalence of SNSs such as Facebook and MySpace, and

LinkedIn. Used interchangeably with terms such as social networking or online social

networks, SNSs are web-based services that allow users to make personal profiles,

create content, and share messages by connecting with other users in the system (boyd

& Ellison, 2007). Some researchers use the more inclusive term Web 2.0 when
referring to SNSs and other social media (Gruzd, Staves, & Wilk, 2011; Hemmi,

Bayne, & Land, 2009; Kaplan & Haenline, 2010). The task of defining social media is

made more challenging by the fact that it is constantly in a state of change. SNSs

evolve as developers create new or enhanced features that will meet the demands of

users. Some social networks are tailored to niche markets so features may be

differentiated for particular users. For example, Match.com and eHarmony.com are

SNSs that cater to dating (and were not included in this review). Ning allows users to

create their own social networks. A brief description of Facebook’s functionality

portrays most current capabilities of SNSs. Inside Facebook, users can send messages,

add friends, update personal profiles, join groups, develop applications, host content,

and learn about other users through their online profiles (Haase, 2010).

The increased use of Social Networking Websites has become an international

phenomenon in the past several years. What started out as a hobby for some computer

literate people has become a social norm and way of life for people from all over the

world (Boyd, 2007). Teenagers and young adults have especially embraced these sites

as a way to connect with their peers, share information, reinvent their personalities,

and showcase their social lives (Boyd, 2007). With the increase of technology used

for communicating with others and the popularity of the Internet, “Social

Networking” has become an activity that is done primarily on the Internet, with sites

like MySpace, Face book, Bebo, Friendster, and Xanga (Coyle et al., 2008). Many

people actively participate in content generation and value creation, and several

researchers (e.g., Young et al., 2009; Vasalou et al., 2010) have examined their

profiles to determine why and to what extent they are keep on posting their entire

identity, sharing pictures and videos, and indicating their religious affiliations, marital

status, and political orientations on the internet. These users interact with others,
exchange information about their interests, raised discussions about new topics,

follows news about specific topics on different Social Networking Sites. Teenagers

now use the Internet for the majority their daily activities and information gathering,

as opposed to older generations who used resources like the television or newspaper

(Lewis, 2008). A recent survey showed that approximately ninety percent of teens in

the United States have Internet access, and about seventy-five percent of these teens

use the Internet more than once per day (Kist, 2008). This study also showed that

approximately half of all teens who have Internet access are also members of social

networking sites, and use the Internet to make plans and socialize with friends (Kist,

2008).

In September, 2005, out of total adult internet users (18-29 years) 16% were

those who were using any social networking site and this percentage increased to 86%

on May, 2010 (www.marketingcharts.com). Tuckman (1975) defined performance as

the apparent demonstration of understanding, concepts, skills, ideas and knowledge of

a person and proposed that grades clearly depict the performance of a student. Hence,

their academic performance must be managed efficiently keeping in view all the

factors that can positively or negatively affect their educational performance. Use of

technology such as internet is one of the most important factors that can influence

educational performance of students positively or adversely. Shah et al. (2001)

proposed that student users are affected by the internet and this impact is determined

by the type of internet usage. They are positively affected by the informative use of

internet while having drastic impact of recreational use of internet on them. Also,

Oskouei (2010) proposed that internet is advantageous to both students and teachers if

used as a tool of knowledge creation and dissemination.Similarly, Banquil et al.

(2009) found a continuing drop of grades among student users of social networking
sites. However, many researchers also found a positive association between use of

internet and SNS and academic performance of the student users. Students, using

internet frequently, scored higher on reading skills test and had higher grades as well

(Linda et al., 2006). An ever increasing growth rate of SNS not only calls for the

parental and teacher monitoring of student users but also attracting the focus of

academicians and researchers towards this phenomenon. Student’s use of social

networking continues to create challenges and issues for higher education

professionals and keeping abreast of these challenges has proved difficult because of

the speed at which new technologies are being introduced (Bugeja, 2006; Cariccioso,

2006; Finder, 2006; Quindlen, 2006; Shier, 2005).There is evidence that higher

education institutions have taken initiatives in disclosing information about online

social networking involvement to their students(Read et al., 2006).

The study of factors affecting academic performance has been widely

researched over the years. These studies have focused on the effect of factors such as

academic competency, time management skills, study strategies, student

characteristics, etc. (Margrain, 1978; Mizerski & Pettigrew, 2003; Sansgiry,

Kawatkar, Dutta, & Bhosle, 2004; Trueman & Hartley, 1996, to name a few) on

academic performance. Trueman and Hartley (1996) found that women and older

students have better time management skills. Similarly, Mizerski and Pettigrew

(2003) show that women and older students perform better academically. Sansgiry et

al. (2004) identifies academic competency, time management and study strategies as

significant drivers of academic performance. In Kleijn, Ploeg, and Topman (1994),

the authors state that higher levels of academic competency lead to better academic

performance. Lay and Schouwenburg (1993) found that good time management skills

are key to academic performance.

On another level, neuroscientist Susan Greenfield (Wintour, 2009) warned of

the negative effect of social media on the attention span of kids. Although attention

span has not been directly linked to academic achievement of students, an indirect

association seems to exist, as demonstrated in the following studies: Barkley (2006)

and DuPaul and Volpe (2009) focus on the effect of attention deficit disorder on

student achievement; Johnstone and Percival (1976) and Wilson and Korn (2007)

study the effect of class duration on the attention span of students. In the wake of the

recent popularity of online social networking and its increasing usage among the

student community, research on the effect of social media has also gained

considerable traction. For example, a recent article by Johnstone and Percival (1976)

and Wilson and Korn (2007) concluded that use of Facebook negatively affects GPA
and study time spent per week. In another related study, Zhong, Hardin, and Sun

(2011) studied the effect of personality traits on the use of Facebook. They found that

users with high need for cognition use Facebook less while those with high

information and technology innovativeness were highly likely to spend more time on

Facebook. While extant research has studied the effect of social media on academic

performance, a detailed analysis focusing on the key research questions discussed in

the introduction section is missing. This study aims to bridge this gap in the extant

literature. In order to affect changes in student behaviors that might improve academic

performance, it is important to know what drives their sometimes obsessive use of

social media. There is not a great deal of published research related to such factors.

Baker and White (2010) applied Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB)

model to predict the use of social media among adolescents. Ajzen’s TPB model was

developed to predict intentions to engage in certain behaviors and, subsequently, to

predict actual engagement in the behaviors (Ajzen,1991). The three variables used to

predict intention are attitude toward the behavior in question, perceived behavioral

control (PBC) over the behavior and subjective norms surrounding the behavior.

Baker and White (2010) found the variables attitude and planned behavioral control to

be significant in predicting the intent to use social media. They discovered the

variable subjective norms (a person’s perception that others believe he or she should

engage in the behavior) was not significant but the variable group norms (the

expected behavior of his or her social group) was significant. As they point out,

adolescents and college students adhere more to group norms. Interestingly, Baker

and White (2010) also found that age and gender are not significant factors in

predicting social media usage. In contrast, a later study by Cameron (2010) found that

TPB was not useful in determining the intentions of college, high school students to
use social media. It is not the intention of this study to test the usefulness of TPB to

predict the intention to use social media. However, given the demonstrated link

between the variables that predict behavior on time spent on social media, we include

them as a ‘‘Predictors of Behavior’’ construct in the proposed model.

Research has examined the general impact of technology on academic

achievement and development of children and teens. Positive and negative effects of

technology on achievement have been documented. Espinosa, Laffey, Whittaker, and

Sheng (2006) investigated the role of technology in early childhood development

using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. The results indicated that

access contributed to the learning potential of the students, but the authors cautioned

that parents should encourage the educational use of technology to improve academic

achievement. Lei and Zhao (2005) researched the specifics of access, acknowledging

that quantity is not as important as quality when it comes to technology use and

student achievement. Specifically, when the quality of technology use is not closely

monitored or ensured, computer use may do more harm than good to student

achievement in school. In addition, technology that was found to have a positive

impact on academic achievement, or technology with educational value, was not

popular and used less frequently. Studies have also documented no relation between

computer use and academic achievement. For example, no relationship was found

between time spent on the computer at home and GPA in a sample of adolescents

(Hunley et al., 2005). Other researchers have found that recreational Internet use is

strongly correlated with impaired academic performance (Kubey, Lavin, & Barrows,

2001). Approximately 10–15% of study participants reported feeling not being in

complete control of their Internet use, and that it has hurt their schoolwork. Students

who reported Internet caused schoolwork problems were found to have spent five
times more hours online than those who did not, and they were also significantly more

likely to report that their Internet use caused them to stay up late, get less sleep, and

miss classes. Although not specifically mentioning FB, the authors conclude that it is

not so much the Internet that causes these problems as the new social opportunities of

the Internet.

Students who reported academic problems were more likely to use the Internet

for real-time social activities such as IM and chat rooms. Kubey and colleagues note

that these social uses are what hold students captive, especially late at night.Specific

to FB use, Vanden Boogart (2006), in an unpublished Master’s thesis, found that

heavy FB use (i.e., more time spent on FB) is observed among students with lower

GPAs, although no control variables were implemented in the analyses. Conversely,

Kolek and Saunders (2008) found that there was no correlation between Facebook

use and GPA in a sample of students from a public Northeast research university.

More recently, an exploratory survey study reported a negative relationship between

FB use and academic achievement as measured by self-reported GPA and hours spent

studying per week c. Again, this study only implemented one control variable (i.e.,

student status as either undergraduate or graduate), and failed to control for other

confounding variables such as university major. These data from the study will be re-

analyzed and presented in the current paper based on suggestions and feedback from

other researchers. In response to the aforementioned study, another group of

researchers used the exploratory findings as a springboard for a publication where no

relationship was found between FB use and GPA (Pasek, More, & Hargittai, 2009).

However, the overall consensus is that more research needs to be done, and that the

questioned relationship between SNS and academic performance remains largely

unanswered.
 Regarding the purposes of using social media, Oye, Adam, and Nor Zairah

(2012) indicated that academic performance was adversely affected when social

networking sites were used to fulfill social and nonacademic needs only. Ravizza,

Hambrick, and Fenn (2014) reported that nonacademic Internet use, including social

media, among university students was negatively associated with classroom

performance as shown in three examinations during the semester and cumulative final

examinations. However, some evidence suggests benefits of social media use in

learning. For instance, the use of Twitter for academic and co-curricular discussions

was found to have a positive effect on grades for college and high schools students

(Junco, Heiberger, & Loken, 2011).

Students who used Studies examining the influence of media multitasking on

academic performance have reported that media multitasking has a negative effect on

three aspects of academic performance, namely, academic outcomes, study related

behaviors and attitudes, and perceived academic learning (van der Schuur,

Baumgartner, Sumter, & Valkenburg, 2015). The time displacement hypothesis and

the limited information processing capacity hypothesis are frequently used to explain

why media use during academic work adversely affects academic performance. The

time displacement hypothesis posits that because of the appealing nature of most

media today, students are likely to devote far more time to any media than to

academic activities. Some may even skip class and choose to use media instead.

Media tend to distract student attention from their studies and subsequently decrease

their performance and efficiency (Walsh, Fielder, Carey, & Carey, 2013).