Academic use of Social Media among students of the University of the Punjab Lahore

Abstract
Purposes

With the invention of the social media, the whole community of the world has integrated into a
globalized virtual community. This virtual community is also increasing in Pakistan. The present
study has been conducted for the objectives to examine the academic use of social media by the
students, to find out the opinions on using social media for academic activities and to explore
what kinds of problems are being faced by the students in using social media for academic
purposes.
Research Design
The study was quantitative in nature and was delimited to undergraduate and post graduate
students of 12 faculties of University of the Punjab, Lahore. Survey research method was used to
collect data through questionnaire which was adopted with minor modifications. Stratified
random sampling with equal allocation technique was used to collect data. 50 students from each
faculty were selected through self administered survey.
Key Findings
The present study concluded that 100% students of University of the Punjab have access to
internet and their favorite social media is Facebook. The results of the present study were very
encouraging that majority of the students 81.4% were using social media for academic purposes.
Majority of the students were using social media for viewing course schedule, accessing course
notes and were engaged with their classmates for academic discussions. The present study
concluded that majority of the students 88.7% had an opinion that social media usage can be
useful in their courses and were of the view that social media usage can improve communication
between students and teachers. The present study concluded that majority of the students 89.5%
were feeling that shortfall of electricity was a big problem in using social media. Non

availability of UPS, lack of advanced IT skills, lack of security and privacy, unwanted attention
from others, slow speed of internet were major problems mentioned by the students of University
of the Punjab, Lahore while using social media.
Recommendations
Researcher has recommended that proper facilities like IT skills, training workshops, Wi-Fi
facilities, Laptops, desktops etc. should be provided to students so that they can use social media
applications in more proper way in this age of globalization.
Significance
The study has larger implications in this age of globalized virtual community. Researcher will
have better understandings that what are the problems of students while using social media and
how much educational use of social media is being opted by the students. Policy makers and
software developers can also have knowledge to make academic use of social media more
effective and convenient.
Keywords: Social Media, Internet, Web 2 Technology, Face Book, globalization, Virtual
community.