The presence of social media in the Swedish classroom. A study of social media usage and its possible effects during classroom instruction.

Abstract: This research aimed to test the hypothesis that mobile phone and social media usage by students during classroom instruction negatively affected academic performance. I believed students who claimed they often followed social media during lessons would have lower overall grade averages and have entered high school with fewer points than students who did not often use social media during lessons. Goals were to examine the debate on mobile phones and social media usage in school and conduct a quantitative self-report study. Questionnaires were distributed to 64 students and 65 teachers at a secondary school in Malmö, Sweden inquiring into the frequency of and attitudes towards social media usage during classroom instruction. The study looked for correlations between such usage, the number of points with which a student entered high school and their current overall grade average. Would frequent usage of social media during lessons lead to a greater tendency for lower grades? Results were mixed. Student groups who did not use a mobile or social media during lessons believed they had higher overall grades than groups who used a mobile or social media regardless of gender, though the believed difference was higher for females than males. Utilizing a contrived quality point system, further data analysis concluded that females who used a mobile/social media during lessons entered high school with an average of 4.8% more points than those who did not, while the opposite was true for the male groups. Males who stated they used a mobile or social media during lessons entered high school with an average of 4.4% fewer points than males who did not use such media. In general, more females used mobiles or social media in class, were more often unsure exactly how often they used them and outnumbered males (11:1) in stating they text or chat during “most” lessons.