Strengthening the academic usage of social media: An exploratory study

Technology strengthens learning and dominates over the conventional methods in too many aspects. Technologies are advancing learning procedure by their multiple formats, variety of resources, numerous delivery channels and not restricted to time space and place. Social media is a new form of communication that transformed the entire landscape of information access and dissemination online. This platform consists of a range of communication channels, considerably popular among students and assists them in various types of communication and collaborative learning. However, the platform of social media can also be considered as a source of distractions and divert student's attention from learning and academic achievements. The principal objective of the current study is to understand the recent trends of social media use, the phenomenon of distractions and factors out convincing students for the academic use of social media. Interviews administered to enquire the phenomenon and analyzed with the help of ATLAS-Ti-7 and MS Excel. It is concluded from the results that individual psychological characteristics, social influences, information quality and system usefulness are the leading factors. Furthermore, the survey established the importance of this platform for academic purposes and perception concerning the phenomenon of distraction. In addition, future research directions and study limitations are discussed.