The Quantity and Quality of Students’ Daily Social Media Usage in Relation to Social Awareness

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Introduction
Undoubtedly, technology has brought about numerous changes in the world and humanity. Technology has also influenced education. The majority of students are technologically obsessed. They commonly use smartphones, laptop computers, netbooks, tablets, and other electronic devices. Most students also have free on-campus or high-speed paid internet access. Unsurprisingly, students’ time spent in front of an electronic screen is increasing yearly (Yadav et al., 2021). They have been heavily involved in various social media platforms (Arora, 2019). On the other hand, students should use social media platforms for communication or leisure and social awareness. Hence, this study will focus on the relationship between social media usage and social awareness. Notably, the study would aim to determine whether the quantity and quality of students’ daily social media usage correlate with the awareness of various social issues at the local and national levels.
Students must use social media to their advantage. Several cybercrimes occur due to social media use, and it is not good if these students are involved in this situation. For example, there have been several instances where social media has been used as a platform for bullying. Some people post hate speech and derogatory remarks about others. In addition, there have also been reports of people being discriminated against on social media. People of different races, colors, or disabilities are the most common targets of discrimination. There are times when a child's use of a mobile phone is detrimental. For example, excessive use of mobile phones adversely affects a child’s academic performance (Yadav et al., 2021), prompting teachers to seek interventions to reduce students’ use of mobile phones (Jones et al., 2019). However, there have been times when using social media has been beneficial. For example, when a Black American was killed by police brutality, several social media users empathized with the families of the deceased, and more people became aware of what was happening worldwide. They even went so far as to launch a campaign called “Black Lives Matter.” As a result, social media usage can be beneficial if people, particularly students, understand how to use it properly and maximize its use. Hence, it is essential to determine whether the quantity and quality of students’ daily social media usage correlated with the awareness of various social issues at the local and national levels.
As stated earlier, the main point of the study is to identify if there is a correlation between the quantity and quality of students’ daily social media usage and their social awareness of common social issues. This correlation has two essential parts, which will be discussed below.
The study’s independent variable (IV) would be the quality and quantity of social media usage per day, measured by an app named Social Fever: App Time Tracker. Similar to other studies, quantity refers to the amount of time spent browsing social media platforms regardless of the social media platform (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, or others) and time of consumption (Aro...