Measuring the effect of social media on student academic performance using a social media influence factor model

With the advent of smartphones and fourth generation mobile technologies, the effect of social media on society has stirred up some debate and researchers across various disciplines have drawn different conclusions. Social media provides university students with a convenient platform to create and share educational content. However, social media may have an addicting effect that may lead to poor health, poor concentration in class, poor time management and consequently poor academic performance. Using a random sample of 623 students from the University of Professional Studies Accra, Ghana, this paper presents a social media influence factor (SMIF) model for measuring the effect of social media on student academic performance. The proposed model is examined using linear regression analysis and the results show a statistically significant negative relationship between SMIF variables and student grade point average (GPA). The model accounted for 30.7% of the variability in student GPA and it demonstrated a prediction quality of 55.4% given the data collected.