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The Impact of Social Media on Learning Behavior for Sustainable Education: Evidence of Students from Selected Universities in Pakistan

Author

Listed:
  • Jaffar Abbas

    (Antai College of Economics and Management (ACEM), School of Media and Communication (SMC), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), No. 800 Dongchuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai 200240, China
    School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, No. 99 Shangda Road, Baoshan District, Shanghai 200444, China)

  • Jaffar Aman

    (School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, No. 99 Shangda Road, Baoshan District, Shanghai 200444, China)

  • Mohammad Nurunnabi

    (Department of Accounting, Prince Sultan University, P.O. Box 66833, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia
    St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, 62 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6JF, UK)

  • Shaher Bano

    (School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, No. 99 Shangda Road, Baoshan District, Shanghai 200444, China)

Abstract

In today’s world, social media is playing an indispensable role on the learning behavior of university students to achieve sustainable education. The impact of social media on sustainable education is becoming an essential and impelling factor. The world has become a global village and technology use has made it a smaller world through social media and how it is changing instruction. This original study is amongst the few to perform a focalized investigation on revealing the relationship between positive and negative characteristics of social media and the learning attitude of university students for sustainable education. However, this study aims to examine the constructive and adverse factors that impact on students’ minds and how these helped students to share positive and negative aspects with others. It is increasingly noticeable that social networking sites and their applications present enormous benefits for as well as risks to university students and their implications on students’ psychological adjustment or learning behaviors are not well understood. This study adapted the cluster sampling method, and respondents participated from five selected regions. Researchers distributed 1013 questionnaires among the targeted sample of university students with an age range of 16 to 35 years, and they collected 831 complete/valid responses. This study applied the social gratification theory to examine students’ behavior practicing social media usage. This study specifically identified 18 adversarial and constructive factors of social media from the previous literature. The findings revealed that the usage of social media in Pakistan has a negative influence on a student’s behavior as compared to positive aspects. Results may not be generalized to the entire student community as findings are specific to the specific respondents only. This study presents a relationship between antithetical and creative characteristics of social media and exhibits avenues for future studies by facilitating a better understanding of web-based social network use.

Suggested Citation

  • Jaffar Abbas & Jaffar Aman & Mohammad Nurunnabi & Shaher Bano, 2019. "The Impact of Social Media on Learning Behavior for Sustainable Education: Evidence of Students from Selected Universities in Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-23, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1683-:d:215685
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    References listed on IDEAS

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