The Impact of Social Network Sites on Students’ Psychological Problems

Abstract

Students in recent years spend a considerable amount of time on social networking web-sites. They have made online access and navigation through these sites part of their daily activities. The impact of social network sites in particular has become a major subject of discussion among various studies, because some of them see these pages as a threat or obstacle, while the rest argue that them affects positively the age of adolescence. A quantitative, descriptive and exploratory survey was conducted to identify the impact of this involvement on adolescents’ behaviour that affect their psychological development. The research sample consisted of 893 students, between the ages 10-15 years, users of the social network sites. This champion has been taken from middle school institutions from different cities of Albania. The analysis of the study results confirmed that students are using social network sites for a long time during the day. They have become addicted to them and they already display some behaviour patterns. As a conclusion, the study found that the inclusion in social network sites, if students spend a considerable amount of time on them, has a negative impact in their psychological problems. Parents, teachers and students need to communicate with each other in order to identify and avoid the risks of social network sites and also other studies should be done in this field and suggest different strategies to manage the psychological problems caused by the use of social networking sites.