The Impact of Using Social Networking Sites on Increasing Scientific Knowledge among General Secondary School Students

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the level of high school students' use of social networks for educational purposes. It also intended to study the level of student activity and participation while using these sites, reveal the students' level of awareness of utilizing these networks for education, clarifying the positive and the negative effects of students' use of social networks, and introduce implications regarding investing the social networks to serve students. This study is primarily qualitative in nature. The survey method and ques- tionnaire were used to collect data from a sample of (168) participants from high school students in various areas in Gaza. The study concluded that 86% of respondents use social networks whereas 14% of the respondents do not use them; Facebook is the most used social network by the re- spondents as it ranked first. Also the respondents intensively follow social networks and that they prefer entertainment materials. The online messaging via chats and comments were recealed to be the most used media by the respondents to communicate with others via social networks. The respondents who mainly contacted their friends during their chats via the networks represented the largest categories in the sample with a percentage of 37%.