Use of Social Media: A Study on Some Selected College Students in South 24 Pargana District, West Bengal

Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 Issue 4 [JulAug] Year 2025 698 © 2025 Samit Chattopadhyay. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Research Article Use of Social Media: A Study on Some Selected College Students in South 24 Pargana District, West Bengal Samit Chattopadhyay * Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Vidyanagar College, Charashaymdas, South 24 Parganas, WB, India Corresponding Author: Samit Chattopadhyay * DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17586565 Abstract Manuscript Information The term social media is a compilation of two important terms, social and media. Social means to get in touch with others, maintaining the norms and protocol developed by society, and the Media generally refers to advertising and the communication of ideas or information, through implies the interaction of individuals within a group of community. Social media is a technology based on computers for sharing ideas, thoughts within communities using a virtual network. The study normally based on primary data, was collected by creating a Google form. The main objective of this study is to show the reasons and patterns of using social media among the students of South 24 Pargana District, West Bengal. The study showed the problems of using social media in a continuous time too. It can be said that using social media may be good for the students, but definitely under control situation otherwise it may cause adverse effects on their career. ▪ ISSN No: 2583-7397 ▪ Received: 15-07-2025 ▪ Accepted: 28-08-2025 ▪ Published: 31-08-2025 ▪ IJCRM:4(4); 2025: 698-701 ▪ ©2025, All Rights Reserved ▪ Plagiarism Checked: Yes ▪ Peer Review Process: Yes How to Cite this Article Chattopadhyay S. Use of Social Media: A Study on Some Selected College Students in South 24 Pargana District, West Bengal. Int J Contemp Res Multidiscip. 2025;4(4):698-701. Access this Article Online www.multiarticlesjournal.com KEYWORDS: Social Media, Ideas, Communication. Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 Issue 4 [JulAug] Year 2025 699 © 2025 Samit Chattopadhyay. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 1. INTRODUCTION The term social media is a compilation of two important terms, social and media. Social means to get in touch with others, maintaining the norms and protocol developed by society, and the Media generally refers to advertising and the communication of ideas or information, through implies the interaction of individuals within a group of community. Social media is a technology based on computers for sharing ideas, thoughts within communities using a virtual network. By design, social media is internet-based and gives users quick electronic communication of content that includes personal information, documents, videos, and photos. It is an important tool that is used by people, especially students, to stay in touch with their friends even these lockdown periods. Social media has an important role in people's lives. It is effectively used in social mobilisation, development of the economy, political reformation, protective role on the environment and disaster management. 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Kumari. P (2020) showed in her study how youngsters used social media during this lockdown period and also showed its effect. Akram & Kumar. R (2017) analysed how the technology is developing, and web-based social networking has become a routine for every individual; groups are seen as dependent on this technology consistently. Singh (2017) analysed and showed in her study that using WhatsApp more for social activities, such as obtaining new information, keeping in touch with friends, etc. Acheaw and Larson (2015) stated that the use of social media had affected the academic performance of the respondents negatively and further confirmed that there was a strong positive relationship between the use of social media and academic performance. 3. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The primary objectives of the study are – • To know about the types of social media used by the students. • To analyse the reasons and problems for using social media. 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The present study is empirical as well as explanatory in nature. The study is based on both primary and secondary data. The primary data have been obtained by administering a structured questionnaire, and the secondary data have been sourced from the relevant books, journals, reports, websites, etc. For administering the questionnaire, the respondents have been selected through judgmental sampling, and by framing the questionnaire, the previous research work in the related areas has been taken into consideration. The data collected have been analysed using simple statistics, charts and Pearson’s chi-square test. Data Sample The target group for administering the questionnaire comprises six selected colleges of the South 24 Pargana district. The survey has been done by distributing the structured questionnaire to the students of six colleges. The respondent for the study has been chosen by judgmental sampling. The questionnaire has been distributed through Google Form. The study has finally been done on the basis of 200 completed filled in questionnaires. The study was conducted between August & September 2020. Analysis and Interpretation Chart 1: Distribution of Gender in percentage form Out of 200 respondents, 57% of the respondents are male and 43% are female. Table 1: Time Spent on social media during the lockdown period No of Male students % in respect of total male students No of female students % in respect of total female students More than 6 Hours 57 50 12 14 Between 4 to 6 Hours 25 22 16 17 Between 2 to 4 Hours 25 22 28 33 Less than 2 Hours 7 6 30 36 Source: Primary data Table 1 reveals that 50% of the male students use social media more than 6 hours a day only 6% of the male students use social media less than 2 hours a day, as compared to 36% of female students. From the above observation, it is clear that male students spend more time on social media than female students. Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 Issue 4 [JulAug] Year 2025 700 © 2025 Samit Chattopadhyay. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Table 2: Most usable social media application No of Male students % in respect of total male students No of female students % in respect of total female students Face book 31 27 19 22 YouTube 13 11 10 12 Game App 43 38 5 6 WhatsApp 27 24 52 60 Source: Primary Data Table 2 reveals that the majority of the male students are very much attracted towards mobile game applications, followed by Facebook and WhatsApp. Female students generally prefer to use WhatsApp and Facebook, as per the above table. Female students’ respondents show less interest in online mobile game applications. Table 3: Reasons for using social media No of Male students % in respect of total male students No of female students % in respect of total female students Get in touch with a friend 30 27 22 26 Spending Leisure Time 12 11 12 13 Finding new ideas 10 8 4 5 Sharing new thoughts 5 4 5 6 Use as a tool for study 57 50 43 50 Source: Primary Data From Table 3, it is clear that students use social media as a tool of study during the lockdown period. In this pandemic situation, generally, they use this tool to share information regarding their study or to get in touch with their friends. A very negligible percentage of students want to share new ideas through this social media. From a student’s point of view, the percentage of both female and male students who use social media is more or less the same. CHI-SQUARE TEST • To assess the relationship between respondents' gender (Students) with the usage of a specific social media app. H01: There is no relationship between the Gender of students. And the usage of a specific social media app. Table 4: Chi-Square Tests The above tables give the result of the Chi-Square test of the association of attributes between the form Gender (Students) usage of a specific social media app. Several Statistics are reported here, but the most commonly used is the Pearson ChiSquare. In Table 4, the p-value is less than 0.05, the percentage level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected. In other words, there seems to be a relationship between Gender (Students) and usage of a specific social media app. To assess the Degree of Relationship between education and the use of social media apps by students during this lockdown Period. H02: There is no significant relationship between education and the use of social media apps by students during this lockdown Period. Table 5: Chi-Square Test Value df Asymp. Sig. (22-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 42.360a 16 .000 Likelihood Ratio 42.363 16 .000 Linear-by-Linear Association 5.022 1 .025 N of Valid Cases 200 The above tables give the result of the Chi-Square test of the relationship between education and the use of social media apps by the students during this lockdown Period. Several Statistics are reported here, but the most commonly used is the Pearson Chi-Square. In Table 20(ii), the p-value is less than 0.05, per the significance Value df Asymp. Sig. (2 2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 176.295a 8 .000 Likelihood Ratio 175.134 8 .000 Linear-by-Linear Association 46.130 1 .000 N of Valid Cases 200 Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 Issue 4 [JulAug] Year 2025 701 © 2025 Samit Chattopadhyay. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected. In other words, there seems to be a significant relationship between education and the use of social media apps by students during this lockdown Period. • To assess the relationship between respondents' gender (Students) and with time spent using social media. H01: There is no relationship between the Gender (Students) and with time spent using social media. Table 6: Chi-Square Tests The above tables give the result of the Chi-Square test of the association of attributes between the Gender (Students) and with time spent using social media. Several Statistics are reported here, but the most commonly used is the Pearson Chi-Square. In Table 4, the p-value is less than 0.05, the percentage level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected. In other words, there seems to be a relationship between Gender (Students) and the time spent using social media. Problems faced by students while using social media. • They share their personal information, which may create problems in their daily life. • Cannot able to make a proper judgment about the fake account, which may create a certain kind of tension in their life. • Too much use of social media through electronic gadgets creates some harmful effects on their health, like headaches, problems with their eyes, hypertension, etc. • Spending too much time online chatting creates a virtual world around them, which • make some problems with personal relationships with a normal friend circle. • They neglect family relationships, spending too much time on social media. Though the students want to use it as a tool for their study but it ultimately creates a negative impact on their study. FINDINGS • Male students are more addicted to social media than female students. • Male students are more prone to mobile game apps than other apps. • Students are using all these social media platforms for enhancing their study purposes during this pandemic. • Female students are very active using WhatsApp. Prolonged use of social media creates problems both physically and academically for students CONCLUSION It is observed that students are very active on social media. Instead of sharing knowledge and ideas, they utilised this platform for their academic purpose as well as getting in touch with their friends. Male students are very active in playing games and etc in social media. Besides all these advantages prolong use of electronic device ultimately affect the students physically and academically as well. They lost their personal relationship. So, it can be said that suing social media may good for the students but definitely under control situation otherwise it may cause adverse effect in their career. REFERENCES 1. Singh. A study on social media: its impact with positive and negative aspects. Int J Comput Appl Technol Res. 2017;55(2):71–75. 2. Acheaw MO, Larson AG. Use of social media and its impact on academic performance of tertiary institution students: a study of students of Koforidua Polytechnic, Ghana. J Educ Pract. 2015;6(6):42–48. 3. Akram W, Kumar R. A study on positive and negative effects of social media on society. Int J Comput Sci Eng. 2017;5(10):102–107. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26438/ijcse/v5i10.351354 4. Kumari P. Social media usage by the youngsters during COVID-19 pandemic period. Purakala. 2020;31(39):175– 184. 5. ResearchGate. Problems faced by students in the utilization of social media [Internet]. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Problems-face-bystudents-in-the-utilization-of-socialmedia_fig1_322701558 6. Springer. Social media and its impact [Internet]. Available from: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-66246158-7_20 7. University of Washington IT Connect. ECAR social media research [Internet]. Available from: https://itconnect.uw.edu/learn/research/ecar-social-media Value df Asymp. Sig. (22-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 60.867a 20 .000 Likelihood Ratio 52.053 20 .000 Linear-by-Linear Association 20.512 1 .000 N of Valid Cases 200 Creative Commons (CC) License This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.