Philippine Normal University-Visayas

The National Center for Teacher Education

Cadiz City, Negros Occidental

THE PROS AND CONS

OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
(SNS) TO THE ACADEMIC
PERFORMANCE OF
21ST CENTURY LEARNERS
Term Paper

Researchers: II-2 (BEE)

Ibanez, Jonna Mae
Jaena, Gelli Thelinor
Labio, Jerelyn A.
Raymundo, Madel F.
Villahermosa, Jolli Me

I.

INTRODUCTION

A social network service or social networking service, most often called SNS, is a medium for
establishing social networks of people who share interests and/or activities. SNS are widely used
nowadays in our developing country. It allows users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests
within their individual networks. Most social network services are web based and provide means for
users to interact in various ways, such as e-mail and instant messaging. The netizens or the people
who use the internet use SNS for communicating others, some for business and others for educational
purposes. This is why Social Networking Sites become an instant aid to the structural development of
the learning process, a proof that technology does not just supplement to the improvisation of
communication but also to the economic progress.
Digital world sprouts earnestly to direct the 21st century learners in being aware of the
globalization race. Technology has removed the barriers for effective production of the students and
lifted the quality of education to a higher degree that even to other countries can compete without
hesitations. This impacted the way that Filipinos are already a candidate when it comes to
performance for internationalization. Yet with regards to Filipino learners usage of SNS, negative
effects were acknowledged which are undeniable-affecting the social, emotional, spiritual aspects and
even the academic performance of 21st century Filipino learners.
This study aims to identify the pros and cons of using SNS on the academic performance of 21 st
century Filipino learners as well as its implications with regards to 21 st century education.

II.

CONCEPTS OF THE STUDY

A. DISCUSSION
Advantages of SNS
People use SNS as a new form of communication and socialization. The communication of

students with different people are through chatting, video calling, voice calling, messaging, group
messaging commenting on different media as well on the friends' wall. According to Pew Internet, a study
entitled, Social Media and Mobile Internet use among Teens and Young Adults",86% of the teenagers
activities are commenting on a friend's page or wall. Aside from that, it encourages the students because it
is easy to use and communicate too. In fact, all of the students had Facebook accounts. Moreover, some
social networking sites (SNS) offer good sources that gave facts, trivia and information around the world
particularly on Facebook which has a lot of games and applications.
Withal, here are the positive effects of social media particularly the SNS according to Andrew
Reiner in his writing for the The Chronicle of Higher Education:

Social Constructivism- Knowledge is increasingly becoming a social construction. SNS

provides an easily accessible tool for helping students to work together, to create their own

meaning in academic subjects, social contexts or work environments.

Breadth of Knowledge- with connectedness that students can experience through social
media use is easier to know about the world, the facts, issues or happenings. Students can be
connected as well to broader base of opinions and world use through instantaneous global

connections.
Technological Literacy- developing the sorts of rich 21st century skills such as information
evaluation, troubleshooting, mediated communication, and others that will enable connected
learners to become valuable contributors to a connected global economy.

These three advantages of using SNS are excellent matches that will help 21 st century learners
particularly the Filipino students to develop and gain the 21 st century skills in which they need for success
in a globally connected economy.

Disadvantages of SNS

We believe that the characteristics of SNS can attract the students to encourage and visit always that
may lead to the students usage takes longer. In the study of Kimberly Banquilet. al., entitled, "Social
Networking Sites Affect Ones Academic Adversely ", there are lots of cyber-bullying through the social
sites like Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, and MySpace. This activity may lead in any type of disrespectful
doings to the other people and seemingly tends that social networking sites (SNS) can give disadvantages
in the users especially to the young ages since the younger ages or the teenagers are easily attracted to
SNS. With that said, cyber-bullying would be considered as disadvantages, since having bullied in the
SNS would be the same as bullying in the school and if a student would be bullied, his academic
performance would dramatically fall or affected in a bad way.
Here are some negative effects of SNS stated by Andrew Reiner in his writing for the The Chronicle of
Higher Education:

Distraction- Social Media involvement provides an acceptable diversion from intellectual

pursuits.
Pressure to Conform- fear of keeping up with peers or appearing is the reason why students stay

behind SNS connections most of the time.

Risk Aversion- Social media or SNS engagement, supports a culture of avoidance which operates
in direct opposition to the idea that students need to take risks and fail in their academic
endeavors in order to become successful innovators.

Shallowness- SNS promote a kind of intellectual and social shallowness that could have longterm negative consequences for learners. There will be a shallow interactions that does not
encourage either deep social engagement or intellectual exploration.

These are negative effects of SNS on 21st century learners has something to do with their level of
academic risk-taking in particular.

B. RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Nowadays, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, MySpace and others are
attracting millions of people around the world, especially the students. Social networking sites had been
the source of happiness for many students. SNS have become a trending topic nowadays and viral among
teenagers. Especially to the teenagers, many of them are associated to SNS, since teenagers must always
be in with what is popular nowadays. Even education has been influenced by SNS with Elizabeth
Power(2012), stating The potential for using SNS to further the goal of education is immerse, and
teachers are making faraway into the world of online social networking for educational purposes. (Cuisia
and Yacap, 2013).
Nayzabekov (2012), in his study entitled, "Negative Impacts of Social Networking Sites on the
Academic Excellence of the Students", identifies the idea of multitasking, which students could perform
different types of actions while visiting SNS to include texting, instant messaging, playing games and
searching information online. The author pointed out that multitasking skills or actions could affect the
concentration of students. Performing different types of action could affect ones performance not only in
academic but also in the everyday task of students. For example, a student who has a lot of assignments
and works on different subjects instead of doing it on time and early, visits SNS Facebook which seemed
to be popular among teenagers nowadays. It also identifies the procrastination-related problems that
might evolve as a possible outcome of SNS usage of the students. In this paper, he cited the idea of Ellis
and Knaus, which defines the term as a failure to initiate or complete a task or activity by predetermined

time. In other words, it can be described as a specific behavioral pattern that is dedicated for doing any
non-academic tasks. There was a survey conducted by de Villiers, 2010, p. 175, and was cited in the same
study of Nayzabekov (2012), that theres a significant number of students (9 out of 200) who studying at
the University of South Africa claimed that they were using Facebook for academic purposes. Although,
more than a half of the respondents had a Facebook account (105 students), only 5% of them are involved
in the learning process with the help of SNS. According to the study, they did not do their academic
requirements involved in the learning process with the help of social networking sites and it
could possibly involve in the negative attitude towards their work. For instances, lack of parents' attention
could possibly affect the motivation of students or their children to do work. Instead of doing their
work, they visited their personal accounts in particular social networking sites (SNS). Hence, this study
also pointed out the users of SNS did not pay attention on their works or academic requirements. It also
treated the internet as a big temptation on the students which they didn't refuse.
According to Whitehouse (2011), there are many negative effects of SNS, like; students may lose
concentration in school. For instance, students always feel tired in class. As a result, they do not
understand what their teacher taught them. Thus, students can fail examination. Whenever they go home,
some students go directly to computers to be updated and be consumed by SNS, forgetting their
assignments. They even go along just to
play a game in SNS or chat with friends. This kind of action will result to tardiness in school andaffecting
their focus in the classes that leads to the dropping of their academic and physical performance. This
study also covered the possible good effects of SNS on the study habits of students. A significant number
of students (9 out of 200) showed their leadership skills not only on the internet, but inside the classroom
as well. In fact, they were organizing almost all extracurricular activities such as parties, picnics and sport
competitions besides 5% of them are involved with the learning process with the help of SNS. It is also
said that, the more students are involved in the academic tasks, the more chances that they will develop a
positive attitude towards their works.

In a 2012 news article of The Irish Times entitled, "Facebook can impact study habits" it pointed out
that Facebook can impact study habits of students. This application is getting in through the phone, the
iPad, the desktop and WIFI (Wireless Fidelity) connection where you can connect everywhere. In those
technological products, students can easily access or connect on different social networking sites(SNSs).
As a matter of fact, there are many students who use iPads which means that students can update their
Facebook status while theyre supposed to be reading textbooks. After in their school, they go home and
spend hours in SNS, checking-in compulsively all through a study period, and never staying on task for
more than a few minutes at a time. As a result of this phenomenon, social networking sites could affect
their study habits by SNS particularly Facebook. As mentioned, students can easily access or connected in
different SNS because of gadgets like cell phone which have many applications nowadays. This modern
world gives people a lot of advantages and disadvantages in terms of many gadgets that are now in or
famous particularly in teenagers and generally participation in online SNS has a negative connection to
the student achievement .Social networking sites (SNS) seemed to have advantages and disadvantages not
only on students but to everyone who use it.
In the group study of Kimberly Banquilet.al (2009), entitled, "Social Networking Sites Affect
Ones Academic Adversely", it stated the disadvantages of SNS. It pointed out that, theres a lot of cyberbullying in social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Friendster and Myspace. Sharing and posting of any kind
of media - a form of work where it is free to show different media such as photos, music, videos and even
text especially sharing of their status online. This activity may lead in cyber bullying or any type of
disrespectful doings to other people. Thus, it appears that SNS can give disadvantages in the users
especially to the young ages.
Power (2012) on her research paper entitled The effects of social networking sites in the study of
students, caution that a coin has two sides and negative side of SNS usage, such as distraction to the
users has been cited on her study. She means that SNS (as a coin) has dual effects on the people who used
it. She stated that, the potential for using SNS to further the goal of education is immense, and teachers

are making the faraway into the world of online social networking for educational purposes. This paper
also reviews the available literature on the relationship and impacts of online SNS have on student
engagement and achievement. Online SNS are plentiful, varied and easily accessible to students and
teachers alike. This paper reviewed literature which has reported positive impacts of SNS on student
engagement and achievement. Generally, participation in online social networking sites has a positive
connection to student engagement. Specifically, a favorable aspect of SNS is their ability to
connect people of seemingly different culture, background and living location despite the glaring distance
in between, promoting intercultural relations and stronger ties. It also increases the chance of singleindivi
duals to find their potential partners and with such a vast array to choose from, nonetheless. Internet users
post different forms of media (pictures, videos, music, etc.) In this form of work, it shows the freedom of
the users to post different media like posting his/her status, following their favourite artists or idols adding
friends, people and etc., sharing information, chatting and everything. The use of SNS could improve the
self-esteem and development of the whole person, which can ultimately lead to performance proficiency
and future success.
It also pointed out the neutral effects of the SNS to the students. It was reported on her study on the
relationship between SNS usage and educational performance of the student user, that the internet or SNS
usage is not significant enough to affect the academic performance adversely. As well, no association was
found between grade point averages of student Facebook users and non-users cited by this study.

C. SYNTHESIS
SNS was already part of our lives. It gives great help to particular chore with correlation in the
deliverance of effective communication. It also serves as easy gateway to wider awareness of the societys
challenges and for each one of us is able to enjoy the enhancement given by the science and most
especially to the stability of macro skills in students perspectives. This instill to the minds that in

technology many learnings can be gained and used as stepping stone to achieving and improve oneself to
becoming a good example of productivity that could complete globally.

III.

METHODOLOGY

This research had used a Descriptive Method. According to Gay (1976), Descriptive Research
involves collection of data in order to test hypothesis or to answer questions concerning the current status
of the subject of the study. The researchers had employed this method to identify the pros and cons of
Social Networking Sites with regards to the academic performance of 21 st century learners.

IV.

FINDNGS

As a result of this study, the following findings are as follows:

Using SNS have a negative and positive impact to its users. On the positive side, it enables the
21st century learners to enhance their ability to communicate easily in the virtual world. It also helps them
to widen their knowledge in engaging social networking activities and to enhance their social life.
Students may be able to do their school works easier, can satisfy the needs for information, moreover a
good and portable source of providing data or facts that students want to know.
In contrast, over usage of SNS will definitely gain negative outcomes. Students will be too
independent to the internet to the extent that they may disregard their academics.

V.

CONCLUSION
In this study, we can conclude that even SNS employed benefits to the enhancement of the

students potential skill still there are negative effects to the health of the individual. Also in SNS
secluded the possibilities to promote credibility of the knowledge given and supported by worldwide
media but too much availability of the source and time of the learners they tend to put their health at
risk and sometimes lead to serious illness.

In the generalization we have today, the creativeness of the digital world steps up to the point that its
citizen are cramming its time and source of resources because of not having enough control to their senses
especially to students that still have a duty to continue learning without distractions so that their academic
performance will be in the quality of a well-oriented thinker of the economy.
As aspiring teachers of 21st century Filipino learners, their success also lies in our hands. We should
limit the usage of social media to our students. It is not bad to engage them in digital world but as it is
sadi in a famous quote Once is good, twice is enough but much is stupidity. We should guide them
onand orient them about the dos and donts in using SNS. In abundance there must an issuance so that
balance will be regulated and nothing will be affected and damaged.

VI.
REFERENCES
http://www.gsmarena.com/glossary.php3?term=sns
www.socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com
http://www.academia.edu/5707332/Effects_of_Social_Networking_Sites_on_the_Academic_Exc
ellence_of_the_Students
https://www.google.com.ph/search?
q=positive+effects+of+SNS&oq=positive+effects+of+SNS&aqs=chrome..69i57.8144j0j7&sourc
eid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
http://stephenlighthouse.com/2012/11/16/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-student-socialmedia-use