The development of new information and communication technologies and their utilization in everyday lives and especially the involvement of new generation in the usage of these technologies for communication, for entertainment, for education, and other activities has raised a real problem of distracting of young generation from necessary information for professional and intellectual development. In this chapter, the influence of social networks on higher institution students' academic performance is considered. There is a trial to build analytical models and estimate the degree of social networks impact on student academic performance by using GPA grades. The problem of involvedness of young people in social networks and its impact on the study process and academic performance brought concern towards the quality of professional development in the Central Asian region. As it is a sustainable development provided by the country's economy, the educational system directly depends on younger generation's interest in study and wellbeing.
TopIntroduction
There is a problem about the future of youth and their development, active usage of Social media leads the indefiniteness of expectations in lives, but it is known that good knowledge is the best valuable contribution for everybody. Good GPA level is one of the main indicators of university’s quality and reputation. This research should be directed to define the social media usage impact’s degree (positive or negative) on students’ study outcomes.
The relevance of this topic today is quite broad, day by day there is so much information in the world. The task is to help students to filter only the necessary information, make it accessible and understandable for its further conversion to knowledge.
Social networks penetrate into the peoples’ daily life very deeply. The social media users of Central Asian countries compose 21% of the total population (Prins, 2019). The telecom companies of the Central Asian countries represent the social media penetration separately in December 2018. There are almost 1,263 thousand internet users in the republic of Turkmenistan, 21.2% of penetration rate (per internet users), 20 thousand Facebook subscribers (0.3% penetration); more than 17,161 thousand internet users in the republic of Uzbekistan, 52.3% of penetration rate (per internet users), 800 thousand Facebook subscribers (2.4% penetration); a few more than 3,013 thousand internet users in the republic of Tajikistan, 32.4% of penetration rate (per Internet World Stats), some more than 2,493 thousand internet users in Kyrgyzstan republic, 170 thousand subscribers (1.8% penetration); 40.1% penetration (per Internet World Stats), almost 14,470 thousand internet users, 650 thousand Facebook subscribers (10.5% penetration); 78.9 penetration rate(per Internet World Stats) in the republic of Kazakhstan, 2.500 Facebook subscribers (13.4% penetration).
The source of Statcounter.com shows the most popular Social Media sites in Kazakhstan. Since 2009 Facebook, VKontakte, YouTube occupy the first places and Instagram is on one of the last places in the list (Figure1).
Figure 1.
Social media usage in Kazakhstan,” Market Share Perc. (2009 - 2019)”
As it is seen in the histogram the leader of sites in the period of 2009-2019 is Facebook -36,42%, then Vkontakte -26,2% and YouTube -15,43%. For the last year within 2018-2019 there is some change in results. The leader of Social Media sites in Kazakhstan is YouTube and Twitter is one of the last in the list. (Baizyldayeva, Nurmagambetova, 2019)
Figure 2. Social media usage in Kazakhstan in the period from October 2018- to October 2019
The most of all people use the site of Pinterest 23,32%, different from the previous chart, Pinterest has occupied the 5th place, then Vkontakte has stayed on the second place 22,15%, Facebook has become on the 3rd place 14,78%, YouTube and Instagram are on the 4th and 5th places 14.54% and 14.55% accordingly. Twitter is not so popular 8,1% in the country. (Figure2).
Social network sites join people. Their own opinion can be shared not only with friends, but with the whole world. Using social media tools, it can be organized a video call, meeting, event, protest, conference or donation program. Most social networking sites are free for users. Youth can work for the good of society, using social media tools to participate in volunteer initiatives. Social networking sites are used for communication, but unfortunately not for it, for spam too, cybercrime and fraud. There are not all people have enough knowledge and skills needed to use computer technology and tools. Young people can use the social networking sites not only for leisure activities, but also to unite young people for initiatives to improve society.