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This report is written and submitted for the assignment given by Ms. L.K. Veni. This report can be taken as an example and guideline for your assignment....

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WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION PWC 1010 TRIMESTER 3, 2016/2017 SESSION FORMAL REPORT TITLE: EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON STUDENTS’ ATTENTION SPAN PREPARED BY: STUDENT NAME

SECTION: FCI 1 PREPARED FOR: MDM. L.K. VENI REPORT SUBMISSION DATE: 16 MAY 2017

STUDENT ID

ABSTRACT Social networks, though not a completely new technology, only saw wide adoption by the youth in recent years. Therefore, we felt this was a necessary topic to research as social networks play an influential part in people’s lives, but not much is known of their long-term effects. This report shows the results of a survey, conducted with the objective to investigate the effects from social media usage on students’ attention spans, with regards to their academia. 93 questionnaires were given randomly to current MMU students, asking about their social media usage habits and academic situations. A large majority of the respondents reported excessive usage of social media (more than an hour per day). About 60-80% reported difficulty on their academics having to concentrate hard to focus on their work, and being regularly distracted by unrelated thoughts.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Numerous people played a role, directly or indirectly, in the writing of this report. We would like to thank the following people who assisted us in the preparation of this report: 1. Madam L.K. Veni, our lecturer, for the expert advice and guidance she has given us throughout this project. With her extraordinary support, we are able to complete this report smoothly. 2. Our parents, who have been encouraging and supportive. We appreciate their advices and encouragements throughout our academic years. 3. Our friends from the other groups, for giving valuable comments and suggestions on our report, especially the questionnaire. 4. All respondents who took the time to respond to our questionnaires. We appreciate the efforts in helping us to obtain valuable data.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ii iii iv v vi

Abstract Acknowledgement Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables 1.0

INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background 1.2 Term of Reference 1.3 Scope 1.4 Purpose 1.5 Methodology 1.6 Literature Review

1 1 1 2 2 2 2

2.0

FINDINGS 2.1 Demographics of Respondents 2.2 Social Media Usage 2.3 Time Spent on Social Media 2.4 Effects of Social Media on Students’ Attention Spans and Academics Skills 2.5 Students’ Overall Opinion on Social Media 2.6 Summary of Findings

4 4 4 8 9 11 12

3.0

CONCLUSION

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4.0

RECOMMENDATIONS 4.1 Students 4.2 University 4.3 Parent

14 14 15 15

REFERENCES

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APPENDICES Appendix A – Questionnaire Appendix B – Tabulation of Data

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

Title

Page

1.

Number of Respondents from Different Faculties

4

2.

Number of Respondents with Social Media Accounts

5

3.

Device Preferred by Respondents to Access Social Media

5

4.

Reasons for Accessing Social Media by the Respondents

6

5.

Social Media Usage Habit 1

7

6.

Social Media Usage Habit 2

7

7.

Students’ Preferred Learning Media

7

8.

Effects of Time Spent on Social Media on Students’ Academic

8

Performance 9.

Students’ Opinion on Social Media Effect on their Ability of

10

Multitasking 10.

Percentage of Students Affected by Social Media

10

11.

Opinion of Respondents Towards Social Media

11

12.

Opinion of Respondents from Different Faculties Towards Social

11

Media

v

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.

Title

Page

Students’ Response to Time Spent on Social Media and Social Media

8

Effect on Their Academics 2.

Students’ Agreement on the Effect of Social Media on Four Different Academic Activities

vi

9

1.0

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Background

In the last few years, the number of social media users has increased to over a billion active users. There are many explanations that can be given for this rise in active users; for example, the freedom that social media provides to students as well as the ability to create other online identities or personas. However, it seems that lately students in Multimedia University (MMU), Cyberjaya campus have difficulty in concentrating or focusing during their classes and tasks. We believe the excessive social media usage by students has unseen negative effects on their attention spans, which is the amount of time they can spend focusing on a single task. Low attention spans are especially disadvantageous for students, as it affects their academics.

1.2

Term of Reference

During the first week of the third trimester of 2016/2017, on 3 April 2017, Miss Krishnaveni, Lecturer of the FCI 1 section for the subject Workplace Communication, tasked our group to investigate the effects of social media on students’ attention span in Multimedia University, Cyberjaya campus and to suggest possible solutions or changes depending on the outcome. We hereby submit the report entitled “Effects of Social Media on Students’ Attention Span”.

1.3

Scope

The study conducted for this report focussed on the views and opinions of the students of Multimedia University, Cyberjaya campus. The students involved with the study ranges from first year foundation students all the way up to final year degree students.

1.4

Purpose

The purpose of this report is to investigate the effects that social media has on a student’s attention span, whether it is beneficial or disadvantageous towards them. At the same time, we aimed to determine the average time spent by students from Multimedia University, Cyberjaya campus, on social media websites per day. It is hoped that with more reliable data, we will be able to suggest solutions or changes which will lead to the increase of attention span among students in MMU Cyberjaya.

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1.5

Methodology

A survey in the form of a questionnaire was conducted in Multimedia University (MMU) Cyberjaya Campus by 19th April 2017, Wednesday. The survey was conducted until the number of respondents is achieved. We randomly distributed the questionnaires to the students roaming around Multimedia University, Cyberjaya campus. The number of respondents ranges from 60-100 students. 33 prompts consisting of multiple choice questions were prepared. Group members scattered around the campus area and distributed the questionnaire to any students who were nearby. The data from the questionnaire were analysed and tabulated. The results were converted into charts and tables. 1.6

Literature Review Tapscott and Williams (2006) consider social media as a part of a wider trend in communication landscapes. They characterize it as “mass collaboration”. It is not only used by individuals for personal interest, but also utilized by large organizations as a platform to amplify messages from traditional media sources, such as television, newspaper and radio. It is totally a new way of spreading information and contents to target audiences effectively. According to the study of Apeanti and Danso (2014), it was found that students used different devices or gadgets to access social media. They found that students frequently logged in to their social media to connect with old friends and family members, find information and learning materials. Besides, students also believe that their grades could be improved if they were able to contact their lecturers through social media. A survey conducted by Microsoft Canada found that a significant amount of social media users, particularly early adopters between ages 18 to 24, reported difficulty focusing prolonged attention on a single task. (Microsoft Canada, 2015, p. 16-18) A finding of Nelson Laird and Kuh, in year 2005, states that information technology is often utilized by students for both their personal and academic purpose. Social media is more favoured by students than other technologies related to their academic courses due to the familiarity they possessed with social media’s attributes and environment. (Tarantino, McDonough, & Hua, 2013) The behaviour of an individual is affected by relations, technical ties and networks more than the norms and attributes the individual possesses. (Yang, 2003). In accountancies of distance in space and time in mind, we can conclude that the effects of a negative driven relationship were as not as influential as in the face-to-face settings. (Yang, 2003)

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And one-third (34%) say students’ use of entertainment media has helped them multitask effectively (compared to 25% who say it has hurt their multitasking skills) (Rideout, 2012). Although, providing a detailed perspective on social media use among university students and underscoring that such use can produce both positive and negative consequences, according to a Nielsen Media Research study, in June 2010, almost 25 percent of students’ time on the Internet is now spent on social networking websites. (Jacobsen, & Forste, 2011).

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2.0

FINDINGS

The survey was conducted by distributing the questionnaires randomly to students in Multimedia University, Cyberjaya campus. A total of 93 respondents from different faculties and academic years in Multimedia University were asked to complete the survey. A copy of the questionnaire can be found in Appendix A. Tabulations of the data from the survey can be found in Appendix B.

2.1

DEMOGRAPHICS OF RESPONDENTS Figure 1 shows the breakdown of respondents

Number of Respondents

Number of Respondents from Different Faculties 30

26

25 20 15

13

10 5

16 13

13

0

4 0

11

1

1 20

FCM

FOE

FOM

FAC

2

0 FCI

Faculty Male

Female

Not Specified

Figure 1: Number of Respondents from Different Faculties

according to their gender and faculty. Out of 93 respondents, 55 respondents were male and 36 respondents were female. However, 2 respondents, one from Faculty of Engineering (FOE) and one from Faculty of Management (FOM), chose not to reveal their gender. Most of respondents were from Faculty of Computing & Informatics (FCI) and Faculty of Management (FOM), with the largest proportion, 39 respondents in FCI, followed by 30 respondents in FOM and 15 respondents in FOE. However, there were only 3 respondents from Faculty of Applied Communication (FAC) and 6 respondents from Faculty of Creative Multimedia (FCM).

2.2 SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE In this section, we analyzed the usage of social media by respondents from Multimedia University, Cyberjaya campus. From these observations, we were able to obtain beneficial results which helped us to study their habits of accessing the social media and the effects of such habits on students’ attention span and academics. The results are displayed according to their appropriate catagories. 2.2.1 Social Media Used by Respondents Figure 2 illustrates the number of respondents from Multimedia University, Cyberjaya campus, with social media accounts. It can be seen that 80 out of 93 respondents have a Facebook account. This result is similar to the research conducted by Junco, Heiberger, and Loken in 2011. Junco, Heiberger, and Loken (2011) reviewed an additional study conducted by Mastrodicasa J.M. and Kepic G. (2005). The data of the survey by Mastrodicasa and Kepic (2005) showed that 85% of students at a large research university had accounts on Facebook. Therefore, we confirmed that Facebook still remains as the most popular social networking site among the university students. 4

Social Media Used by Respondents Number of Respondents

Besides, the bar chart clearly shows that more than 50% of respondents use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. We realized that these social media websites mainly deal with the sharing of content in the form of plain text, images and videos. Thus, we strongly believed that this type of content has a particular impact on the user experience of social media websites.

100 80

80

73 63 54

60 40 20 0

36 23

16

19 4

Social Media

On the other hand, Junco et al. (2011) stated Facebook Instagram LinkedIn that 94% of first year college students use Reddit Snapchat Tumblr social networking websites, as reported by Twitter YouTube Others The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) in 2007. Based on our research, 100% Figure 2: Number of Respondents with of respondents have social media accounts. Social Media Accounts This shows that social media has become an essential part of our life in this age of information technology. 2.2.2 Device Preferred by Respondents to Access Social Media

Number of Respondents

Figure 3 shows the device most preferred by Device preferred by respondents respondents for accessing social media. 25 out to access social media of 93 respondents preferred their personal computers or laptop as the device for 80 67 accessing social media. Meanwhile, only 1 70 60 respondent preferred tablet as the device for 50 accessing social media. Besides, a large 40 proportion of respondents (67 respondents) 25 30 preferred smartphones as the device for 20 accessing social media. Based on our 10 1 observation, we can see that most of the 0 respondents prefer to use smartphones instead Device of personal computers, laptop or tablet. PC/Laptop Smartphone Tablet Smartphone is relatively smaller in size as compared to personal computer, laptop and Figure 3: Device Preferred by tablet, and can be carried around easily Respondents to Access Social Media wherever we go. This may be why this is the most preferred device used for accessing social media. According to Cavus, N., Bicen, H., & Akcil, U. (2008), mobile devices allow the students to access content and communicate with classmates and instructors, no matter where they are. We believe that this is also one of the reasons why the students preferred smartphones more as compared to personal computers, laptop or tablet, aside from its carriage able and convenience.

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2.2.3 Reasons for Accessing Social Media

Figure 4: Reasons for Accessing Social Media by the Respondents Figure 4 gives information about the reasons for accessing social media websites by the respondents. Majority of the respondents (roughly 65%) access social media to find information, view contents and communicate with their family and friends. Almost half (50%) of the respondents use social media as a medium to kill time and share content. Surprisingly, only 29.03% of respondents make new friends through social media, despite being one of the main purposes of social media. According to Schlosser (2005) and Shao (2009), research on social media broadly classifies consumer activities as either contribution (posting) or consumption (lurking or observing) activities. For instance, Nielsen (2009) noted that about 53% of active social media users tend to follow page of a brand, rather than contribute content or promote about the brand. This study is in line with our result, where the number of respondents who use social media to view content (65.6%) is more than the number of respondents who use social media to share contents (49.46%). Other than that, a small number of respondents (3.23%) pointed out that they use social media for different purposes, which were not listed in our questionnaire. A respondent from Faculty of Computing & Informatics said that he uses social media for gaming related purposes. Indeed, some of the social media websites have games integrated into their websites, such as Facebook. This feature not only allows users to kill time, but also strengthen the bonds between friends and family members.

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2.2.4 Social Media Usage Habits of Respondents Both Figure 5 and Figure 6 displays the social media usage habits of the respondents.

Figure 5: Social Media Usage Habit 1

Figure 6: Social Media Usage Habit 2

From Figure 5, we can see that 61 out of 93 respondents (65.59%) check their phones at least every 30 minutes, but 32 out of 93 respondents (34.41%) don’t have such habit. Other than that, a significant majority of respondents (86.02%) responded that they make sure to check their phones before going to sleep. Based on these results, it is obvious that social media has a great impact on the daily routine of people in this generation, in line with the statement by C. Yen, Tang, T. Yen, Lin, Huang and Liu (2009), as they identified an association between mobile phone use and respondents' self-report of whether or not they have allowed mobile phone use to interfere with "important social, academic and recreational activities" during the previous year. 2.2.5 Preferred Learning Media Used by Respondents Figure 7 compares between three different learning media students use to get knowledge. Majority of students (43%) prefer to study using lecture slides provided by their lecturer. Around one third of respondents use book as a tool to retrieve information and enhance their thoughts. Video tutorials like those found in YouTube are selected to be the preferred platform for almost 27% of respondents to understand their academic contents.

Figure 7: Students’ Preferred Learning Media 7

2.3 TIME SPENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA In this section, we aim to figure out how many time students remain active on social media websites every day. Moreover, we discuss some of the negative consequences of spending too much time on social media applications.

2.3.1 How Social Media Affects Students’ Attention Span Table 1 shows how the time spent on social media can affect students’ concentration. Based on our observation, the more time you spend on social media, the higher the chances of the student failing to concentrate for a long period of time when learning passively (i.e. listening to a lecture, reading a book, etc.). This is probably because the students are more likely to spend time on socializing than concentrating. Moreover, by analyzing the table, we can see that if the student spends time on social media with a range from less than an hour a day, they are more able to concentrate for a longer period of time when learning passively.

Table 1: Students’ response to Time Spent on Social Media and Social Media Effect on Their Academics

Time Spent

2.3.2 How Time Spent on Social Media Affect Students’ Academics Figure 8 compares the effects of social media Comparison of Effects of Social on students’ academic performance between Media on Students' Academic with different groups of students using social media websites in four different ranges of every day. Time Spent on Social Media The bar chart shows that more than the half of students, who use social media more than six < 1 Hour 0 hours every day, are facing difficulties in 1-3 Hours 26.47 performing well in their studies. About 40% 38.46 3-6 Hours and 26% of students spending a range of three 52.94 > 6 Hours to six hours and one to three hours respectively of their daily time on social me...