Are students' academic performance adversely affected by Facebook? The question still remains unanswered until now. Hence, this project aims to find out whether the pupils' academic performance is affected by the duration of time spent on Facebook. We carried out surveys with Year 4 students on how Facebook affects their grades and interviewed the school counsellor, Mr Leo Hee Khian, as well as head of character education, Mrs Jacqueline Chua, on their opinions regarding this controversial issue. Based on the results, we concluded that there is no clear relationship between the duration spent on Facebook and the pupils' academic performance.
~Musawwir
ii. Acknowledgements
We would like to thank:
Mrs. Joycelene Lim, our teacher mentor, for guiding us throughout the whole project and giving us feedback on how to improve our report.
Mrs. Jacqueline Chua, head of Character Education, and Mr. Leo Hee Khian, school counsellor, for taking time off their busy schedule and attending our interview.
The Year 4 students who patiently did our survey.
And all who have helped in one way or another.
~Musawwir
Miss Divina Teo, our Oral Communications teacher for listening to our Oral Presentation and give feedback and suggestions on how to improve.
~Giresh (Add this after we have presented our Oral Presentation to Miss Teo)
iii. Content Page
1. Introduction
1.1. Overview of Topic
1.1.1. Facebook is a social networking site that many people are addicted to, regardless of race, gender or age. Most of the Facebook users are teenagers. People go onto Facebook mainly for chatting with their friends, and also play the games available on Facebook. The exam results of these students can also be affected by the amount of time spent on Facebook.
~Ze Yuan
1.1.2. Facebook, a popular social networking website, are being used regularly by millions of people. Because of this large number of people, it is easy to connect with other people, such as friends or colleagues. On Facebook, people use it to chat and communicate with friends on what one is currently doing. However, on doing so, it is a form of distraction as the people who might be addicted, will be constantly temptes to check any updates on Facebook, thus, one cannot concentrate on the given task.
~Musawwir
1.2 Rationale
1.2.1. Many students and parents have accused various social networking sites for thier drop in their academic performances. Thus, we intend to examine this claim to find out whether it is a valid one. Also, Facebook is currently the most popular social networking website, with over 500 million members. This sheer massive number of members has caught the attention of academic sector and also particularly, us. Hence, we intend to find out how Facebook, in particular, affects one's academic performance.
~Musawwir
1.3 Review of Literature
1.3.1. Many organisations have done various studies to investigate whether the students’ academic performances are affected by Facebook. For instance, an American study by Ohio University has found that college students who used Facebook spent less time studying and scored lower grades than those who were not busy 'poking' their friends online. In this study, it was found that Facebook users had grade point averages (GPAs) of between 3 and 3.5, while non-users had GPAs of between 3.5 and 4. On the other hand, a report done by the University of Hampshire shows that social networking, including Facebook, does not affect students’ grades. It was found that 63% of the students who spend time more time on social networking websites had high grades, compared to the 65% of students who spend less time. Although there have been many studies done on this issue, it still remains as a controversy. Therefore, we decided to carried out our own study to find out which side is more likely to be true. ~Musawwir
1.4 Research Objectives
1.4.1. We want to find out whether the amount of time spent on Facebook affects the exam results of Raffles Institution Secondary 4 students through our surveys. And through the interview, we hope to find out suggestions to curb Facebook addiction and the views from people with experience.
~Ze Yuan
1.4.2. In our project, we plan to focus on these main objectives:
To investigate whether using Facebook affects the academic grades of pupils.
To find out the pupils opinions on whether using Facebook affects their grades.
To find ways for students to manage their time better and reduce their time spent on Facebook.
~Musawwir
1.5 Significance of Topic
1.5.1. In the 21st cuntury, in which we are living in, many students have problems getting their homework done or to study for their exams due to computer addiction. One of the many online networking sites that students spend a lot of time on is Facebook. Therefore, we decided to choose Facebook to to do our RE project on to find out if Facebook really causes addiction and what the solutions to addiction could be.
~ Giresh
In the current ever evolving technologically advanced world, technology is turning into something bad instead of something good. This is because when we use the computer, we may get addicted to the games we play on the computer. The games may also influence us by changing our way of thinking like when some people play shooting games they might turn violent and kill people. Facebook is a social networking site that many people around the world use. Some of its users are very addicted to it and uses it for long periods of time without stopping. This may cause their academics to be pulled down and score badly for their examinations. So we are doing this RE project to have a better understanding of why people are addicted to Facebook and the ways these addictions can be prevented.
~ Ze Yuan
2. Methodology
2.1 Survey
2.1.1. A questionnare comprising 9 multiple choice and open-ended questions were constructed and given to 20 Secondary 4 students from Raffles Institution. This is because they have been in the school the longest so they are familiar with the examination structure of the school and they know how to manage their time better. Besides, most of the Secondary 4 students would already have a Facebook account, as they would have used Facebook for discussing projects with their friends online. The surveys were randomly given to the respondents. Before the survey was carried out, a pilot survey was given to 10 respondents and the results were collated. The questions were then re-examined and improved to make them less ambiguous and easier for the respondents to understand.
~Musawwir
A social survey was carried out to collect data relevant to our research. A questionnaire comprising 9 multiple choice and open-ended questions were constructed and given to 24 Secondary 4 students from Raffles Institution. This is because they have been in the school the longest so they are familiar with the examination structure of the school and they know how to manage their time better. We obtained the participants consent by assuring them that there was no need to for them to indicate their name and class on the survey and that none of the information was going to be disclosed. Before the survey was carried out, a pilot survey was given to 10 respondents and the results were collated. The questions were then re-examined and improved to make them less ambiguous and easier for the respondents to understand.
~Giresh
2.2 Interview
2.2.1. A questionnaire comprising 10 questions were constructed. Before the interview was carried out, a role play was carried out first to test the feasibility of the drafted questions. The questions were then re-examined and the irrelevant questions were omitted We chose to interview Mr. Leo as he is the school counsellor, so his job is to help solve students’ various social problems. Due to the nature of his career, he would probably have interacted with many students and seen many social problems relating to the computer, including problems regarding Facebook, so he would been a suitable interviewee. We also chose Mrs. Chua as our interviewee as she would have met many pupils with social problems also as she is head of character education, so she would probably know the behaviour and thoughts of the pupils.
~Musawwir
Before the interview, ten questions were crafted. These questions were the ones that we were to ask the interviewees about. The questions were then edited and made better so that we would have been able to elicit more information from the interviewee. A role-play was also conducted before the interview such that all our members were ready for the interview. Mr Leo Hee Khian was selected as the interviewee as he is the school counselor and he would probably have a lot of experience in dealing with addiction and interacting with students not only in RI but in many other schools as well. Therefore, we believed that he would be suitable as our interviewee. Mrs Jacqueline Chua was also selected to enhance the information that we would get from the interview with Mr Leo. She is the Discipline Board Head and she would also have dealed with many students with problems with addiction. She would also have interacted with RI students and have a good insight to Rafflesians’ problems with addiction. An e-mail was sent to both of the interviewees summarizing our topic and suggesting a possible date and time for the interview. The e-mail was accompanied by a list of the ten questions which we intended to ask the interviewees so that they would be able to craft in-depth answers to our questions. ~Giresh
3. Results
3.1 Survey Results
3.1.1.
3.2. Interview Results
3.2.1.
3.3. Conclusion
3.3.1.
4. Discussion
4.1. Discussion of Results
4.1.1.
4.2. Limitations
4.2.1. One of the limitations of our research findings is that we only surveyed 24 students out of the entire school population of about 2 000 students, or about 1.2% of the entire school population, therefore our survey sample may not be an accurate representation of the effects of Facebook on the entire school cohort. Also, we only focused our research on just Facebook so as to narrow the scope of our project. However, there might be students who use other social websites other than Facebook, so Facebook might not be the only one affecting the GPA of the students.
~Andrew
Furthermore, we have only interviewed students from RI which is only one out of the many secondary schools in Singapore. Therefore, we may have biased results as RI's academic performance is comparatively high compared to other secondary schools. Thus, through surveying students from other schools from different academic performance levels, we might get results showing different levels of addiction.
As RI is a all-boys school, the results that we have gotten may be biased as all our survey respondents are males. Therefore, by surveying females of the same age group we might be able to get different ersults and a more unbiased conclusion.
~Giresh
4.3. Further Improvements / Extensions
4.3.1. For our extension, we could do a wider survey across the Year 4 cohort to get a more accurate sample of the Year 4 students by having more respondents to our surveys, since we have only surveyed 24 students due to the tight schedule. We could also give out the surveys equally for a few students in each class, so as to minimise any imbalance in the distribution of our surveys. Also, we have only surveyed the Year 4 students of the school, but not the Year 1 to 3 students, so a possible extension is to survey the Year 1-3 students as well, in order to look at the relationship between the usage of Facebook and academic results for Year 1 to 3 students. In this way, we could compare the results against that of the Year 4 students and find more patterns. Another possible extension is to survey students from other schools other than RI, so that we do not need to work with only the results from RI.
~Andrew
<Add on> We can also give it to the Year 1-3 as it would not be fair if it is based on only one cohort/level. ~Musawwir
<Add on> We can give the surveys to students in other schools as well and not only to RI students. ~ Ze Yuan
4.4. Implications of Findings
4.4.1. Based on our findings, we can conclude that Facebook has no clear relationship between the duration spent on Facebook and students' academic performance. As such, people who might think that using Facebook is detrimental to students' academics, especially the parents of students currently studying, would not need to worry about Facebook affecting the academics of students. It is because the duration of time spent on Facebook does not affect academic performance significantly, as long as the students know how to prioritise and make use of their time meaningfully.
~Andrew
5. Appendix
5.1 Original Survey Form
5.2 Survey Results
5.3 Interview Questions
5.4 Interview Email
5.5 Interview Template
5.6 Interview Transcripts
5.7 Completed Survey Forms
Table of Contents
Discussion about Final Report
i. Abstract
Are students' academic performance adversely affected by Facebook? The question still remains unanswered until now. Hence, this project aims to find out whether the pupils' academic performance is affected by the duration of time spent on Facebook. We carried out surveys with Year 4 students on how Facebook affects their grades and interviewed the school counsellor, Mr Leo Hee Khian, as well as head of character education, Mrs Jacqueline Chua, on their opinions regarding this controversial issue. Based on the results, we concluded that there is no clear relationship between the duration spent on Facebook and the pupils' academic performance.~Musawwir
ii. Acknowledgements
We would like to thank:- Mrs. Joycelene Lim, our teacher mentor, for guiding us throughout the whole project and giving us feedback on how to improve our report.
- Mrs. Jacqueline Chua, head of Character Education, and Mr. Leo Hee Khian, school counsellor, for taking time off their busy schedule and attending our interview.
- The Year 4 students who patiently did our survey.
- And all who have helped in one way or another.
~Musawwir- Miss Divina Teo, our Oral Communications teacher for listening to our Oral Presentation and give feedback and suggestions on how to improve.
~Giresh (Add this after we have presented our Oral Presentation to Miss Teo)iii. Content Page
1. Introduction
1.1. Overview of Topic
1.1.1. Facebook is a social networking site that many people are addicted to, regardless of race, gender or age. Most of the Facebook users are teenagers. People go onto Facebook mainly for chatting with their friends, and also play the games available on Facebook. The exam results of these students can also be affected by the amount of time spent on Facebook.~Ze Yuan
1.1.2. Facebook, a popular social networking website, are being used regularly by millions of people. Because of this large number of people, it is easy to connect with other people, such as friends or colleagues. On Facebook, people use it to chat and communicate with friends on what one is currently doing. However, on doing so, it is a form of distraction as the people who might be addicted, will be constantly temptes to check any updates on Facebook, thus, one cannot concentrate on the given task.
~Musawwir
1.2 Rationale
1.2.1. Many students and parents have accused various social networking sites for thier drop in their academic performances. Thus, we intend to examine this claim to find out whether it is a valid one. Also, Facebook is currently the most popular social networking website, with over 500 million members. This sheer massive number of members has caught the attention of academic sector and also particularly, us. Hence, we intend to find out how Facebook, in particular, affects one's academic performance.~Musawwir
1.3 Review of Literature
1.3.1. Many organisations have done various studies to investigate whether the students’ academic performances are affected by Facebook.For instance, an American study by Ohio University has found that college students who used Facebook spent less time studying and scored lower grades than those who were not busy 'poking' their friends online. In this study, it was found that Facebook users had grade point averages (GPAs) of between 3 and 3.5, while non-users had GPAs of between 3.5 and 4.
On the other hand, a report done by the University of Hampshire shows that social networking, including Facebook, does not affect students’ grades. It was found that 63% of the students who spend time more time on social networking websites had high grades, compared to the 65% of students who spend less time.
Although there have been many studies done on this issue, it still remains as a controversy. Therefore, we decided to carried out our own study to find out which side is more likely to be true.
~Musawwir
1.4 Research Objectives
1.4.1. We want to find out whether the amount of time spent on Facebook affects the exam results of Raffles Institution Secondary 4 students through our surveys. And through the interview, we hope to find out suggestions to curb Facebook addiction and the views from people with experience.~Ze Yuan
1.4.2. In our project, we plan to focus on these main objectives:
- To investigate whether using Facebook affects the academic grades of pupils.
- To find out the pupils opinions on whether using Facebook affects their grades.
- To find ways for students to manage their time better and reduce their time spent on Facebook.
~Musawwir1.5 Significance of Topic
1.5.1. In the 21st cuntury, in which we are living in, many students have problems getting their homework done or to study for their exams due to computer addiction. One of the many online networking sites that students spend a lot of time on is Facebook. Therefore, we decided to choose Facebook to to do our RE project on to find out if Facebook really causes addiction and what the solutions to addiction could be.~ Giresh
In the current ever evolving technologically advanced world, technology is turning into something bad instead of something good. This is because when we use the computer, we may get addicted to the games we play on the computer. The games may also influence us by changing our way of thinking like when some people play shooting games they might turn violent and kill people. Facebook is a social networking site that many people around the world use. Some of its users are very addicted to it and uses it for long periods of time without stopping. This may cause their academics to be pulled down and score badly for their examinations. So we are doing this RE project to have a better understanding of why people are addicted to Facebook and the ways these addictions can be prevented.
~ Ze Yuan
2. Methodology
2.1 Survey
2.1.1. A questionnare comprising 9 multiple choice and open-ended questions were constructed and given to 20 Secondary 4 students from Raffles Institution. This is because they have been in the school the longest so they are familiar with the examination structure of the school and they know how to manage their time better. Besides, most of the Secondary 4 students would already have a Facebook account, as they would have used Facebook for discussing projects with their friends online. The surveys were randomly given to the respondents. Before the survey was carried out, a pilot survey was given to 10 respondents and the results were collated. The questions were then re-examined and improved to make them less ambiguous and easier for the respondents to understand.~Musawwir
A social survey was carried out to collect data relevant to our research. A questionnaire comprising 9 multiple choice and open-ended questions were constructed and given to 24 Secondary 4 students from Raffles Institution. This is because they have been in the school the longest so they are familiar with the examination structure of the school and they know how to manage their time better. We obtained the participants consent by assuring them that there was no need to for them to indicate their name and class on the survey and that none of the information was going to be disclosed.
Before the survey was carried out, a pilot survey was given to 10 respondents and the results were collated. The questions were then re-examined and improved to make them less ambiguous and easier for the respondents to understand.
~Giresh
2.2 Interview
2.2.1. A questionnaire comprising 10 questions were constructed. Before the interview was carried out, a role play was carried out first to test the feasibility of the drafted questions. The questions were then re-examined and the irrelevant questions were omittedWe chose to interview Mr. Leo as he is the school counsellor, so his job is to help solve students’ various social problems. Due to the nature of his career, he would probably have interacted with many students and seen many social problems relating to the computer, including problems regarding Facebook, so he would been a suitable interviewee.
We also chose Mrs. Chua as our interviewee as she would have met many pupils with social problems also as she is head of character education, so she would probably know the behaviour and thoughts of the pupils.
~Musawwir
Before the interview, ten questions were crafted. These questions were the ones that we were to ask the interviewees about. The questions were then edited and made better so that we would have been able to elicit more information from the interviewee. A role-play was also conducted before the interview such that all our members were ready for the interview.
Mr Leo Hee Khian was selected as the interviewee as he is the school counselor and he would probably have a lot of experience in dealing with addiction and interacting with students not only in RI but in many other schools as well. Therefore, we believed that he would be suitable as our interviewee.
Mrs Jacqueline Chua was also selected to enhance the information that we would get from the interview with Mr Leo. She is the Discipline Board Head and she would also have dealed with many students with problems with addiction. She would also have interacted with RI students and have a good insight to Rafflesians’ problems with addiction.
An e-mail was sent to both of the interviewees summarizing our topic and suggesting a possible date and time for the interview. The e-mail was accompanied by a list of the ten questions which we intended to ask the interviewees so that they would be able to craft in-depth answers to our questions.
~Giresh
3. Results
3.1 Survey Results
3.1.1.3.2. Interview Results
3.2.1.3.3. Conclusion
3.3.1.4. Discussion
4.1. Discussion of Results
4.1.1.4.2. Limitations
4.2.1. One of the limitations of our research findings is that we only surveyed 24 students out of the entire school population of about 2 000 students, or about 1.2% of the entire school population, therefore our survey sample may not be an accurate representation of the effects of Facebook on the entire school cohort. Also, we only focused our research on just Facebook so as to narrow the scope of our project. However, there might be students who use other social websites other than Facebook, so Facebook might not be the only one affecting the GPA of the students.~Andrew
Furthermore, we have only interviewed students from RI which is only one out of the many secondary schools in Singapore. Therefore, we may have biased results as RI's academic performance is comparatively high compared to other secondary schools. Thus, through surveying students from other schools from different academic performance levels, we might get results showing different levels of addiction.
As RI is a all-boys school, the results that we have gotten may be biased as all our survey respondents are males. Therefore, by surveying females of the same age group we might be able to get different ersults and a more unbiased conclusion.
~Giresh
4.3. Further Improvements / Extensions
4.3.1. For our extension, we could do a wider survey across the Year 4 cohort to get a more accurate sample of the Year 4 students by having more respondents to our surveys, since we have only surveyed 24 students due to the tight schedule. We could also give out the surveys equally for a few students in each class, so as to minimise any imbalance in the distribution of our surveys. Also, we have only surveyed the Year 4 students of the school, but not the Year 1 to 3 students, so a possible extension is to survey the Year 1-3 students as well, in order to look at the relationship between the usage of Facebook and academic results for Year 1 to 3 students. In this way, we could compare the results against that of the Year 4 students and find more patterns. Another possible extension is to survey students from other schools other than RI, so that we do not need to work with only the results from RI.~Andrew
<Add on> We can also give it to the Year 1-3 as it would not be fair if it is based on only one cohort/level. ~Musawwir
<Add on> We can give the surveys to students in other schools as well and not only to RI students. ~ Ze Yuan
4.4. Implications of Findings
4.4.1. Based on our findings, we can conclude that Facebook has no clear relationship between the duration spent on Facebook and students' academic performance. As such, people who might think that using Facebook is detrimental to students' academics, especially the parents of students currently studying, would not need to worry about Facebook affecting the academics of students. It is because the duration of time spent on Facebook does not affect academic performance significantly, as long as the students know how to prioritise and make use of their time meaningfully.~Andrew
5. Appendix
5.1 Original Survey Form5.2 Survey Results
5.3 Interview Questions
5.4 Interview Email
5.5 Interview Template
5.6 Interview Transcripts
5.7 Completed Survey Forms
Resources