Examining the Relationship Between Students’ Social Media Usage, Smartphone Checking During Lessons/Studying, and Academic Achievement (GPA)

The interaction of young people with modern technology, specifically social media, is being studied in various contexts. This study aimed to examine the relationship between the students’ social media usage (SMU), smartphone checking during lessons or while studying, and their academic achievement (GPA). In total, 225 participants took part in the study, with a mean age of 17.22 years (SD=1.57). To examine the role of time spent on Facebook (FB) and Instagram (IG), frequency of checking FB and IG, and smartphone checking during lessons/while studying, a hierarchical regression analysis was made. In the first step of the analysis, the participants’ age and gender were controlled for, and both were significant predictors of the students’ GPA. According to the findings, younger age, and female gender both predict a higher GPA. The amount of time spent on IG was a negative predictor of the student’s GPA. Furthermore, the frequency of FB checking was also a predictor of the GPA, students who checked FB more frequently had higher GPAs. The two different measures of SMU (time spent and frequency of checking) were moderately congruent. The limitations and contributions of this study were discussed.