NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

NEU BUSINESS SCHOOL

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

THESIS TOPIC:

The impact of social media on the academic performance of EMQI

students in NEU

SUPERVISOR: LE THUY LINH

GROUP: The Smurfs
CLASS: E-MQI 64

HANOI –YEAR 2023

 Rationale

_ The development of social media has a great influence on the daily life
of the society. Social media has become popular with diverse features,
yet students now use social media for the majority of their activities and
information gathering.

_ In many different target groups, students are the greatest demand for
social media use, which also affects their daily lives (studying,
maintaining relationships with family and friends, participating in
extracurricular activities, etc.)

Research objectives

_ To find out the common social media applications used by EMQI

students as an aid in their academic activities

_ The daily dose of social media used by EMQI students (purpose of

use, time of use, frequency of use, means of access, …)

_ To ascertain how the use of social media has affected the academic
performance of the students

Research questions

1. How popular is social media among EMQI students?

2. How EMQI students used social media?
3. How has the use of social media affected the academic
performance of the students?
LITERATURE REVIEW

Theoretical Literature
Social media is that means that employs mobile and web based
technology to create highly interactive platforms via which individuals
and community share, co-create, discuss and modifies users’ generated
contents (Kietzmannn, 2012). In 1995, G.E. Barrens was the first one
who uses the expression of social media to study links and social webs
in a village in Norway. He believes all the social lives have the
possibility to consider as a set of dots that they are connected with each
other through lines and they make a general network by the name of
social networks (Taqwaie, Yazadi & Chitsaz, page 79). In 1960, the
University of Illinois was the first institution where discussed the
concept of social networks as its modern concept (Islami, 2016, page 5).
With considering social media as its modern concept, Six Degree was
the first social media which was created in 1997 and the media gave its
users the possibility of joining together, using appropriate work
atmosphere and finding friends there (Islami, 2016, page 6). In 2004,
Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard student, underpins the evolved generation
of social network by designing Facebook (Islami, 2016, page 8).
Facebook is considered as the most popular social media now which has
more than half billion users, 85 percent of them are students, and it is
titled the third most populated region after China and India (Acheaw &
Larson, 2015, page 94).

With the passing of time and the prevalence of social media among the
people, Goldberg was the first one who noticed effects of internet social
networks on people`s lives especially students as main users of social
networks. In 1998, with publication of a paper titled “addiction to
internet and internet social networks” he attracted attentions of many
researchers and scholars to the impacts of social media (Hussainpor,
Askari & Ayati, 2016, page 69). In 1998, Yang and his colleagues did
the first study about the effect of social media on students in Taiwan and
the result shows using social networks without limitation has harmful
consequences such as personal disorder (Karimi & Amenzada, 2013,
page 44). In 1988, Groats conducted the second study about effect of
social media, psychological studying the users of Match-Maker which is
a system of setting electronic meeting; the findings of study indicate
Match Maker caused shameful people became non-shameful people
which was one of Match Maker consequences (Wadoodi & Delawar,
2015, page 45). Goffman was one of the first people who published a
book about the impacts of social media on people`s mind by the name of
“Stigma” and he wrote in a part of that, “Exaggeratory discussions and
writings can poison the audiences` personality characteristics and
mentality about user, but stating sympathy can attract huge sponsorships
and supports of audiences in cyberspace” (Wadoodi & Delawar, 2015,
page 43).

Empirical Literature:

In recent days, social media has changed into the main connected
channel among students in different levels and different parts of the
world. Undoubtedly, they have positive and negative consequences on
the academic performance of the students, and studies from various
dimensions on the effects of social media on different aspects of
academic performance of students have been conducted following the
research.

Alevi & Sarafzade (2013) in one study under title of “Studying the
Position of Online Social Networks among University Students”
achieved that social media have significantly improved and increased the
relationships between students of different gender, and also states that
social networks have been the basis for the implementation of modern or
distance education in educational institutes. Abdullahi, Gharelengi and
Samadi (2014) in another study by the name “The Negative Effects of
Social Media, Including Facebook, on Students at the University of
Asia-pacific in Malaysia'' presents their findings as follows; the use of
social media by students has had a negative and completely negative
effect on their GPA or the amount of their academic achievements, and
has ultimately led to their addiction to social networks.

Rabiee & Yazadi (2016) in one study by the name of “Cyberspace

Pathology; Studying the Impact of Internet Use on Students ` Social
Isolation” found using the social media during studying causes social
isolation on students that this causes to mar one of the significant goals
of education which is socializing students. Taqwaie, Yazadi & Chitsaz
(2016) found how much students use social networks, much they will
enjoy wider social relations and high social support in the community in
study, “The Studying the Relationship between Social Networks and
Students` Social Health, they did”. Solimani, Sadipoor & Asadzada
( 2016) in another study by the name of “Studying the Relationship
between Virtual Social Space and Students` Academic Procrastination,
feeling Lonely and Mental Health” shows the using of virtual social
space on the one hand has caused a feeling of loneliness and mental
health in students, and therefore they turned to social networks, but on
the other hand, virtual social space have harmed their mental health,
students` tendency to isolate and create virtual contexts instead of real
ones in society is proof of this claim.

Hussainpor, Askari and Ayati (2016) in a research under title of

“Studying the Relationship between Student`s Internet and Phone
Addiction and Academic Burnout” figure out that their findings
continued use of the internet, especially virtual networks, makes students
addicted to them and ultimately leads to a feeling of tiredness during
their studies, their lack of interest in lessons and academic inefficiency.
Kubra, Imamiriza (2016) in a research by the name of “The Effects of
Using Virtual Social Networks on Students` Academic Achievement”
finds out the use of social media leads to sleep disorders, lesson fatigue
and ultimately reduced academic achievement of students.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK TO SUPPORT THE PROJECT

In our theoretical model the independent variable is social media and the
dependent variable is academic performance.

Social Media Usage ->Academic Performance

Research Methodology

-Quantitative ( collecting data by analyzing statistical charts or

numbers). We conducted the data by randomly choosing 8 to 10 people
out of the 35 first year EMQI students to interview. For the interview,
open and closed questions are used to help respondents answer the
questions easier and give opinions or information.

_With the questionnaire, the appropriate types of questions could be

multiple choice, fill in the blank, and yes or no as it will be conducted
online via an online form to help collect the data automatically.

SCOPE

_Reasearch Object : EMQI students who use social media.

_ As the research participants are first-year students, a cross-sectional

survey design is a choice to study their interests at a single point in time
when the survey is being conducted.

References
1. Taqwaie, Yazadi & Chitsaz (2016). The Relationship between the
Effect of Social Media and Student’s Mental Health. Journal of
Information and Communication, Vol 2, No 1.
2. Islami, Morwaried (2016). The Relationship between Social Media
and Routine Living of People. Journal of Educational Technology,
Vol 2, No 2.
3. Acheaw and Larson (2015). The Using of Social Media and Its
Impact on Academic Performance of Tertiary Institutions Students:
A Study of Students of Koforidua Polytechnic University, Ghana.
Journal of Education and Practice, Vol 6, No 6.
4. Hussainpor, Askari & Ayati (2016). The Relationship between
Social Media Addiction and Student GAP. Journal of Educational
Technology, Vol 6, No 4.
5. Karimi and Amenzada (2013). The Impact of Social Media on
Individual Relationship between Students. Journal of Partnership
and Social Development, Vol 4, No 2.
6. Wadoodi and Delawar (2015). The Study of the Impact of Social
Media on Students’ Characteristics. Journal of Psychology, Vol 35,
No 4.
7. Abdullahi, Samadi and Gharleghi (2014). A study of the Negative
Effectives of Social Networking Sites such as Facebook among
Asia-Pacific University Scholars in Malaysia. International Journal
of Business and Social Science, Vol 5, No 10.
8. Alevi and Sarafzada (2015). The Relationship between Social
Media and On Campus living of Students. Journal of Human and
Information, Vol 11, No 2.
9. Taqwaie, Yazadi & Chitsaz (2016). The Relationship between the
Effect of Social Media and Student’s Mental Health. Journal of
Information and Communication, Vol 2, No 1.
10. Rabiee and Yazadi (2016). The Study of Social Media’s
Vulnerable on Students. Journal of Social and Cultural Studies,
Vol 6, No 3.
11. Asadzada, Sadipoor and Solimani (2015). The study of
relationship between social media and students’ psycho status.
Journal of Technology and Telecommunication, Vol 2, No 2.
12. Hussainpor, Askari & Ayati (2016). The Relationship
between Social Media Addiction and Student GAP. Journal of
Educational Technology, Vol 6, No 4.
13. Imamiriza, Kubra (2016). The Impact of Social Media on
Students’ Academic Performance. Journal of Education and
Technology, Vol 3, No 2.