Archives of Current Research International

The use of social media in daily life has expanded because of increasing popularity and versatility, opening up new opportunities. Social media tools have been widely used in crises management by government and non-government organizations as witnessed during Covid-19 period. Social media are an important part of students’ lives throughout the world, with young people being extensive users of social media, such as Whats App, You tube, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram and Snapchat etc. The rapid expansion of social media has significantly changed students’ behaviour through maintaining personal relationships with family, friends, relatives, and teachers, students increasingly sharing details of their daily life on social media. Academic institutions were compelled to close face-to-face learning in response to the Covid-19 outbreak and use digital tools like social media to provide online course materials. But, there are competing forces regarding usage of social media as students simultaneously engage in social media for academic and non-academic purposes. Hence, the study of 300 students from Junagadh Agricultural University was conducted. The results revealed that majority of students who agreed to social media as distraction, use them for social, entertainment and time pass purpose with positive and significant association. Whereas, students who agreed for positive contribution of social media to their academic work, use them for academic purposes with positive and significant association. Hence, stud concludes that purpose of using social media is directly connected with its role in academic activities of students.