Abstract:
Social media has become a vital feature of human lives, providing people with
easy access to information and entertainment. Due to its widespread use among
undergraduate students, it is a must to identify the relationship between social
media usage and the academic performance of undergraduates. In this study, 392
undergraduates were selected using a voluntary sampling method to analyze the
impact of social media usage on the academic performance of state university
students in Sri Lanka. The study used correlation, regression, and demographic
analysis techniques to evaluate the collected data. The results showed that all
respondents use at least one social media platform, with the majority using more
than one and spending more than an hour per day on social media. WhatsApp
was the most widely used social media platform among undergraduates.
Pearson’s correlation coefficients were used to measure the correlation between
social media use and undergraduate academic performance, and regression
analysis was used to examine the relationship between variables. The findings
revealed a substantial negative correlation between social media use and
academic performance among undergraduates at state universities in Sri Lanka.
To mitigate this negative impact, the study suggests that students should control
their social media usage and prioritize their academic tasks. In conclusion, social
media has become an integral part of humans’ day-to-day lives, particularly
among undergraduate students. However, excessive usage of social media can
have negative effects on academic performance. Therefore, students should be
mindful of their social media usage and prioritize their academic work to avoid
compromising their performance.
