Dr Nirashnee Padayachee
Dr Nirashnee Padayachee is currently a Senior Lecture at Stadio Higher Education. She has completed a Bachelor of Education degree with majors in Life Science and Technology. She has also completed a Bachelor of Education Honours, Master’s and PhD specialising in the field of Educational Psychology through the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her experience includes 16 years of basic education and 6 years of higher education. She is currently am a module co-ordinator and research supervisor on the Bachelor of Education Honours programme in Inclusive Education. She is also a critical thinker, researcher, and lifelong learner and has published in a book chapter and in the International Journal of Education Management. She has also presented at various conferences and enjoy travelling.
Beyond Screen Time: The Impact and Complex Psychology of Digital Addiction and Social Media Usage as a form of student engagement in South African Higher Education
The changing landscapes in education has created a shift in student engagement. This has resulted in student engagement becoming a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon. Furthermore, the shift in student engagement has resulted in the excessive use of digital technology and social media, as result higher education institutions are investing heavily in digital technology. It is also evident that there is a growing rate of social media usage (SMU) which has prompted researchers to focus on providing an understanding of this trend. Whilst some researchers have found that SMU has become a valuable source of communication and social support (Azizi, Soroush & Khatony., 2019), others have argued that it contributes to academic and psychological challenges, impacting student engagement and learning (Zhao, 2021). The excessive use of social media and digital technology has a significant psychological impact on young adults in higher education which includes anxiety, stress, depression, sleep disturbances, diminished creativity and critical thinking. The proposed study explores how the shift in student engagement has become complex and has created an increased use of digital technology and social media. The study also investigates psychological impact of excessive use of digital technology and social media usage on young adults. A qualitative approach will be employed in this study. The study will recruit a sample of young adults between the ages of 18-25 and data will be generated through questionnaires, narrative reflections and interviews. Questions will utilize The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS; Gomez.et. al, 2024) as a base for formulating questions to determine the extent of social media usage amongst students, and other questions will aim to gather an understanding of the impact of SMU on their academic performance as well as to reflect preferences in how SMU can be used in the teaching and learning process. Schindlers (2017) conceptual framework for student engagement is also used to explain the complexity of student engagement and the Dual Factor Model of Facebook Use proposed by Hoffman and Nadkarni (2013) is used to understand the SMU habits amongst student users. Through a comprehensive review of current literature and thematic analysis of data, the findings of this paper are aimed at suggesting interventions to develop healthy digital habits and provide insights into using digital technology Social media effectively and responsibly in the higher educational environment
References
Azizi, S.M., Soroush, A. and Khatony, A., 2019. The relationship between social networking addiction and academic performance in Iranian students of medical sciences: a cross-sectional study. BMC psychology, 7, pp.1-8.
Gomez, R., Zarate, D., Brown, T., Hein, K. and Stavropoulos, V., 2024. The Bergen–Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS): longitudinal measurement invariance across a two-year interval. Clinical Psychologist, 28(2), pp.185-194.
Petrocchi, N., Asnaani, A., Martinez, A.P., Nadkarni, A. and Hofmann, S.G., 2015. Differences between people who use only Facebook and those who use Facebook plus Twitter. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 31(2), pp.157-165.
Schindler, L.A., Burkholder, G.J., Morad, O.A. and Marsh, C., 2017. Computer-based technology and student engagement: a critical review of the literature. International journal of educational technology in higher education, 14, pp.1-28.
Zhao, H., Xiong, J., Zhang, Z. and Qi, C., 2021. Growth mindset and college students’ learning engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic: A serial mediation model. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, p.621094.