Abstract

The social networks are considered as one of the latest communication devices and all communities, especially students, have been widely involved in them. The social networks are called as a valuable source for learning but they include some risks as well out of them the foremost risk is the influence of these networks on students and their educational performance. This study was conducted in order to analyze the effect of social networks on educational performance of students. A case-control study was conducted on 190 high school students from Nikshahr and Zabol cities in Sistan and Balouchestan Province at southeast of Iran in winter 2015. The students were divided into two groups in which the first group acquired higher GPA (115 students) and the second group had lower GPA (75 students). Sampling was done by means of simple randomized method. The standardized questionnaire was the tool for data collection that analyzed the performance and application of social networks among students. the statistical test were used in this study including descriptive test of frequency, frequency percentage, independent T-test, and chi-square for analysis of the effect of social networks on educational performance of two groups. In case group, most of students were usingwhat's-up network in terms of type of the membership network; however, most of students in control group were members of Face-Book. Using of games was the paramount reason for application of social networks while education and training was the main reason for their use in control group. Whereas application of social networks in this study has led to reducing educational performance of students thus it is suggested to hold some classes to familiarize them with administration of using these networks and their application for training and learning of textbook topics.