Mobile social media usage and academic performance. (May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Giunchiglia, Fausto; Zeni, Mattia; Gobbi, Elisa; Bignotti, Enrico; Bison, Ivano
• Is Part Of: Computers in human behavior. Volume 82(2018)
• Page Start: 177
• Page End: 185
• Publication Date: 2018-05
• Subjects: Social media -- Academic performance -- Smartphone -- Time diaries; Interactive computer systems -- Periodicals; Man-machine systems -- Periodicals; 004.019
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.12.041
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0747-5632

Abstract

Abstract: Among the general population, students are especially sensitive to social media and smartphones because of their pervasiveness. Several studies have shown that there is a negative correlation between social media and academic performance since they can lead to behaviors that hurt students' careers, e.g., addictedness. However, these studies either focus on smartphones and social media addictedness or rely on surveys, which only provide approximate estimates. We propose to bridge this gap by i ) parametrizing social media usage and academic performance, and ii ) combining smartphones and time diaries to keep track of users' activities and their smartphone interaction. We apply our solution on the 72 students participating in the SmartUnitn project, which investigates students' time management and their academic performance. By analyzing the logs of social media apps on students' smartphones and by comparing them to students' credits and grades, we can provide a quantitative and qualitative estimate of negative and positive correlations. Our results show the negative impact of social media usage, distinguishing different influence patterns of social media on academic activities and also underline the need to control the smartphone usage in academic settings. Highlights: Time diaries and smartphones mutually empower each other. New metrics to measure the usage of smartphones are proposed. Accounting for credits extends the notion of academic performance. Social media usage affects each academic activity differently. The types of degree factor in the influence of social media, gender does not.