Effects of social networking sites on university students’ academic performance: A systematic review

Abstract

This paper analyzed the effects of social networking sites (SNS) on university students’ academic performance. In this study, the peer-reviewed articles were taken from the SCOPUS database. The 22 articles meeting the inclusion criteria were involved in the analysis. Two researchers analyzed the articles using the content analysis method according to the researchers’ established analysis criteria. The results showed that research has generally reported positive and significant results on the influence of SNS on academic achievement. However, some studies have reported the negative effects of SNS on academic achievement. The results regarding the publication year of the reviewed studies showed an increase between 2019 and 2022. The results also showed that the data collection instruments included quantitative methods to collect data in all reviewed studies, and most participants were between 100 and 300. In addition, the main data source to measure academic achievement was the Grade Points Average, and most of the research was conducted in Saudi Arabia. These findings from this research add new insights to the literature and have important conclusions for researchers regarding the uses of SNS on academic achievement.