Social Media and the G.P.A

Hello and Hiii AGAIN, FRIENDS! Your favorite grad student here giving you communications update through the analysis of me, a graduate student!

This week we'll be talking about *drum roll* RESEARCH METHODS!!! Yessss, although learning about qualitative and quantitative research methods seem like a snooze. I can promise none of that here. Research methods allow us to find and measure information, also known as data. These findings once evaluated lead us to the greater good of communication kind! So, shall we get started? We S-H-A-L-L!
The research study I will be sharing is from 2015. It involves Saudi Arabian college students and the usage of social media on their GPAs. The study contained two parts, one involved quantitative research while the other component used qualitative research. Both studies took place between 20212 and 2014. Also, both studies produced results that showed social media usage did not change the GPAs of college students between the ages of 20-30. 

Researchers used the quantitative method first, distributing an online questionnaire to Saudi students. This was to ascertain information on their social media usage and academic performance (source). The quantitative aspect of the study, which was the questionnaire, was carried out prior to the qualitative aspect. The aim of the questionnaire was to test the hypothesis that an increase in use of social networks decreases the academic performance of the students (Investigating the Relationship between Social Media Usage and Students’ Grades in Saudi Arabia). The questionnaire, generated by Survey Monkey, featured three questions: 
R1- What has been the percent change in the students’ social network usage over the past two academic years i.e. 2012-2013 and 2013-2014?
R2- How the GPAs of the students have changed over time (the results of previous semesters)?
R3- What is the suitable amount of time to be spent on social media to escape from the downfall in the academic grades? (Investigating the Relationship between Social Media Usage and Students’ Grades in Saudi Arabia).
The qualitative analysis used after the results of the quantitative method involved interviews with five professors at the college and covered these criteria:

• The age group of the students. (Ex. 20-30 years etc.) 

• Observation about the usage of the social media over time for students of this college (e.g. in last 2 years) 

• Observations about the impact of social media on the academic grades and whether there was a relationship between them. 

• Suitable number of hours per week for students to use social media (Investigating the Relationship between Social Media Usage and Students’ Grades in Saudi Arabia).

Each method resulted with the same conclusion, student's social media usage did not affect the status of their grades. Honestly, I was surprised myself. The study has an interesting graph featured that's linked below. The graph shows all the semesters in a year. For this study, they only did spring and fall instead of summer. During the spring semesters, social media usage goes up. Then in the fall, it starts to dip. There isn't much information regarding why usage was high in the spring and low in the fall. However, a conclusion I came up with is when the spring semester is here tons of gatherings have happened. There are the holidays, holiday break, seeing friends who went off to school, visiting family, traveling. So, possibly using social to connect with people is happening a lot over the break that it transcends into the spring semester, causing a spike in usage. 

For mass communication studies, I think a study like this can offer insights into social media use with college students and how it may not have as much of a negative effect as assumed. Although this study is an older research analysis, it can still provide a context in how social usage can be used with higher education. Also, the qualitative method portion I thought was smart. Even though some college settings do not offer a close personal relationship with students, the interviews with the professors also make them accountable in the study by paying more attention to student's progress during semesters. 
In this research study, both methods were simple and easy to read and decipher how researchers came to their conclusions. Although biased and partial to qualitative methods. I LOVE interviews! Reading developing connections to subjects in a study makes the research come to life a little more. Just my thoughts! Each analysis was done well and resulted in inaccurate results. It was a great study. There will be a link below, along with the various charts from each study. Thank you again and again for taking the time to read my amateur analysis on really cool subjects! UNTIL NEXT TIME MY FRIENDS :)