caribbean studies IA i think this might be helpful to someone good luck...i completed this IA quickly though but it wasn't rushed

1. 1 | P a g e
Title: The purpose of this research is to investigate how does social media affect student’s
academic Performance at St Andrew Technical High School
Name: Dejon Harris
School: St Andrew Technical high school
Class: upper6
Teacher: Miss. Greenland
Centre #: 100103

2. 2 | P a g e
Table of content
Title Pages
Acknowledgement ………………………………………………………………………...3
Introduction and purpose research…………………………………………………………4-5
Objectives…………………………………………………………………………………..6
Technical terms…………………………………………………………………………….7
Literature Review……………………………………………………………………….....8-10
Data collection sources……..………………………………………………………………11
Presentation and Analysis of Data………………………………………………………...12-25
Discussion of Findings……………………………………………………………………26-27
Conclusion/Limitations of the Research/Recommendations……………………………..28-30
Questionnaire……………………………………………………………………….…….31-33
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………34

3. 3 | P a g e
Acknowledgement
Firstly I would like to thank god for not only giving me the strength but also the focus
and dedication to finish the School Based Assessment.
Secondly I would like to thank my teacher for giving me the opportunity to do a research
on this topic, it is really an eye opening experience to discover and understand the topic better
than before, I’ve gain so much knowledge, knowledge that I can use to further educate myself
thank you miss.
Lastly I would like to give my brother the utmost respect for letting me borrow his laptop
for weeks because mines is malfunctioning.

4. 4 | P a g e
Introduction and Research Purpose
Social media is most recent form of media and having many features and characteristics.
It have many facilities on same channel like as communicating ,texting, images sharing , audio
and video sharing , fast publishing, linking with all over world, direct connecting. It is also
cheapest fast access to the world so it is very important for all age of peoples. Its use is
increasing day by day with high rate in all over the world. Majority of youth is shifting speedily
from electronic media like as television viewers and radio listeners to the social media among all
age of group. Youth rate is very much to shifting into social media so its influences are much on
youth. This craze of social media has led to a host of question regarding its impact on society,
while it is agreed that the social media affects people’s living styles and it is an ongoing process
to identify the nature of these influence in every society and country especially on youth
The purpose of this research is to investigate how does social media affect student’s
academic Performance at St Andrew Technical High School. The researcher as come to the
perception that social media sites play a huge role in student’s social life, judging from the
questionnaires the influence that social media sites as on the students is that they can be easily
distracted. As a result this research is strictly aimed on assessing the St Andrew Technical High
School, seeking the impact of social media sites and how it affects student’s academic
performance.
The study was design to investigate how does social media affect student’s academia in
St Andrew Technical High?

5. 5 | P a g e
The researcher chose this topic because of the low percent passes of students at St
Andrew Technical High School in the academic year of 2015/2016. The researcher who has a
personal interest in the topic also can gain some in site on what is affecting students and how to
improve it.

6. 6 | P a g e
Objectives
 To understand how much time students spend on social media
 What are the Social Media site used by students frequently
 Does social media affects students studying time
 To gain information on what students uses social media to do

7. 7 | P a g e
Technical Terms
Academia: The environment or community concerned with the pursuit of research, education,
and scholarship.
Effect: A change which is a result or consequence of an action or other cause.
Performance: the action or process of performing a task or function.
Questionnaire: is a set of printed or written questions with a choice of answers, devised for the
purposes of a survey or statistical study.
Social media: Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to
community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.

8. 8 | P a g e
Literature Review
The internet contains many opportunities which provides, facilitates, diversifies, enriches
and develops human living. Despite lending all these positive contributions, it also brings many
negative problems. According to an article written by Ersa (2007), the use of computers and
internet is steadily increasing in all levels of society and all age groups. The main age group that
is seeing the greatest increase is ages 14-19. It is shown that 14-19 year olds make up for 12% of
internet users in the Caribbean.
According to Boyd & Ellison (2007), “Social networking sites are web-based services
that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system,
articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list
of connections and those made by others within the system”. Helou and Rahim (2010) also
defined online 10 social networks (OSNs) “as virtual communities which allow people to
connect and interact with each other on a particular subject or to just ‘‘hang out” together online.
Social media sites around the globe provide users with a number of options to interact with each
other through entertainment, chats, gossips, and games”. Through these social network platforms
students are able to meet to interact with each other on various topics and interests.
There have been mixed reactions from academics and researchers with regard to the
impact of social networks and how they affect academic performance. Studies have found that
the participation of students and young people on social networks may have both positive and
negative impact on their studies and for that matter their academic performance. Tuckman (1975)
defined performance as “the apparent demonstration of understanding, concepts, skills, ideas and
knowledge of a person and proposed that grades clearly depict the performance of a student”.

9. 9 | P a g e
Hence, their academic performance must be managed efficiently keeping in view all the factors
that can positively or negatively affect their educational performance.
In a research done my Kallas, he found that most of the time that is used for social
networks comes from TV, idle surfing, and gaming time, not school related work time. The time
spent on social networking sites could be said to be of a ‘higher quality activity’ and have
somewhat a higher impact on their lives. He says this as social media is a way of communicating
with other individuals and is a means of interaction. Some beneficial value could also be placed
on television as it could be said students could watch educational TV shows. In his study he finds
that time for studying and other important things remain the same. Research shows that there is
no correspondence between the amount of time students spend using social media and their
grades. 63% of heavy users of the internet received high grades, compared to 65% of light users.
37% of heavy users of the internet received what were defined as lower grades and 35% of light
users fell into same category.
Too much engagement on smartphones may lead to a lack of interactions between
individuals and do harm to human relationships. Although they were initially developed to help
people stay integrated and connected, they are instead disconnecting people from society and
relationships due to their addictive nature. Addiction to smartphone use negatively impacts users'
family life and causes problems with human relationships, as addicts tend to pay more attention
to their phones than the people around them. According to a 2011 survey by the U.K.
communications regulator Ofcom, 51 percent of adults and 65 percent of teenagers said they
have used their smartphone while socializing with others. This proves that even when people are
having face-to-face communication, they are constantly distracted by their phone.

10. 10 | P a g e
Wastage of time seems to be one of the worse negative effects of internet on teenagers.
Obviously, if you are addicted internet, you spend a lot of time to sit in the computer than giving
time to your studies. And the fact can’t be realized till the exam approach. Because of wasting all
the time on the internet without studying, they fail the exam. This can lead to
further depression and they continue to overuse the internet. If students use internet useful and
reasonable, they can find out and study a lot of useful information on the internet with negative
effects.
In an article written by Aykut, problematic/pathological internet use or internet addiction
have shown to have a significant relationship with factors such as loneliness, low self-esteem,
depression, the symptoms of antisocial tendencies and external control, psychological symptoms,
shyness, social disinhibition, low social support and pleasure with the internet. In a book written
by Steve Macho(2007) titled ‘The Impact of Home Internet Access on Test Scores’ he shows
that the internet seems to be helpful in some cases. He says if a parent is an internet user for
work, the child will perceive it to be used for work. In some cases the child will see it as a means
of entertainment and will use the technology for that purpose. A study conducted at Fordham
University showed home based internet use was found to increase grades while school based
internet use, unexpectedly, had a negative effect on them.
The study looks at Social media and how it affects or impact on academic performance.
Social networks are studied with an educational context; they are part of a virtual learning
environment. The classroom is shifting in time and space with e learning. The uncontrolled use
of social networks for learning purposes by students makes this study imperative.

11. 11 | P a g e
Data Collection Sources
In gathering information to complete the research, two sources of information had to be
used, Primary and secondary source of data collection. The primary source was questionnaire
while the secondary source was books, articles and the internet.
A Total of (12) question was asked in the questionnaire. The researcher choose
questionnaire because it can be analyzed more scientifically and objectively than other forms of
research and also a large amounts of information can be collected from a large number of
students in a short period of time and in a relatively cost effective way.
The researcher issued thirty (30) questionnaires to the students of St Andrew Technical
High School (STATHS) in different age bracket. The questionnaires that were issued were
thoroughly answered and returned within two weeks, reason for returning them so late was
because of the rain and some students didn’t came to school. Fifteen (15) males and females
engaged in the research. The questionnaires were issued using simple random sampling where
each individual in their respective age group as equal right to an opinion. The information
gathered is important and useful to the research. The only problem I had were to collect all the
questionnaires in two weeks time, it was suppose to be collected in a week but the time extended
due to the bad weather and students didn’t attend school.
The secondary source of data collection was used to obtain additional knowledge about
problem that was investigated. With that being said the information gain was enormous in detail,
so it helped the researcher in a big way.

12. 12 | P a g e
7%
33%
40%
10%
10%
Age
16
17
18
19
20
Presentation and Analysis of Data
Figure 1. This graph shows the ages of the students that were in the survey and the
dominated age group is students who are eighteen (18) year olds. These are the students that use
social media daily.

13. 13 | P a g e
Male
50%
Female
50%
Gender
Figure 2. This graph shows the amount of student that were active in the survey in
percentage, fifteen (15) males and females in the St Andrew Technical High School.

14. 14 | P a g e
Yes
No
24
6
Do you have a Smartphone?
Figure 3. This graph highlights the students who does or does not own a Smartphone. A
total of 24 students have a smartphone But in figure 8, 60% use their phones in class and in
figure 14, 50% of the students does not use their smartphone and computer for educational
purposes. This enlightens the researcher about students not having that full focus on your
academics just because of the distraction of their technological devices and the basic usage of the
device, which is social media.

15. 15 | P a g e
Yes No
24
6
Do you have internet access at home?
Figure 4. Shows the amount of students who has internet access at home which is 24
students and out of the 30, 6 students don’t have that access to internet which simple means that,
that 6 students as to use the school computer lab, library or a internet café. In figure 5, 90% of
the students are involved with social media with that being said in figure 9, 77% of students
spend more than four (4) hours on social media. And to top it off 50% hardly use computer and
smartphones for educational purposes. What does this interpret to you? This implies that students
with internet access waste a massive amount of time social media. This will result in poor
academic performance by students?

16. 16 | P a g e
90%
10%
Are you involved with social media?
Yes No
Figure 5. This graph illustrates the students that are involved with social media. 90% of
students of the survey in St Andrew technical High School are involve with social media and
10% does not exist on social media. In number form 27 out of the 30 students are involve with
social media on the other hand 3 students are not involve with social media. In figure 12, 60% of
the students say that social media affects their studying time, therefore using social media and
less time studying can lead to poor performance in class.

17. 17 | P a g e
0
5
10
15
Posting
photos (10
students)
Downloading
music (8
students)
Socializing (12
students)
you use social media basically for?
Figure 6. Shows the purpose students use social media for. This prove again the time
students be wasting, nothing is wrong with using social media for these purposes but it’s the time
spent on them. Time management is critical is academic performance in schools and not only in
schools but also in our everyday life.

18. 18 | P a g e
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Yes
No
Do you own a computer?
Figure 7. This bar graph shows the students who as ownership of a computer. This all
comes back to the time spent on social media and what the computer is used for. 28 students own
a computer and 2 does not own one, so basically what this means for the persons who owns a
computer is likely to waste more time than the persons who don’t own a computer because the
persons without a computer see the value of it as it pertains to their academics and the persons
with computer see the value too, but turn a blind eye to it and abuse the usage of their computers.

19. 19 | P a g e
60%
40%
Do you use your smartphoneduring class
time?
students that use their phones during class time
students that doesn’t use their phones duringclasstime
Figure 8. Illustrates the use of phones in class, 40% doesn’t use their phones and 60%
uses their phones in class. As it is shown in figure 14, 50% of students hardly use their phones
for educational purposes. 40% of students are focusing on their phone rather than what is going
on in class. This will lead to valuable information being missed and educational opportunity
squandered, with that being said, lack of focus in class leads to poor academic performance and
focus is another key aspect of learning.

20. 20 | P a g e
6%0%
17%
77%
how much time do you spend on social
media?
1 hour
2 hours
3 hours
more than 4 hours
Figure 9. Shows the time students spent on social media. 6% of the students spent one (1)
hour, students didn’t spent 2 hours on social media, 17% of the students spent three (3) hours and
77% spent more than four (4) hours. This shows that students are wasting time on social media
and distributing less time to their studies.

21. 21 | P a g e
13%
87%
what social media sites do you use?
Facebook
Instagram
Watsapp
Snapchat
all of the above
Figure 10. Highlights the social media sites that students use on a regular basis. 87% of
students use all the social media sites and 10% uses instagram only. This diagram is showing that
students have so much distraction as it pertains to social media, the usage of social media will
cause students to get caught up with the social drama of everyday life and not necessarily no
work of students will be shown but less work.

22. 22 | P a g e
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
does not have an
effect on my face to
face communication
skills (14 students)
somewhat as an
effect on my face to
face communication
skills (5 Students)
does have an effect
on my face to face
communication skills
(11 students)
Do social media affectyour face to face
communicationskills?
Figure 11. Shows if social media affect students face to face communication life. 14
students said that social media does not have an effect on their face to face communication skills
on the other hand 5 students said social media somewhat as an effect on their face to face
communication skills but what and 11 students said it does have an effect on them. The 11
students have a slight problem of communicating well face to face with persons and this is a
huge disadvantage. If students cannot communicate well they will have a challenge as it pertains
to their academic performance for example, if a student asked to present a speech to the class and
he/she is speaking but as a problem getting his/her point across so person can understand. The
communication is weak just because of the over use of social media.

23. 23 | P a g e
60%
40%
Do you think social media affects your
studying time?
Yes
No
Figure 12.Illustrates that social media affects student’s study time.60% of the students
say yes it does affect their time of studying and 40% say no it does not. As I said before it is a
lack of focus, the attention span of the students is low causing them to performance poorly.

24. 24 | P a g e
63%
37%
Do you have more friends on social media
sites than in real life?
yes no
Figure 13. Shows students having more friends on social media than in real life. 63% of
the students answered yes and 37% answered no, and this is where figure 11 intertwined with
this, student don’t communicate face to face well because 63% of them has less friends in real
life. To improve as a person and as a student you need qualities that can be developed through
face to face communication.

25. 25 | P a g e
Figure 14. Shows the use of smartphones and computers for educational purposes.50% of
the students hardly uses it for educational purposes, 12% mostly use it for educational purposes
on the other hand 38% strongly use it for educational purposes. This proves that, that 50% of
students really does waste time and this is the cause of it not using the tools of technology to
foster education.
50%
12%
38%
How often do you use your Smartphone and
computer for educational purposes?
Hardly use it for educational
purposes
Mostly use it for educational
purposes
Strongly use it for educational
purposes

26. 26 | P a g e
Discussion of findings
The social life of studies was a problem in this study. The researcher found out from the
primary data collected that 63% of the students have more friends on social media than in real
life. This is commonly paired with the use of social media. It is common to the secondary
research collected where students become addicted to social media and may soon lead to
antisocial tendencies and may use it to avoid real world responsibilities.
There was a concern addressed about how much time students were spending on the
social media. The primary data found showed that students spent more than 4 hours on social
media. It was shown in secondary data that students who spend more time on the internet had
more trouble focusing in class and had shorter attention spans. It is a very common site to see
sleep deprived students not concentrating in class due to long nights on social media or other
forms of entertainment on the internet. The social media can also affect the grammar of students.
Students often talk in ‘slang’ or ‘text speak’ which can affect students overall academic
performance.
The concern of students having access to the internet at home, the primary sources shows
that 24 out of the 30 students have internet access. As it pertains to my secondary source
teenagers spend a lot of time to sit in the computer than giving time to your studies. And the fact
can’t be realized till the exam approach. Because of wasting all the time on the internet without
studying, they fail the exam. This can lead to further depression and they continue to overuse the
internet. If students use internet useful and reasonable, they can find out and study a lot of useful
information on the internet with negative effects.

27. 27 | P a g e
During class as it relates to the use of the smartphone. The primary source shows that
60% of students use their phone and this is a huge distraction because students will lose focus on
what is being thought. The secondary source even highlights key information to phone use. Too
much engagement on smartphones may lead to a lack of interactions between individuals and do
harm to human relationships. Although they were initially developed to help people stay
integrated and connected, they are instead disconnecting people from society and relationships
due to their addictive nature. Addiction to smartphone use negatively impacts users' family life
and causes problems with human relationships, as addicts tend to pay more attention to their
phones than the people around them. According to a 2011 survey by the U.K. communications
regulator Of com in the literature review, 51 percent of adults and 65 percent of teenagers said
they have used their smartphone while socializing with others. This proves that even when
people are having face-to-face communication, they are constantly distracted by their phone.

28. 28 | P a g e
Conclusion
The researcher was able to conclude that over use of the internet can result in poor
academic performance social experiences and communication skills and negative impacts on
their grades in school. There can be some positives coming from social media and internet use. If
used wisely students can gain a massive amount of information to guide their academics.
Students should understand what it means to manage their time and have a full focus in
class to not only improve their academic performance but also their communication skills
because it is needed in an individual. Social media is not going anywhere; it will always be here
so know what your main focus is in school.
If the internet is used in a correct manner, it can be of great use to the students of St
Andrew Technical High School.

29. 29 | P a g e
Limitations
The limitations encountered were a small sample size available and slight trouble of
honesty in the questionnaires that were handed out which resulted in more questionnaires being
handed out. And the other limitation is that it was strictly for St Andrew Technical High School
5th form and 6th form students.

30. 30 | P a g e
Recommendations
The researcher would like to emphasis the importance of the internet and show that if
students use it in the right way, they can benefit greatly from it. This can be done by reducing the
amount of time used for its entertainment purposes but rather for its educational gain. If students
are willing to apply themselves to this commitment of using the internet for its resources and/or
putting it down completely to do other academic work, they will see a positive effect on their
grades. This will also improve their attitude towards their work.