Is social media use a predictor of poor academic performance? According to Pew Research (2021), “adults ages 18 to 29 say they ever use any social media sites, which is similar to the share of those ages 30 to 49.” Specifically, college-aged students self-reported using Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok over other platforms. The majority self-reported using these services daily, often several times a day. One particular study used artificial intelligence to analyze student profiles as a predictor for success. They found students who remained engaged showed a higher predictor for continuous success, whereas at-risk students were difficult to course-correct, even with over a month remaining before their final marks. With social media use growing exponentially during and following the COVID-19 pandemic, can we correlate this growth as a predictor for student success in the classroom?
Auxier, B. Anderson, M. (2021). “Social Media Use in 2021”. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/04/07/social-media-use-in-2021/
Subirats L, Palacios Corral A, Pe´rez-Ruiz S, Fort S, Sacha G-M (2023) Temporal analysis of academic performance in higher education before, during and after COVID-19 confinement using artificial intelligence. PLoS ONE 18(2): e0282306. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282306
It is quite obvious that wasting time on social media steals that time from studying (pre-graduates) or researching (post-graduates). Interviews with teenagers in Norway show that once they fall for the temptation to check IM/SM during classes, "it is really difficult to return attention to the class" (Sorry, I don't have the reference for this particular research, but I think there should be tens of such surveys "out there" from many different countries). It is not only the time wasted directly with SM/IM, there is also the problem of diversion of attention from research/studies to whatever is happening in the SM/IM, anticipation of what others will post, how to react, etc.
Everyday use of SM/IM is not only a predictor for poor academic performance, is it a direct cause.
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