6 Table 2 : Negative impacts of SNSs on students academic performance No Questions Mean 1 These networking sites influence my academic performancenegatively,

because they distract me from my studies . 2.732 Using SNSs require spending money and are wastage of time and bythis way it will affect my academic life.2.673 Addiction to SNSs is problematic issue that affects my academic life. 3.004 I find it hard concentrating on study knowing that I can play onlinegames and visit these sites just by logging into them.2.935 I compare my grades before I become engaged into these SNSs andafter I became involved. I see a drop in my academic performance.2.406 SNSs are personal/ socialcant be used for education. 2.40 Table 3 : Positive impacts of SNSs on students academic performance No The Question Mean 7 The usage of SNSs is useful in higher educational institutions,because they are an effective communication application.3.408 Group discussions can be arranged with my classmates using SNSs. 3.709 An appointment can be fixed with my lecturer through SNSs. 3.2010 Social networking site is helpful in my studies because I can receiveannouncements from lecturers and faculty.3.3011 The SNSs help in my studies because I can discuss my assignmentswith friends.3.4012 Using SNSs improves my interaction with classmates and lecturers 3.3013 I use SNSs to facilitate academic activities and coordinate withfriends3.20In general, responses on the negative impacts of SNSs to student academic performancehave lower means which range from 2.40 to 3.00. There were no significant differencesin the students grades, before and after their involvement with SNSs and they alsobelieve the SNSs are not only for personal use but also suitable for education where bothof this items only show mean of 2.40. The highest mean for the negative impacts is onaddiction of SNSs which affect their academic life (3.00). Responses on the positiveimpacts of SNSs to student academic performance have higher means which range from3.20 to 3.70 for all the questions. Majority of the respondents clearly indicated that SNSscan be used to discuss assignments (3.40), group discussions (3.70) and also to improveinteraction between lecturers and classmates (3.30).

7 5. DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the findings of this survey, the two research questions highlighted earlier areanswered. Most of the students are engage in the use of SNSs mainly for socializingactivities rather than for academic purpose. However, most of the respondents do feel thatthe SNSs have more positive impact on their academic performance. This is due to thefact that the SNSs can be used for various academic activities such as communicatingwith the faculty and university authority, communicating with lecturers and supervisors,making academic discussions with classmates and chatting with friends in respect totopics of educational interest. While the negative impacts of the the SNSs towards theiracademic performance are considerably low.Therefore, based on the positive preliminary findings of this study, the universities andother institutions of higher learning could take the advantage of the popularity andpositive impacts of the SNSs use to formally incorporate the use of SNSs in the teachingand learning processes. Government regulatory agencies which are responsible tomonitor internet activities such as the

Malaysian Communication and MultimediaCommission (MCMC) in Malaysia and Ministry of Higher Education could also benefitfrom findings from this kind of study to outline or improve any existing guidelines oninternet usage in general or particularly focusing on SNSs use for students. Theseguidelines would not only be useful for students but also parents and guardians inassisting them in monitoring or providing appropriate advice to their children when usingthe SNSs.However, as indicated earlier, this is just a preliminary phase of the study. The actual datacollection with the improved version of the survey in the later phase to the larger sampleof the population for the study should be able to reflect a more accurate and significantfindings of the phenomenon. 6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This paper is funded by Research University Grant of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia(Project No. is QJ13000.7128.03J32). 7. REFERENCES [1] Baldwin, T. T. , Bedell, M. D. and Johnson, J. L.. The social fabric of a team- basedM.B.A. program: network effects on student satisfaction and performance. Academyof Management Journal , 40(6), 1997.[2] Boyd D. and Ellison N., Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication , 13 (1), 2007.[3] Cohen, R., Livewire: Web sites try to make internet dating less creepy. Reuters .Retrieved September 26, 2008 fromhttp://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3041934. 2003, July 5.[4] Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C., The benefits of Facebook Friends :

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