Researcher Fayrouz Ahmad Maslamani, a student in the master’s program in educational psychology, has defended her thesis titled “Tendency to Fun and its Relationship to Addiction to Social Networking Sites and the Extent of its Impact on Academic Achievement among a Sample of University Students in the Northern West Bank.”
The study aimed to identify the tendency to fun and its relationship to addiction to social networking sites and the extent of its impact on academic achievement among a sample of university students in the northern West Bank. The researcher followed the descriptive, correlational approach and applied it to a sample of (300) male and female students from universities in the northern West Bank, distributed among the Arab American University, An-Najah National University, and Palestine Technical University – Karoorie.
The results of the study indicated that the level of susceptibility to fun and addiction to social networking sites among university students in the northern West Bank came at a low level, while the level of academic achievement was at a high level among university students in the northern West Bank. The results of the study revealed that there were no statistically significances in the averages of susceptibility to fun due to the study variables: gender, faculty, year of study, place of residence, and family income. Likewise, there were no statistically significant differences in the averages of addiction to social networking sites among university students in the northern West Bank due to the study variables: gender, faculty, year of study, place of residence, and family income.
The study findings also revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in the averages of academic achievement due to variables such as faculty, year of study, place of residence, and family income, while there were statistically significant differences in the averages of academic achievement due to the gender variable in favor of female students according to the results. Moreover, the study revealed a statistically significant correlation between susceptibility to fun, addiction to social networking sites, and academic achievement among university students in the northern West Bank. It also indicated the possibility of predicting susceptibility to fun among the study sample through addiction to social networking sites. It is clear that addiction to social networking sites may contribute to predicting susceptibility to fun.
The researcher recommended the necessity of conducting workshops and training programs for students on the ability to be attracted through social networking sites on academic achievement, as well as the necessity of conducting studies similar to study other variables, such as specialized authorities such as counselors. In addition, it is possible to benefit from those responsible for caring for the individuals in developing appropriate guidance programs, which aim at preventing the tendency to fun and Internet addiction, as well as improving academic achievement, which benefits the individual, family, group and society.
The thesis was supervised by Dr. Wael Abuhasan. The committee of examiners included Dr. Fayez Mahameed and Dr. Marwan Abu Alrob.