Effects of Social Media on Academic Performance of High School Students under Pandemic (COVID-19) Situations

This study is entitled, “Effects of Social Media on Academic Performance of Don Ramon E. Costales Memorial National High School Students.” The study was conducted at Don Ramon E. Costales Memorial National High School in Villasis, Pangasinan.The Philippines This study aimed to determine the extent of students’ utilization of social networking sites, their reasons for using social media, and their social media preference. it also tried to explore how the different variables such as sex, age, religion, grade level, type of social networking sites, and the number of hours spent in studying affect the extent of their social media usage. Cooperation with the institution was done to administer the survey questionnaires. Binary logistic regression analysis and descriptive methods were used.Findings reveal that majority of the students used Facebook to communicate with their friends and relatives followed by Instagram. The students were using social media daily for 1-5 hours. The only variable that affected the extent of utilization of social media was the respondents’ gender. With 0.87, females were two times more exposed to social media rather than males. The study concludes that females are more exposed to social media rather than males. The use of social media by females has to do with their desire to communicate or share more personal information, revealing more about their personal lives. They use social networking sites to make connections and stay in touch with family or friends. Men, by contrast, use social media to gather the information they need to build influence. Facebook is the most preferred social networking site for students to connect with family and friends. They are entertained by Facebook. They use a long time chatting with friends rather than doing school works. Facebook becomes their daily routine. The study recommends for other researchers who wish to do a similar study, employ other variables which are not tested in the study to find other factors that affect the extent of social media usage of the students.