T
The present paper reflects the status of awareness and use of social media tools among PG students of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. For collecting data questionnaire technique was adopted wherein 60 questionnaire were distributed among PG students. The results shows that 100 percent respondants were aware and using social media tools in the University. Facebook, Watsup and Youtube were the most used social media tools; preffered device for using social media was smartphone; prefered place was home or hostel; and main difficulties in using social media tools were academic pressure & restriction of using social media in computer labs of University

Parmar, Seema

Pateria, Rajive Kumar

English

UNL | Libraries

University of Nebraska - Lincoln
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal) Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Summer 6-15-2019
AWARENESS AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
AMONG PG STUDENTS OF CCS HARYANA
AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, HISAR
Rajive Kumar Pateria
CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, rajivepateria@gmail.com
Seema Parmar
seemaparmar9@gmail.com
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac
Part of the Library and Information Science Commons
Pateria, Rajive Kumar and Parmar, Seema, "AWARENESS AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AMONG PG STUDENTS OF CCS
HARYANA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, HISAR" (2019). Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal). 2947.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/2947
1 
 
AWARENESS AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AMONG PG STUDENTS OF CCS 
HARYANA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, HISAR 
Dr. Rajive Kumar Pateria 
Professor, LIS 
Nehru Library, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar 
E-mail: rajivepateria@gmail.com 
and 
Dr. Seema Parmar 
Assistant Librarian,  
Nehru Library, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar 
E-mail: seemaparmar9@gmail.com 
 
 
Abstract 
The present paper reflects the status of awareness and use of social media 
tools among PG students of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. 
For collecting data questionnaire technique was adopted wherein 60 
questionnaire were distributed among PG students. The results shows that 
100 percent respondants were aware and using social media tools in the 
University. Facebook, Watsup and Youtube were the most used social 
media tools; preffered device for using social media was smartphone; 
prefered place was home or hostel; and main difficulties in using social 
media tools were academic pressure & restriction of using social media in 
computer labs of University. 
 
Keywords –Social media, Learning management systems, Social media tools, Discussion 
forums, Chat. 
 
1. INTRODUCTION  
Social media is rapidly becoming a vital part of everyone in the society. Public make 
use of social media to communicate, read, comment, share, like, and create content. In the 
words of Arora and Sharma (2013) social media is a platform “Where people interact freely, 
sharing and discussing information about their lives.” Hence Social media is that podium 
which is accessible to all under the umbrella of Internet.  Millions of people are connecting 
through social media over the globe and sharing thoughts of each other which were hard to 
imagine a few years back. 
2 
 
 
Today, millions of young people especially students of educational institutions 
heavily rely on social media.  “The pervasive use of these new communication platforms, 
especially among students in higher institutions is gathering momentum and receiving 
attention from researchers. Students of higher institutions are the major users of social 
networks” (Musa, Azmi, and Ismail, 2015). Due to Internet and Wi-Fi connectivity in almost 
all institutions and reasonable cost of Smart phones and data packages in the market, students 
feel free to use many social media networks and apps like Watsup, Facebook, Hangout, 
twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Youube to interact with friends, for sharing information and 
useful contents, to upload blogs, share photos and videos on web, etc.  
 
1.1 OBJECTIVES 
As the usage of social media is becoming prevalent in this era of ICT, the present study is 
conducted with the following objectives: 
• To investigate the awareness of social media among students of CCCSHAU. 
• To explore the use of social mediaa and tools  among students of CCCSHAU. 
• To identify the prefered places of using social media.  
• To examine the purpose of using social media. 
• To know the problems in using social media. 
•  
2. SCOPE AND RESEARCH METHODOLGY 
Scope of the study is limited to Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural 
University, Hisar. The study was conducted using survey technique. Questionnaires were 
distributed to get the response from users regarding awareness and use of various kinds of 
social media tools. For data collection random sample of total 60 students was taken from all 
colleges of CCSHAU, Hisar. 
 
3. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 
Many studies have been conducted on awareness and use of social media among 
students, youngsters and society. Only a few studies have been consulted for the present 
study. Hussain (2012) in his study of 600 students of Faculty of Education at Islamia 
University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan found the majority (90%) of the students used face-book. 
Social media was used for sharing academic learning experiences with other friends at 
national and international level. The problems faced by students were bandwidth of Internet 
3 
 
and electricity break down/ load shedding. Ezeah, Ph, Asogwa and Obiorah (2013) in their 
study found Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were most used preferred social media among 
Nigerian university students. Social media was used for getting entertainment, 
education/information, to discuss national issues, engage in cyber etc. Musa, Azmi
, 
and 
Ismail (2015) in their study explored the awareness and use of  social networks among 111  
diploma students of mass communication and revealed that majority of the respondents 
(98.2%) were aware of social networks and mostly used smart phones using the same for 
academic purpose, self-expression, and establishing a global friendship. Sheikh (2016) 
explored the awareness, usage and feelings of CIIT faculty about the five most famous 
Academic Social Networking Websites viz. Research Gate, Zotero, Linked in, Mendeley and 
Acedemia.edu and found the majority of faculty members were aware of them and visited 
said websites twice in a week for half an hour for the purposes with interacting with experts, 
psharing of their research work, to know latest research trends etc. LinkedIn was most used 
network website followed by Research Gate, Acedemia.edu, Mendeley and Zotero. 
Parusheva, Aleksandrova and Hadzhikolev (2018) in their study of 378 students at the 
University of Economics- Varna, Bulgaria found high popularity and strong positive interest 
of students for the social platforms, especially Facebook as almost 100% students used it  
daily basis. 
 
4. DATA ANALYSIS 
Data collected for the present study has been presented through tables and graphs. 
Percentage of all  response has been derived in all tables to analyse the findings. 
 
Table 5.1 Response rate of PG Students 
  
In every survey study response rate of users is very important. In the present study there were 
total 60 questionnaires distributed among PG students of CCS Haryana Agricultural 
University. Out of all distributed questionnaires, all questionnaires were returned with 
response rate of 100% as reflected in table 5.1. 
Status Response  
Questionnaire distributed 60 
Response Recieved 60 
Response rate 100% 
4 
 
 
 
Table 5.2 Awarenessand Use about Social Media 
Factor Response Percentage  
Awareness 60 100 
Use 60 100 
 
A few recent studies on Social Media (SM) reveal that a large number of students in higher 
educational institutions are using social media for academic and other purposes.  Table 5.2 
depicts the level of awareness and use  of social media  among PG students of CCSHAU.It is 
very apparent from the table that all the  PG students of university were aware of Social 
Media (SM). Not only all students were aware but they all were found using SM for one or 
another purposes. It is really a very amazing finding of the study that full ratio of students of 
CCSHAU  used social media.  
 
Table 5.3 Use of different SM tools 
SM Tools Awareness 
(N=60) 
Percentage Use 
(N=60) 
Percentage 
Facebook 60 100 60 100 
Hangout 40 66.66 20 33.33 
Twitter 47 78.33 20 33.33 
WhatsApp 60 100 60 100 
Youtube 60 100 58 96.66 
Instagram 49 81.66 39 65 
Skype 42 70 24 40.00 
Blogs 23 38.33 3 5 
Linkedin 31 51.66 16 26.66 
Wiki 31 51.66 20 33.33 
Flickr 11 18.33 5 12 
SlideShare 37 61.66 21 35 
Myspace 15 25 9 15 
Googleplus 30 50 18 30 
5 
 
Bing search 29 48.33 5 8.33 
Classmates 30 50.00 2 3.33 
Cyworld 11 18.33 0 0 
Foursuare 8 13.33 0 0 
Tumbler 5 8.33 0 0 
Meetup 12 20.00 0 0 
Printerest 27 45.00 4 6.66 
 
Table 5.3 lists the different SM tools and their awareness and use among PG students of 
CCSHAU. Table shows that most popular SM tools were Facebook, Watsup and Youtube as 
all the respondents were found aware about these three SM tools. Out of these three most 
fully sentient tools,  all students were found using two SM tools viz. Facebook and Watsup 
while almost all (96.66%) using youtube. Next five most sentient SM tools were Instagram 
(81.66%), Twiter (78.33%), Skype (70%), Hangout (66.66), and SlideShare (61.66%) as 
almost 60% to 80 % of users were aware of these tools but out of these five most sentient SM 
tools only Instagram was used by more users (65%) whereas other four were used by 33 - 40 
% users only. Least sentient SM tools were ‘Fousqure’ (13.3%) and ‘Tumbler’ (8.33%) and 
four SM tools namely ‘Fousqure, Cyworld, Meetup and ‘Tumbler’ were used by no one. 
 
Table 5.4 Period of using SM 
 
Frequency of use Response 
(N=60) 
Percentage 
Less than 1year 3 5 
1-2 years 3 5 
2-3 years 7 11.66 
3-4 years 17 28.34 
More than 4 years 30 50 
 
It is very much clear from table 5.3 that all the PG students of CCSHAU use social media but 
it is also very important to know the frequecy of using SM by the students. Table 5.4 shows 
the frequecy of use of SM among students of the university. It is very apparent from the table 
that half of the respondents (50%) were found using SM for more than four years. More than 
one fourth of users (28.34%)were using social media from three to four years. Only one tenth 
6 
 
of users (11.66%) were found using SM from 2-3 years while same numbers of users (5% 
each) were using SM from 1 to 2 years and less than one year. Thus it becomes clear from the 
table that majority of users of CCSHAU were using SM for a long period. 
 
Table 5.5 Preference of device for using SM  
Device Frequency 
(N=60) 
Percentage 
Desktop  8 13.33 
Laptop  20 33.33 
Smartphone  58 96.66 
Tablet  2 3.33 
Cybercafé Devices 1 1.66 
 
Table 5.5 shows the prefered devices for using SM. It was found that almost all PG students 
(96.66%) of CCSHAU preferred using their Smart Phones for SM communications. Laptaops 
(33.33%) were another prefered device for using SM by students followed by Dektops 
(13.33%). Least number of students preferred tablets (3.33%) and Cyber cafe devices 
(1.66%) for using social media. It is also clear from the table that almost all the students of 
CCSHAU had Smart phones for using social media apps and tools. 
 
Table 5.6 Preferred place to use SM  
Place Response 
(N=60) 
Percentage 
Home /hostel 55 91.66 
University/Department 36 60 
While travelling  49 81.66 
Cyber Cafe 1 1.66 
 
Table 5.6 indicates the places prefered for using SM by the PG students . Table shows that 
more than 90 percent students used SM communications sitting in their hostels or home. 
Another prefered place for using SM was travelling space (81.66%) as preferred to use SM 
when they commuted from one place to another so that their time could be better utilized .Use 
of SM from campus or department was found 60 % while  least use was made from Cyber 
cafe as only one user prefered to use SM through cyber cafe. 
 
7 
 
 
Table  5.7 Purpose of Using SM 
Purpose Frequency 
(N=60) 
Percentage 
Share my experience on different things 44 73.33 
Keep in touch with friends and family  50 83.33 
Share photos, videos and movie 44 73.33 
Make professional and business contacts 35 58.33 
Find important  information 48 80.00 
Searching new people, friends or contacts 31 51.66 
Get opinion from friends, family and experts 39 65.00 
Entertain myself 47 78.33 
Socialization  41 68.33 
Share feedback about brands and products 23 38.33 
Contributing on online forums and discussions 26 43.33 
Editing wiki articles  14 23.33 
Posting or review or rating on various sites 23 38.33 
 Get freebies  14 23.33 
 
Table 5.7 indicates the purposes of PG students of CCSHAU in using SM. More than 80 
percent of respondents used SM for keeping in touch with their friends and family (83.33 %), 
and finding important information (80%). 70% to 80% respondents used SM for their 
entertainment (78.33%), Share photos, videos and movie (73.33%) and Share their  
experience with others on different things (73.33%). More than half of users used SM for 
Socialization (68.33%), get opinion from friends, family and experts (65.00%), make 
professional and business contacts (58.33%) and searching new people, friends or contacts 
(51.66 %).  There were 35 percent to 45 percent users used SM for contributing on online 
forums and discussions (43.33%), and Share feedback about brands (38.33%) and Posting or 
review or rating on various sites (38.33%). Less than 25 percent users used SM for editing 
wiki articles, and get freebies (23.33 % each). 
Table 5.8 Time spent in using SM 
Time spent Frequency Percentage 
 Always logged    14 23.33 
8 
 
More than 5 times in a day 12 20.00 
3 or 4 times in a day 10 16.66 
2 times in a day 6 10.00 
Once in a day 18 30.00 
 
Table 5.8 Shows the time spent by students in using SM. Majority of users (30%) reported 
that they used social media only once in a day followed by respondents (23.33%) who 
reported that they kept them always logged in to use SM.  There were 20 % students of the 
university used social media more than 5 times in a day while 16.66 % respondents used SM 
three or four times in a day. SM was used only two times in a day by 10 % students of 
CCSHAU. It is very clear from awareness and use of social media is almost full among 
students of CCSHAU but majority of students found using social media for a very less time 
as nearly 40% of users of users used SM for once or two times in a day. 
 
Table 5.9 Difficulties in using SM 
Difficulties Frequency 
(N=60) 
Percentage 
Restriction of using social media in Computer 
Labs of University 
40 66.66 
Poor Wi-Fi Connectivity 8 13.33 
Lack of Hardware at Hostels and Home 23 38.33 
Smartphone’s not affordable 0 0 
Academic Pressure 42 70 
Parents restrictions at home 18 30 
Do not get time 24 40 
Find fake information’s 5 8.33 
Waste my time 17 28.33 
Internet pack not affordable 2 3.33 
 
Table 5.9 demonstrates the difficulties faced by CCSHAU students in using social media. It 
was found that nearly three fourth part of students (70%) find difficulty in using social media 
due to academic pressure followed by restriction of using social media in computer labs of 
university(66.66%).  Thirty to forty percent users faced problem of lack of time (40%), lack 
of hardware at home or hostels (38.33%) and parents’ restrictions in use of social media 
9 
 
(30%). Nearly 30% respondents reported that they do not use social media much because 
they consider social media as wastage of their time. No student thought availability of 
Smartphone as a barrier in using social media. 
6. CONCLUSION 
Use of SM is rapidly growing among youngsters specially the students of higher educational 
institutions. The students not only use social media networks or apps for their entertainment 
or socialization but also using these tools for their academic and research purposes as these 
tools are  assisting  the academic community in various pedagogical activities. The present 
study gives an insight on the awareness, usage and other aspects of CCSHAU Hisar. Findings 
of the study show that the all PG students are aware of social media and using a few tools like 
Watsup, Facebook and Youtube at full rate. Most of the respondents used two or more 
academic social network for the last 4 years or more. The results also reveals that the PG 
students  are mostly using SM tools for the purpose of for keeping in touch with their friends 
and family ; finding important information ; entertainment ; Share photos, videos and movie ; 
and Share their  experience with others on different things . Awareness and use of social 
media is almost full among students of CCSHAU but majority of students found using social 
media for a very less time as nearly 40% of users of users used SM for once or two t imes in a 
day. Nearly one third part of students find difficulty in using social media due to academic 
pressure followed by  restriction of using social media in computer labs of university. 
7. REFERENCES 
1. Hussain, I. (2012). A study to evaluate the social media trends among university students. 
Procedia - Social and Behavioural Sciences, 64, 639-645. 
 
2. Arora, Shruti and Sharma. Anukrati (2013) Social Media: A New Marketing Strategy. 
International Journal of Management, 4(3): 19–37 
 
3. Musa, A. S, Azmi, M.N.L and Ismail, N.S (2015). Awareness and Usage of Social Media: 
A Study of Mass Communication Students of Kano State Polytechnic. International 
Conference on Languages (ICL) held at Kuala Lumpur. 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/295681463_Awareness_and_Usage_of_Social_
Media_A_Study_of_Mass_Communication_Students_of_Kano_State_Polytechnic 
Accessed on 21.05.2018 
10 
 
 
4. Sheikh, Arslan (2016). Awareness and Use of Academic Social Networking Websites by 
the Faculty of CIIT.  Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries (QQML) 5: 177—
188. 
 
5. Ezeah, G. H., Ph, D., Asogwa, C. E., & Obiorah, I. (2013). Social media use among 
students of universities in South-East Nigeria, 16(3), 23-32. 
6. Parusheva, Silvia, Aleksandrova, Yanka, and Hadzhikolev, Antonio (2018). Use of Social 
Media in Higher Education Institutions – an Empirical Study Based on Bulgarian 
Learning Experience. TEM Journal. 7 (1): 171-181.  DOI: 10.18421/TEM71-21 
https://dx.doi.org/10.18421/TEM71-21 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


AWARENESS AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AMONG PG STUDENTS OF CCS HARYANA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, HISAR

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6161&amp;context=libphilprac

AWARENESS AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AMONG PG STUDENTS OF CCS HARYANA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, HISAR

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

UNL | Libraries