Influence of social media on social behaviour of post graduate students. A case study of Salford University, United Kingdom.

Abstract

The present study examined the academic relevance, possible effects on social behaviour and academic progress of social media on post graduate students. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods for data collection involving questionnaire administration and oral interview. Eighteen questions with Likert model responses in a questionnaire were physically administered to 120 randomly selected post graduate students who have social media accounts while six other students were interviewed differently face to face and their responses recorded. The obtained data were analysed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The results revealed that many students use social media especially Facebook and that they spend increasing amount of quality time on these networks. Findings of this study suggest that social media could negatively impact on the students’ social behaviour, academic progress and that a timed-off software should be installed to control its use by students. This study will be of immense benefit to the university administration as it has shown the potent dangers of uncontrolled use of these social media by students and therefore the need to put in place measures to forestall its alluded negative effects.