CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Related Literature

Foreign Literature

The concept of social media

Social media continuously keeps changing and as such it is difficult to assign a

fixed definition to it as Jacka and Scott (2011), argued that ‘’there is no single

recognized definition for social media’’. However, some scholars have defined it

from different perspectives over the past years. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010),

defined social media as a group of internet-based applications that build on the

ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and allow the creation

and exchange of user-generated content. The Oxford Dictionary (2011), also

defined social media as “websites and applications used for social networking”.

Another definition of social media is that it is a ‘’communication channel which

is very popular, extremely fast and broad, has proven to be highly effective, as

well as trusted by billions of people, to share and discover content concerning

individuals, brands, information, entertainment, and knowhow’’ (Dearborn,

2014). One theme that all these definitions underpin is that social media

involves some form of communication between individuals over the internet.

Social media began in the late 1990s with the first recognized social media

network called “SixDegrees “ in 1997 and this technology enabled people to

upload a profile and make friends. From 1997 to 2001 a number of community

tools; Asian Avenue, blackplanet, and MiGente began supporting various

combinations of profile and publicly articulated friend (Boyd, Danah, Ellison,

and Nicole, 2007). There has been tremendous improvement since this era and
today there exist uncountable social networking sites either developed for local

use, specific purpose or international use. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010),

classified social media into six (6) different categories as follows;

1. Collaborative project (Wikipedia)

2. Blogs and microblogs (Twitter)

3. Content communities (YouTube)

4. Social networking sites (FB, 2go, BB chat)

5. Virtual game World (world of Warcraft)

6. Virtual second world (second life)

This classification of social media into classes has been useful to scholars and

individuals for easy identification and study of a particular social media type

but today a difficulty may arise due to the high proliferation of social media

and one may wonder which group a newly developed social media type fits into.

Social media is considered to be the fastest-growing web application in the 21st

century and this rapid development is being backed by technological

advancement (Heyam, 2014). Mankind has enormously benefited and

continues to benefit from it and as such cannot underestimate its importance

as far as communication is concerned. Today, social media has taken a new

dimension and has encouraged more participation through the introduction of

mobile phones that support social network applications.

Positive effects of social media on students’ academic life

Students’ academic life has moved to a different dimension since the

introduction of these social media networks and several studies have affirmed

that social media plays an important role in students in higher education

including the study conducted by Wheeler, Yeomans, and Wheeler,(2008);

Rifkin, Longnecker, Leach, and Ortia,(2009). In their study, they recognized

four (4) major advantages of social media usage by students in higher

education which included; enhancing relationships, improving learning

motivation, offering personalized course material, and developing collaborative

abilities. Indeed, social media has contributed greatly to facilitating learning in

the 21st century. It is shown that a greater percentage of students including

those at the PhD level commonly use social media to ameliorate their studies

(Khan, 2010). The answers to the causes of flexible studies today across the

globe might not be far-fetched from the great contribution that social media

platforms are providing when used judiciously. Even though there have been
other schools of thought that state that social media is a nuisance to students’

academic life such as Kuppuswamy and Shankar (2010), who argued in their

study that social networks distract the attention and concentration of the

students toward learning and converts it towards non-educational activities

such as useless and unnecessary chatting, there have been several studies

conducted afterward whose findings are contrary to this claim. For instance,

the study conducted by Jain, Verma, Verma, and Tiwari (2012), titled “The

Impact of Social Networking in Promoting Education’’ revealed that students

benefit from chatting with other students, teachers, and external sources to

acquire knowledge. Also, Yunus and Salehi (2012), argued in the same

direction that students gained more vocabulary, improved their writing skills,

and reduced their spelling mistakes through social media usage. In fact, as an

educational tool, social media enriches learning by giving both students and

teachers the opportunity to connect in new and very exciting ways thereby

encouraging flexible modes of learning. It is stated that flexible learning

expands the choice of what, when, and how people learn. It supports different

styles of learning including E-learning which is highly patronized across the

globe (Pappas, 2013). Other scholars; O’Keeffe and Clake-Pearson (2011), in

their study also revealed that social media benefits students by connecting
them to one another on assignments and class projects. It is further buttressed

in the study of Arquero and Esteban (2013) and Selwyn (2007) whose

conclusions were that social media undoubtedly generate new opportunities to

engage students in higher education as they are remarkably effective at

connecting people and facilitating the exchange of information. It is clear and

indisputable from these studies that social media usage in the educational

sector cannot be underestimated since its introduction.

Negative effects of social media on students’ academic life

Davies and Cranston (2008), enumerated some of the risks associated with

social media which included criminal activities such as identity theft and fake

contacts which is prevalent today, sexual abuse or harassment, and unsuitable

advertising. On the same subject O’keeffe and Clake-Pearson (2011), also

mentioned cyberbullying, online harassment, sexting, facebook depression, and

privacy concerns as some of the challenges associated with social networking.

Cyberbullying: cyberbullying is a category of bullying that occurs in the digital

realm or medium of electronic text. ‘‘It is any behavior performed through

electronic or digital media by individuals or groups that repeatedly

communicates hostile or aggressive messages intended to inflict harm or

discomfort on others’’ (Tokunaga, 2010). Cyberbullying is one the serious

threat in the social media environment and has called for a number of studies

to determine its causes. The causes of cyberbullying according to Calvete,

Orue, Estevez, Villardon and Padilla (2010), was significantly related with the

use of proactive aggression, justification of violence, exposure to violence and

less perceived social support of friends.

Privacy concerns: this is another concern that everyone involved in social

networking is faced with. The rate at which people post or share fake

information calls for alarm and it is difficult to ascertain that, what people say
and post are truly who they are. Individuals’ private information are publicly

displayed on some of these social networks and malicious people

take advantage and perpetrate all kinds of harassment. It is also argued that

the privacy options offered by most social networking sites (SNSs) do not

provide users with the flexibility needed to handle conflicts with individuals

who have different conceptions of privacy (Preibusch, Hoser, Gurses and

Berendt, 2007). Aside these effects, other studies conducted by scholars have

also proved that social media can be detrimental to students’ academic life if
caution is not taken in its usage. For instance the study conducted by Obi,

Bulus, Adamu and Sala’at (2012), titled “The need for safety consciousness

among Youths on social Networking Sites” concluded that social media affects

students use of English. They use short-handwriting when chatting with

friends and unconsciously get used to it thereby replicating same errors during

examinations. Even though one may argue that these are minor challenges, it

is important to acknowledge the increasing rate at which these errors are

replicated in the education sector and if care is not taken future generation

may see it as a norm. Indeed a number of studies including but not limited to

the study of Kuppuswamy and Shankar (2010), Osharive (2015), Maya (2015),

among others have revealed unequivocally that social media can be

problematic to students’ academic life if caution is not taken in its usage.

Basically this study is about how social Media networks affects the

performance of students that how their grade points affected through using

such networks. Some most commonly used social Medias are Facebook, Skype,

twitter, YouTube, Google. In different countries a large number of researchers

have been work on this issue to evaluate this increasing trend among students.

Most of the studies presented the results in against Social Media and argued

that it has negative results for student and younger generation. According to
this study social media has emerging positive effect on the students and causes

for their high results grade. These studies also argued that students spent

most of their time on such activates and easily completed their home

assignments and Projects.

Junco, Heibergert, and Loken et al (2011) a study is conducted on 132

students in order to examine the relationship of social media and engagement

of students with it& social media and grades of students. To examine this

relationship the students were divided into two groups, one group use twitter
and the other group did not use twitter account. It was used to make

discussions about study material, organize the study groups in a manner, also

post the announcements of class, and remain in touch with class fellows.

Junco and his coworkers (2011) surprised that the students of Twitter group

achieve greater GPAs and higher scores than the other group.

According to the outcome, students’ academic performance is affected

the more they use Facebook. Social platforms are mainly used by students for

socializing activities rather than academic purpose Oye (2012). In addition Oye

(2012) said that majority of students feel that social platforms have positive

impact on academic growth. Rather (2013, p. 69) avers that: the social

platforms which are being used today with great desire and enthusiasm have

altered the way of using internets in this modern age by defining online tools

and utilities which allow users for communication, participation and

collaboration of information online. Today’s young generation, especially teens

and youth are using technology through innovative ways due to which they are

referred to as millennial and have changed the way they think, work and

communicate even though they are in formative years of their life. Today’s

youth because of social platforms have become technology addicts and are
quite Withdrawn.

Local Literature

In this Digital Age, everyone seems to make his or her presence felt in the

virtual world to validate his or her existence. Getting connected through social

networks and blog sites seems to be the norm, not just among individuals, but

also among companies and businesses. With this, the Honor Award Program

(HAP) of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) has ventured into social media to
strengthen its promotional strategies of the Program Commission on

Information and Communications Technology (CICT)Chairman Ivan John E. Uy

said that social networking sites can be a useful tool in public service delivery.

“The use of Facebook and Twitter in government offices provides better access

to the public,” he said in an interview aired overDZRB. There are 24 million

Internet users in the Philippines, 51% of which use social networking sites.

Social media is an effective platform for information dissemination and

engagement. “It’s about time to engage with our stakeholders. There are 1.4

million government workers all over the [Link] should hear of the

inspiring stories of our outstanding public servants. Being on Facebook is one

way to reach out to the public that we serve,” said CSC Chairman Francisco T.

Duque III. The Pangasinan provincial government is vigorously pushing people

empowerment, including generating greater public awareness on various

government programs through the use of social networking sites. Vangie

Padilla, a social media specialist and resource speaker, said Espino wanted to

raise the level of quality of public service given to the 2.6 million College of Arts

and Science Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service. Since there are now some

300,000 Pangasinenses who areon Facebook, Padilla said Espino thought of

coping with the times by “switching from the traditional to cyberspace.” Since
Pangasinan is now dubbed as No. 1 province in many aspects, [Link] opts

to explore greater heights of bringing government service closer to the people,

having seen the intense impact of social media like Facebook, Twitter and

YouTube among Pangasinenses,” Padilla said. Coinciding with the half -day

orientation was the launching of Espino’s social networking sites.

Related Studies

Foreign Studies
Transition in behavior has led the youth to explore new patterns of information

and perform multitasking. Though, this multitasking has to affect the time

utility and distribution in both positive and negative ways. One significant

effect of these channels is on the student’s academic performance and several

empirical studies have reported that the excessive unproductive time spent on

social networking sites have affect the student's grades. Similarly, a

preliminary analysis of the “Effects of Facebook usage” by undergraduate

students at Lulea University of Technology in Sweden. The research model

used for this study tests the perceived affect of self-regulation, trust, and

personality traits on student achievements. The research model suggests the

negative mediating effects of the Social Networking Sites such as Facebook,

Twitter and Skype, etc. The concluding remarks are that a decrease occurs in

the student’s academic performance but a positive effect on the satisfaction

with life. Similarly, SNS does affect one’s academic performance adversely. It

causes the gradual drop in the grades of the students directly. It affects the

student’s academic performance if he/she invests his/her time in SNS instead

in his studies. Time wasting is a major issue in this regard. SNS are highly

addictive to those people who cannot control themselves into constantly using

these sites, prioritize entertainment over work and give too much attention to
social acceptance and affiliation. The situation is that if a student gives too

much time to SNS, there is an ultimately decrease in its academic

performance.

Same as mentioned above, Social networking site like Facebook becomes an

issue as people relates this with academic performance. Many researchers are

working to explore the correlation between social networking sites and

academic performance. Those students, who use Facebook and twitter, have

shorter span of attention in classrooms. Such sites create many problems for
teachers because abbreviations commonly used on sites such as Twitter and

Facebook are also making it into coursework, essays and experiment write-ups.

The study conducted with 500 teachers reveals many interesting fact. Teacher

believed that these sites shaping student’s attitude. The report concludes that

the children with the poorest grades at school are the ones who spent most

time on social networking. Unfortunately, 58 percent of teachers believe mobile

phones and computers are responsible for children being unable to spell as

well as previous generations. And 54 percent say children can’t write as well as

they should because they are more used to keyboards and touchpads.

Local Studies

Social Media Constructs, Destructs

In past Philippine presidential elections, the art of destruction was so

intense it left a bad taste in the mouth. Some of the accusations were true, but

most of them were simply speculative and false. On television today, one can

see saliva dripping from the corners of critics’ mouths, or the satanic fierceness

in their eyes as they demolish the target of their assassination. There is a term

for today’s head-hunting bloggers: bastos.

 The truthful journalist’s weapon against charges of false and malicious

reporting was – and possibly continues to be – libel. One must be proven without a doubt

that he was out to malign the subject, and a sane court, analyzing the facts of the case and finds

the respondent not guilty, will throw the petition out of the window. Such is the case with social

media. It can be used to prop up or destroy an individual and/or commercial product. And who

is to distinguish the truth and falsehood of social media reporting? Imtiaz Ali of TechMead

writes of the positive effects of social media, mainly that social networks helping businesses in a

variety of ways.

Traditional marketing mediums such as the radio, TV commercials and print

ads are completely obsolete now and demand for thousands of dollars,” he

writes. “However, with social media the businesses can connect with their

targeted customers for free, the only cost is energy and time. Through

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social site you can lower your

marketing cost to a significant level.

Social networks have removed all the communication and interaction barriers,

and now one can communicate his/her perception and thoughts over a variety

of topics. Students and experts are able to share and communicate with like-

minded people and can ask for the input and opinion on a particular topic.

Another positive impact of social networking sites is to unite people on a huge

platform for the achievement of some specific objective. This is very important

to bring the positive change in society.

On the other hand, one of the negative effects of social media or network is it

leads to addiction. “Spending countless hours on the social sites can divert the

focus and attention from a particular task. It lowers the motivational level of

the people, especially of the teenagers and students. They mainly rely on

technology and the internet instead of learning the practical knowledge and
expertise of the everyday life.”

Karen Fraxier, public relations specialist, writes that social media “has

changed the way people interact. In many ways, social media has led to

positive changes in the way people communicate and share information;

however, it has a dark side, as well. Social networking can sometimes result in

negative outcomes, some with long-term consequences.”

Social media is a rising trend in the world today. Communication skills are

exemplified by the use of social media networking. Social media networking

allows for a communication outlet. Social media is being utilized by students,

parents, businesses, and religious organizations. It is being used in many

forms by many different platforms for many reasons.

According to the Merriam-Webster, social media are forms of electronic

communications through which users create online communities to share

information, ideas, personal messages and other content such as videos. Over

the course of several years, social media has changed dramatically. Because of

social media, people today can exchange ideas, feelings, personal information,

pictures and videos at a truly astonishing level. Social networking is one of the

most active web-based activities in the Philippines, with Filipinos being

declared as the most active users on a number of web-based social networks

such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. The use of social media

has become so extensive in the Philippines that the country has been tagged as

“The social networking capital of the world,” and has also become part of

Filipino cyberculture. The effects of these social media can be considered

positive but also has some negative consequences. It increases student

collaboration, improves participation, content rich resources and they are

useful for team projects. These sites have also caused some potential harm to

society. The students become victims of social networks more often than

anyone else. This is because when they are studying or searching their course

material online, they get attracted to these sites to kill the boredom n their

study time, diverting their attention from their work and they are more likely to

drink and use drug. At present, whether social media is favourable or

unfavourable, many students utilize these sites on a daily basis. As social

media sites continue to grow in popularity it is our belief that technology is a

vital part of today’s students’ success equation (Wang, Chen & Liang, 2011).

Many researchers have been looking into a considerable amount of research on

how social media influences student academic performances at colleges. Many

parents are worried that their children are spending too much time on

Facebook and other social media sites and not enough time studying.