Abstract:
: Social networking sites and applications play an important role in the present generation worldwide. They have created a new social dimension where individuals can increase their social awareness by keeping in touch with old friends, making new friends, dispensing new data or products and gathering information in other aspects of everyday life. This helps individuals become more knowledgeable, which is very beneficial for students. This research attempts to obtain students' perceptions on how their use of social networking sites influences their academic performance. The usage of social networking sites has been common among students in higher learning institutions in the world. Its use has received with different views, positive or negative impact to students' academic performance. This study, therefore anticipates to examining the impact of social networking sites on students' academic performance in Zanzibar. The study was descriptive designed, where data were collected through interview, questionnaire to 45 participants. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in forms of frequencies, percentages, graphs, charts and tables. The study found that, students who frequently use social networking cites, records poor academic performance compared to their counter parts. The study recommends that for effective performance of students in their academic endeveours, frequent use of social networking sites should be minimized while studying.
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