Undergraduate Students' Perceptions toward Social Media Usage and Academic Performance: A Study from Saudi Arabia

Social Media applications are recently widespread and popular method of engagement among undergraduate students and instructors in Saudi Arabia. However, the extreme use of these sites has raised concern on their impact on the students’ academic performance and generally learning. This study investigated perceptions of undergraduate students, enrolled in Education College at King Faisal University in Saudi Arabia, toward social media usage. In addition, it examined the relationship of students’ usage purpose as well as usage period with their academic performance (cumulative GPA). This study also sought to establish the most popular applications that students preferred. For the purposes of data collection, questionnaires were distributed and 132 undergraduate students (56 Male & 76 female) enrolled in the current study. Data were analyzed and results indicated that there were general positive perceptions toward using social media for academic purposes. Additionally, results showed that there was a statistical significant relationship between the purpose of social media usage and students’ academic performance in favor of personal purposes while there were no relationship found regarding educational and occupational purposes. Findings also revealed that there were no statistically impact of students’ usage period of social media on academic performance. WhatsApp and Twitter were the most preferred social media options used among students whereas Wiki, Facebook and LinkedIn were the lowest options reported. The findings of this study can be used to recommend the effective ways of incorporating social media into learning activities without affecting students’ performance. It can also be used to propose ways of assisting students maintain a balance between social and academic activities. Implications and recommendations for further research are discussed.