Conceptualizing a Model for Using Social Media as a Learning Tool and Its Effect on Academic Performance: The Moderating Effect of Self-Regulation

Social media has attracted considerable attention from students at higher level of educational pursuit and has become an important communication tool that enables rapid information exchange, connects with friends, and instructs and influences their academic performance. Students are prone to the effect of social media as they usually spend more time using social sites without proper monitoring from their parents, which affects their academic endeavors. This goal of this study is to propose a theoretical model for investigating the impact of social media usage on students’ academic performance. The proposed model has been developed by extending the Technology Acceptance Model theory with communication theory factors (motivation and perceived ease of communication) that consider the real motivation factors to accept and use new technologies. In addition, this study explores the effect of self-regulation as the moderating variable in the relationship between social media use and academic performance. This study provides comprehensive findings and insights of social media use among universities, researchers, and students and the extent to which academic performance is influenced by the use of social media. Furthermore, the proposed model must be tested in future studies.