Effects of Social Media on Academic Performance and Behavior of GAS students: Toward a Guide

Abstract

Social media is the most popular platform for social networking of today’s generation. As social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, online gaming, etc., continue to grow, it becomes a part of every person’s daily life, especially college students. The dependency of students on social media has reached such a level that every student cannot think about the direction of their growth without social media. Hence, the dependency of every student on social media is now leading to addiction. This research aimed to determine the effects of social media on the academic performance and behavior of Grade 11 GAS students at Bestlink College of the Philippines. Social media has negative effects on every student. Many students find it difficult to go about their normal lives without using social media. However, despite the possible negative effects of using social media, we cannot deny its contribution to our daily lives. Social media has become essential in today’s generation because we are dealing with the 22nd Century learning process. This study utilized normative descriptive method design in collecting the necessary data in answering the main and specific problems stated in Chapter 1. As a result, social media positively affects students’ academic performance by allowing them to easily communicate with others. However, the negative effect is that students lose focus. The positive effect on their behavior is that students increase their knowledge, while the negative effect is addiction, which can lead to insomnia. The problem encountered by the respondents in using social media is the lack of concentration in their daily activities. Based on the summary of findings, in terms of academic performance, the positive effect of social media is the ease of communication with each other, while the negative effect is losing focus.