Social Media Usage Intensity and Academic Performance among Undergraduate Students in Saudi Arabia

As the statistics show, use of social media networks (SMNs) are very common among college students worldwide. According to a report by Hootsuite, Saudi Arabia was ranked as the number-one country in the growth of social media users. With the advancement of technology and internet speed, investigating how SMNs affect students has become an absolute necessity. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of social media networks (SMNs) on the academic performance of undergraduate students across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, taking gender differences into account. An invitation email to participate in the online survey was sent to all undergraduate students at five public universities in Saudi Arabia. In total, 453 students from five public universities participated in this study. The results suggested that female students tend to spend more time on SMNs for general purposes and academic purposes than male students. In regard to multitasking with SMNs during schoolwork and social media usage intensity, the results showed no significant differences between male and female students. Finally, the regression analysis showed a positive relationship between students' academic performance and SMNs usage intensity after gender and high school GPA were controlled for.