Investigating Effects of Social Media on School Environment. A Case of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

Social media is used for variety of purposes. For instance it is used for recording protest, voicing social, religious, political concerns, keep their daily activities trail, share friends and family photos and videos and get in touch with old and new friends around the globe
(Siddiqui & Singh, 2016). Though its used has been globally adopted, however, it is very important for the users and other stack holders to understand its different dimensions which could either be beneficial or harmful in the context of school environment and school going children in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. In the continuation a qualitative case study research approach based on phenomenology was used to perform the current research. Five schools were selected through convenience sampling technique for data collection. The data collection was meant to be carried out till data saturation, however, 5 schools were also conveniently selected keeping in view the relatively small scale of the study. The data saturation started within 5 selected schools. 78 heads of all the middle school for boys, 558 teachers while 10193 students comprised population of the study. Data collection from students and head teachers was conducted through semi-structured interviews. Ten interviews were conducted with students and five with head-teachers respectively. While total of five group discussions in five selected schools were conducted for data collection. Thematic analysis of the data was carried out. Negative and positive effect of the social media surfaced after data analysis. Positive effects included “real world skills, Accessibility and availability’ Peer learning, motivation and engagement, discussion and collaboration” while negative effects included negative traits like “cyber bullying and misuse, inequity, academic dishonesty, lack of social interaction and negative social comparison etc.