Perception of Graduate and Undergraduate Students in the Effective Utilization of Social Networking Sites

Abstract

The study selected Facebook as a representative of Social Networking Sites because Facebook is the most popular platform for sharing opinions, views, and ideas. A lion share of daily time is spent on surfing Facebook by a large number of university students in Bangladesh. This study endeavors to focus on Facebook’s positive impacts on students’ lifestyle, education, social and economic life, and negative impacts on health and personal relationships. It also investigates whether Facebook could be an essential tool for e-learning or not. 150 students took part in the survey and data was collected through a set of questionnaire. During data analysis, both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied. This study significantly finds that students reflect a high positive opinion, a low negative attitude, and a moderate addiction on Facebook. The study also revealed that Facebook could be utilized to enhance their academic performance and help them get the latest study-related information, share materials, and encourage collaborative learning, group studies, and interaction. It is also found that excessive and imbalanced use of Facebook affects the students’ health and family life. The researcher will try to provide some recommendations for the users to harvest a healthy benefit by using Facebook in a balanced way.

Keywords: Facebook, e-learning, positive and negative impact, health, graduate, undergraduate students

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/69-08

Publication date:June 30th 2020