Social Media Activities of Bangladeshi Secondary School Students and Its Influence on Students’ Behavior ()
1. Introduction
The first communication tool for early human society was cave painting, through which they communicated among their communities (Morriss-Kay, 2009) . Realising the importance of communication in human organisations, they developed various tools and techniques over the years to make their communication process easy and effective. In this age, people created computers and the internet that allow them to communicate in online mediums. Nowadays, people use various social media platforms to communicate and fulfil their various purposes (Kaya & Bicen, 2016) .
With the worldwide advancement of communication sectors, marvellous development in the internet and telecommunication sectors also happened in Bangladesh last decade (GSM Association, 2018) . As of January 2023, 44.70 million Bangladeshis used social media, constituting 26.0% of the country’s total population (Datareportal, 2023) . Though the largest user group comprised people aged 18 to 24 (Markedium, 2022) , 18.5 million adolescents use social media in Bangladesh, which is also a significant proportion (Banerjee et al., 2022) and emphasizing the importance of conducting studies on them.
However, as online communication using social media platforms has extensive popularity globally, researchers are very interested in knowing different issues of this communication process. Therefore, it has become a significant area of research for researchers worldwide (Al-Rahmi et al., 2014; Collins & Hide, 2010) . Researchers found that students or adolescents are involved in various social media activities, which positively and negatively influence their behaviour. At the same time, another group of researchers found that social media activities have no influence on their behaviour. For example, Tobi et al. (2013) , Yunus et al. (2013) , and Deng and Tavares (2013) found their positive impact on students’ health and academic performance, writing and vocabulary skills, and reflective ability and critical thinking skills. Conversely, Mitchell et al. (2016) , Jha et al. (2016) , Kowalski and Limber (2013) and Abaido (2019) argued that it has significant adverse outcomes on students’ physical and mental health and academic performance. In addition, Kaya and Bicen (2016) and Rouis (2012) claimed that it has no influence on students’ behaviour, while Ellison et al. (2011) and Negussie and Ketema (2014) found both positive and negative influence of using social networks on students’ behaviour. Therefore, researchers divided into various groups regarding the influence of social media activities on students’ behaviour, generating huge debates in this scholarship.
Besides the debates, although many studies have been conducted around the globe on various age groups of social media users, particularly adults, their activities on the platform, and the activities’ influence on users’ behaviour, very little research has been conducted on this issue in secondary school (or high school) students worldwide. Moreover, no research has yet been conducted in Bangladesh, emphasizing the importance of conducting studies on secondary school students in Bangladesh. In addition, as Bangladesh has recently developed in the ICT sector, such a study is essential for this country to set policies and make them more beneficial and safer for its citizens. Moreover, during the COVID-19 pandemic, students have more access to the internet and digital devices for online mode of education, which increases students’ total hours of using the devices, which also may have an extra negative impact on their physical and mental health with an education that raises additional concerns. Hence, this study is essential to fill up the existing knowledge gaps in this scholarship in the Bangladesh context to know what secondary school students do on their social media platforms, how they use these platforms, which content they are more involved in, and how their activities influence their behaviours.
This study has collected both qualitative and quantitative data and followed the mixed-methods approach to do that. It collected data applying the survey method with a mixed questionnaire among 400 secondary school students from the eight divisional areas of Bangladesh and interviewing twenty students, eight parents, and eight teachers. To analyze the qualitative data, it applied the content analysis method.
However, this study found both positive and negative influences of social media activities on secondary school students’ behaviour. Students use various social media to meet their multiple communication, entertainment and academic purposes. Most of them are involved with educational and entertainment content. However, it negatively influences students’ physical and mental health and academic, social and personal lives. Many students are also addicted to the platforms that waste their time and hamper their concentration on studying. Another considerable proportion of students are involved in various unethical activities on these platforms. Conversely, students are also learning various necessary sex education from the platforms. They share and receive educational materials, develop critical thinking, improve their grammatical, vocabulary, reading, writing and language skills, become outspoken, and create their virtual identity using the platforms.
However, besides contributing to filling the existing knowledge gaps and appeasing researchers’ queries, studying how secondary school students’ behaviours are influenced by their social media activities is crucial for Bangladesh due to several reasons. Firstly, it can provide valuable insights into the rapidly changing digital landscape and its impact on the younger generation. As social media use becomes increasingly pervasive, understanding its influence on students is essential for parents, educators, and policymakers to ensure their well-being, safety, and responsible online conduct. Furthermore, it can help identify potential issues such as cyberbullying, misinformation, or excessive screen time, which can have detrimental effects on students’ mental health and academic performance. Such research is vital for tailoring education and support systems to navigate the digital age effectively and promote positive online engagement among Bangladeshi youth.
2. Literature Review
This literature review part first discusses students’ activities on social media platforms and their purposes for using various social media. Then, it analyses the existing literature on social media activities’ positive, negative, positive and negative both and no influences on students’ behaviour. In the last part, it discusses various concerns regarding privacy issues. Analysing the associate literature of this scholarship, this literature review part has identified the existing research gaps in this arena that this study has contributed to filling up.
2.1. What Do Students Do on Social Media and Why?
The primary purpose of using this social network is communication, cooperation, information collection and entertainment (Manasijević et al., 2016) . In a study on students between 15 - 18 years, researchers found that they invest more time in their social media platforms, searching for news and watching videos (Roberts et al., 2005; Steeves, 2005) . Supporting them, Sharma et al. (2016) argued that Facebook is extensively used for daily entertainment and informative purposes such as playing games, expressing thoughts, watching videos, keeping updated and having fun. Studying students in the U.S. and Thailand, researchers found that besides entertainment, students use social media to exchange information for their educational purposes (Junco, 2015; Thongmak, 2014) . On the other hand, Oye et al. (2012) found that Malaysian students use social networking sites to meet both academic and non-academic purposes. Lu et al. (2016) found that secondary school students in Hong Kong use social media to give them the opportunity for social interaction and enrich their learning experience.
Furthermore, working on students from Belgium, Denmark, Romania, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and the U.K., whose ages between 9 - 16 years, Barbovschi et al. (2015) found that students use their social networking websites to sustain relationships, seek new contacts and enlarge social circles. On the other hand, Ige (2020) said, “Overall, students’ activities on social media range from identity construction, the use of abusive language, bullying, and pornography” (p. 5).
Therefore, analysing the above research findings, it can be argued that using social media platforms, students seek and share information and entertainment content, form groups, meet educational purposes, express thoughts, share experiences, present views, search for new friends, build new contact, and enlarge their social circle. Hence, researchers found different purposes for using social media regarding the countries and ages of students. However, there is a scarcity of data about Bangladeshi secondary school students (or high school) in this regard though they are a significant proportion of social media users in Bangladesh. Therefore, it should discover why Bangladeshi secondary school students use social media and what they do on it. However, the following subsections discuss social media activities’ influences on students’ behaviour.
2.2. Positive Influence
A group of researchers found only positive influences of social media activities on students’ behaviour. They found positive social, emotional and cognitive behaviour development among the students who spend most of their time on the internet and social media (Hayes et al., 2015; Pempek et al., 2009) . While working on the impact of students’ social media activities on their behaviour, Junco et al. (2011) and Mingle and Adams (2015) found a positive effect on their health and academic performance.
In addition, Kaya and Bicen (2016) , Asad et al. (2012) , and Oye et al. (2012) found that secondary students who are highly engaged with Facebook use it for various academic activities that help them get better results. Moreover, Deng and Tavares (2013) and Fishman et al. (2005) added that web-based discussion improves students’ reflective ability, writing, reading and critical thinking skills.
Therefore, analysing the above research findings, it can be argued that researchers found its positive impact on students’ personal, social and academic lives. It increases students’ academic performance and helps them lead healthy lives differently. Though this part discusses positive influence only, there are also opposite views regarding social media activities’ influence on students’ behaviour. Therefore, it is vital to investigate how Bangladeshi secondary school students are benefited from or harmed by their social media activities.
2.3. Negative Influence
Besides the positive influence, a group of scholars also found its negative influence on students’ behaviour. For example, studying Saudi Arabian undergraduate students, Alwagait et al. (2014) found that students cannot distribute their time correctly to their studies using social networks. In addition, Oye et al. (2012) found that most students are unconsciously addicted to social media, which degrades their results and overall academic performance. Moreover, Alloway et al. (2013) argued that using Facebook harms students’ spelling, language skills, and grammatical understanding. Mingle and Adams (2015) also found adverse effects of the use of social media, such as “poor grammar and spelling, late submission of assignment, less study time and poor academic performance due to the heavy participation on social media networks” (pp. 1-2).
Besides, Lytras et al. (2013) found that sharing personal information on social media can threaten someone’s security and privacy. Furthermore, Alwagait et al. (2014) , Kowalski and Limber (2013) and Ige (2020) argued that social media could cause cyberbullying, cyber pornography, sexting, cyberstalking, abusive language, confidential data leakage and time-wasting that has significant adverse outcomes on students’ mental health and academic performance. In addition, studying secondary school students in Nigeria, Ige (2020) found that students watch sex movies on the platform and engage in pornography.
Hence, it can be argued that this group of researchers found profound negative influences of social media activities on students’ behaviour. However, as no research has been done in Bangladesh in this context yet, we do not know how Bangladeshi secondary school students are negatively influenced. Hence, this study has investigated the issues profoundly and found out whether social media negatively influences Bangladeshi secondary school students.
2.4. A Mix of Positive and Negative Influence
Regarding social media activities’ impact on students’ behaviour, Oye et al. (2012) , Ellison et al. (2011) and Sheldon (2008) argued that it has both positive and negative impacts. One set of pupils is negatively impacted by accessing social media platforms, whilst another group is positively impacted. Working on the medical students of Nepal, Jha et al. (2016) found that the students who use social media have both positive and negative impacts on their academic, health and social life. Moreover, Mingle and Adams (2015) found both positive and negative influences of using social media among senior high school students in Ghana.
Furthermore, studying undergraduate students in Oman, Mehmood and Taswir (2013) also found both positive and negative impacts on their academic performance. Besides, Roberts and Foehr (2008) examined U.S. students, Negussie and Ketema (2014) studied Ethiopian students, and Ahmed and Qazi (2011) studied Pakistani students, and all of them found similar results in this regard. Hence, they indicate both positive and negative influences. However, as there is no study in this regard in Bangladesh, it is essential to know exactly what happened with Bangladeshi students.
2.5. No Influence
In the previous parts, this paper presents that the researcher found either positive or negative or positive and negative impacts both for using social media by students. However, a group of researchers argued that social media has no influence or impact on its users. They argued that social media could not influence its users at all. Such as Kaya and Bicen (2016) found that students are not upset when they experience negative comments and do not change their Facebook profile pictures to get attention from their friends. Moreover, working on various groups of students (school-university) in Tunisia, Rouis (2012) found in his study that students’ actions do not affect their academic achievement immediately. Therefore, this group of researchers added a new point of debate to this scholarship that also should be checked in Bangladesh’s context.
2.6. Privacy Concern
Studying secondary school students in Nigeria, Ige (2020) found that parents and teachers are concerned about students’ social media activities and guide them to use the platform correctly. Conversely, Boyd et al. (2011) found that parents help their children sign up on Facebook despite being aware of the age limit, privacy and other issues. Moreover, Kaya and Bicen (2016) found that students are aware of their privacy and do not use their friends’ accounts to respect the privacy of their friends. However, there are concerns about students’ privacy issues on social media platforms. Hence, this study also has investigated how many students of this level are aware of their privacy issues and what they do to protect them.
However, from the above discussion of this part, it can be argued that there are vigorous debates on what students do on their social media platforms and how their social media activities influence their behaviour. Researchers are divided into many groups on the issues and claim different results by presenting various pieces of evidence. Therefore, new research is inevitable to decide these issues in Bangladesh accurately.
3. Methodology
This part first describes its research questions. Afterwards, it narrates its research method and data collection process.
3.1. Main Research Question
RQ 1: What do Bangladeshi secondary school students do on social media platforms, and how do their activities influence their behaviour?
To explore the main research question, this study has been conducted considering a few sub-research questions as follows.
Research Sub-Questions
RQ 2: What are the purposes of using social media by Bangladesh secondary school students?
RQ 3: What are secondary school students doing on social media platforms?
RQ 4: How are the activities influencing their behaviour?
RQ 5: How much are they aware of their privacy issue on the platform?
3.2. Research Method
This study followed the mixed-methods approach and collected both qualitative and quantitative data. This study followed the survey method with a mixed questionnaire to collect quantitative and qualitative data. It surveyed 400 secondary school students (aged 11 - 17 years) with a mixed questionnaire from eight divisional areas of Bangladesh. This study also collected more qualitative data through an in-depth interview method. It interviewed twenty students, eight parents whose children also participated in the survey and eight teachers. Finally, it analysed all qualitative data through the content analysis method. However, we all know that there are some biases and weaknesses in every research method, “and the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data neutralized the weakness of each form of data” (Creswell, 2014: pp. 14-15) . Hence, to get a perfect result and omit the disadvantage of a single method, this study has collected both qualitative and quantitative data and followed the mixed methods approach.
3.3. Data Collection
Bangladesh is divided into eight administrative divisions, each comprising several districts. There is a total of sixty-four districts in Bangladesh. This study selected sixteen schools from Bangladesh’s eight divisional (two schools from each division) areas to conduct the survey. Hence, it has covered all the divisional areas of Bangladesh and its regions. It selected the schools applying purposive and snowball sampling methods. The researcher had access to some of the sampled districts’ schools, so the researcher selected the schools to collect data from them easily. Seven of the schools have been selected from the city area, and the other nine of them are from the village area keeping in mind the proportion of urban and rural internet users as 38.5% of Bangladeshi internet users live in the urban areas, and 61.5% live in the rural area (Datareportal, 2021) .
This study has collected data from 400 students. As this research area is not big, data has been collected from 400 students, which is a good number for such a study. In the data collection process, every division received the same importance, and 50 students were surveyed from each division. Among the 400 students, 280 are male, and 120 are female. This number has been selected considering the proportion of male and female Facebook users in Bangladesh, as 69.3% are male and 30.7% are female users in Bangladesh (Khan, 2021) . Prior to surveying students, the researcher obtained permission from school authorities to survey students by explaining the purposes of the study and presenting the survey questionnaire. In accordance with the approval of the school authority, the survey was conducted on the students. Firstly, the researchers explained the purposes and presented the survey questionnaire of this study to all students at the schools requesting them to participate in the survey. Then, 50 students from each division participated in the survey willingly.
Moreover, it interviewed twenty students who also took part in the survey. It interviewed fourteen male and six female students (according to male and female users’ proportions). It interviewed 5% of the total sampling population, which is a good number for such a study. It also interviewed eight parents (one from each division) of the students who took part in the survey and eight teachers from the schools (each from one division). For interviewing students, first, the researcher shared the interview questionnaire with the surveyed students requesting to take part in the interview. Then, interviews were conducted with the required number of students from interested students. It is noteworthy that most of the students refused to be interviewed. Before conducting interviews with these students, the researcher obtained written permission from the parents of the students presenting the interview questionnaire.
However, from the close-ended questionnaire, this study found how many students think social media have a positive or negative, or neutral influence on them, how many are aware of their privacy issues, how many of them are involved with unethical activities, which social media most of the students use and many more. On the other hand, from the open-ended questionnaire of the survey, this study found which content they are more involved in on the platforms, their major activities on this platform, positive and negative influences, what they feel after experiencing negative comments and many more.
From the interviews of students, this study found; how much they know about their social media privacy policy, what they do to protect their privacy on this platform, do they watch pornography or not, what they think about its influence on them, etcetera. Moreover, the interview of parents and teachers found out what parents and teachers feel about their children’s activities on the platform, its effects, and their privacy issues. Through all the processes, this study collected its required data. However, the following part presents the results of this study.
4. Results
This part presents the result of this study in seven sections. First, it presents data on students’ favourite social media and their involvement with various social media content. Afterwards, it describes the purposes of using social media by students and their activities on the platforms. It then presents the influences of social media activities on students’ behaviour. Finally, it presents findings on various privacy issues of this platform and parents’ and teachers’ concerns regarding students’ activities on the platforms and their influence on them.
4.1. Favourite Social Media
This study found that 93% of the students use Facebook as their primary social media platform, and only 7% use Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms as shown in Figure 1. In addition, though all students use YouTube, most do not have a YouTube account. Among the 7% of students, most live in urban areas. Hence, urban students tend to use different social media platforms other than Facebook. Students said that they use Facebook or other platforms as their social media, which perfectly fulfils their needs. They also added that if the platform can meet their demands in the future in the same way, they will also use it in the future.
4.2. Highly Involved Social Media Content
Figure 2 depicts the social media content students are involved in and how much they are involved in. Most students are involved with academic and entertainment content on the platforms. Among all the students, 73% think; they are more involved with educational content, while 21% think they are more engaged with entertainment content. In the interview, students said that most of their physical and virtual life activities are related to educational activities; therefore, most are also involved with educational content on this platform. Parents also believe that their children use this platform for various educational purposes. Conversely, the teacher argued that most students are involved with entertainment and unethical content.
4.3. Purposes of Using Social Media
Bangladesh secondary school students are using their social media to fulfil both academic and non-academic purposes. Figure 3 depicts the purposes of using social media by the students. This study found that students use social media mainly to fulfil their communication, entertainment and academic purposes. Among the total students, 68% are using social media for educational purposes, 14% for communication purposes, 10% for entertainment purposes, and 8% for other purposes such as collecting and sharing news and information, connecting with old friends, searching for a new friend, expressing opinions, watching movies or videos. Though a significant proportion (68%) of students use this platform to fulfil their educational purposes, another considerable proportion also uses their social media platform for non-academic purposes. Therefore, this study claims that Bangladeshi secondary school students use social media for both academic and non-academic purposes.
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Figure 1. Favorite social media in Bangladesh.
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Figure 2. Students involvement with social media content.
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Figure 3. Purposes of using social media.
4.4. Major Activities on the Platform
Using social media, students are doing various activities. Such as they collect and share educational materials, information, news, pictures, and songs. Some of them communicate with their friends, teachers, and family members. Another proportion joins various groups, getting updates and providing information for the betterment of citizens. Some also create, share and watch video content, pass their leisure time, search for friends, play games and express their opinions. Moreover, some present themselves to their friends according to their wishes or desires, creating their virtual identity. Because s/he is familiar with their social media friends in the way that s/he presents on their platform. It also found that 89% of students share and create video content on this platform.
4.5. Influence on Behaviour
This study found positive, negative and psychological influences of students’ social media activities on their behaviour. Figure 4 shows the major influences of social media activities on students. In the interview and survey, 100% of students said it has both positive and negative influences on them, and they do not believe that it does not influence them. Parents and teachers also added that though it has both positive and negative influences, most of them are affected by negative issues. They claimed it as they noticed their children are addicted to the platform and involved with various unethical activities that negatively influence their studies and personal lives.
This study found more negative influences on them than positive influences. Because, it found that 42% of students (most are female) are experiencing sexting, cyberstalking, cyberbullying and receiving sexual messages, abusive language, and nasty comments for using these platforms, and for the message, they feel bad. In the interview, the female students also said; they feel fear and anxiety about receiving such messages. It also found that 38% of students write sexual or nasty comments and abusive language in their friends’ comment sections or inboxes. In the survey, this study found that 48% of students watch sex movies, videos, or sex clips using this platform, but 92% of students said they watch sex clips on this platform in the interview. However, in the interview, they said that they do not practice such negative things physically for fear of losing dignity, social status and punishment.
Moreover, this study explored the social media addiction rate. It found that 55% of students feel bad if they cannot use their social media regularly, and 38% of students go to their bad late for using social media. As they are addicted to the platform, they feel bad when they cannot use it. Furthermore, regarding its influence on students’ health, 88% of students said; they suffer from headaches and lower eye vision from using social media for a long time. Therefore, it also has a negative influence on their health.
It also found various positive influences on students’ behaviour. Regarding its impact on their education life, 100% of students believe; it helps them improve
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Figure 4. Major influences of social media activities.
their academic activities by sharing and receiving educational materials, information and news, joining various education groups and communicating quickly with friends and teachers. At the same time, 81% also believe that sometimes it creates problems for their study as they cannot allocate sufficient time to study by using social media, and sometimes it disturbs their concentration. Moreover, 65% of students also think that it wastes their time, while only 07% of students believe; it is a cause of their result degradation. However, in the interview, the teacher said; they could do better if they did not use social media. Parents also think that it disturbs their concentration which hampers their results.
Regarding other educational issues, 64% of students think; it develops their critical thinking, and only 23% think it develops their reading and writing habits, language, vocabulary and grammatical skills. Moreover, 42% of students also believe they learn various necessary sex education from different good groups, such as basic adolescent knowledge and sexually transmitted infections that help them lead a healthy life during adolescence. Besides, 62% of students think they have become outspoken about using social media and can communicate with unknown persons easily by using social media.
In a different question, 42% of students think it makes their online personality or identity through shared personal information, pictures and videos. In the interview, most of the students added that by following social media content, they set their fashion style and to be rewarded or popular on this platform; some also create and share various video contents on them.
Hence, this study found that social media platform develops students’ critical thinking (64%), grammatical and language skills (23%), they learn necessary sex education (42%), and they become outspoken (62%). However, it also found that students are experiencing cyberbullying (42%), writing nasty comments (38%), watching sex movies (48%), becoming addicted (55%), suffering health problems (88%), facing disturbance (81%), and wasting their time (65%) for using the platform. Therefore, it has more negative influences on students than positive influences.
4.6. Awareness of Privacy Issues
Among all the students, 83% know about their social media privacy settings and use them to protect their accounts. They are very much aware of hacking and cybercrime activities. They use profile lock and two-step verification systems to keep their profile safe. This 83% of students do not allow their friends to use their social media, thinking about the safety of privacy issues. Parents and teachers added that most students are very much aware of their privacy settings, and students understand the issues better than them.
4.7. Parents’ and Teachers’ Concerns
Both parents and teachers are worried about students’ privacy, activities on this platform and its influence on them. Because they think all contents of these platforms are not safe for their children, but there are no options without allowing them to use them. Their children force them to buy smartphones and use social media. Unfortunately, they cannot convince their children not to use it. The parents also said that though they are concerned about their children’s activities on social media, they cannot monitor their children’s activities on the platforms because their children use passwords, so their parents cannot monitor them. Both teachers and parents said that they believe; most of their children are involved in unethical activities because they are watching sex movies, writing sexual comments, etcetera, which are also a concern.
Therefore, they urged the government to set a law so students under 18 cannot use social media. Some teachers and parents believe students under 18 should not use social media because they do not adequately understand right and wrong. They also said the government should create a unique search engine for students of this level that is safe for them and automatically blocks all unethical content while working.
5. Discussion
Based on the analysis of collected data, it can be claimed that though students are using the platforms to meet their various purposes, most are using them to fulfil their educational purposes, and most are involved with educational content. Because 68% of the students use social media for educational purposes, and 73% are engaged with educational content on this platform. Besides, they do various activities on their platforms to fulfil their other goals. For example, they collect and share educational materials, communicate with their desired persons, join different groups, create, share, watch videos, pass their leisure time and express their opinions.
Regarding its influences on their academic life, it can be claimed that their academic life is hampered by using social media. Though students are becoming outspoken, learning necessary sex education and developing their critical thinking, language, vocabulary and grammatical skills through their activities on the platforms, their main educational developments are under threat. Because, they start using the media mainly for their educational purpose, but while using, they become addicted to the platform (55%), suffer from various health problems (88%) from staying a long time on it, and experience cyberbullying (42%) and pornography (48%). It is hampering their concentration to study (81%) and wasting time (65%). It inhibits their attention, wastes their study time, and involves them in other activities that negatively influence their study. Besides, parents and teachers also believe social media degrades their results. They are claiming it based on their experiences. They said that before using it, students concentrated more on their studies and achieved better results. Therefore, it only develops their subsidiary educational skills but hampers their main educational activities.
However, it also negatively influences students’ physical and mental health as students feel destructive, fearful and anxious for experiencing sexting, cyberstalking, cyberbullying, sexual messages and abusive language from the platforms. Though bullying is common in this society, this online platform adds extra threats in this regard. Therefore, it seriously hurts their mental health and psyche as they are worried, frightened and tense. In addition, a considerable proportion of students acknowledged that they watch sex clips which also have negative social, physical and mental impacts on them.
This study also explored that students are addicted to the platform because they feel bad if they cannot use social media and go to bed late at night to use social media. It is happening as they are addicted to it. If they are not addicted, they do not feel bad and do not go to their bed late at night. It also negatively influences their physical and mental health because many students also acknowledge that they suffer from headaches and lower eye vision from using social media.
Moreover, a negative identity is also created for many students who write nasty messages and abusive language in their friends’ comment sections and inboxes throughout the process. As a result, their personal and social identity is hampered because their friends treat them negatively for their negative activities on the platforms. The good thing is that most secondary school students are aware of their privacy issues on this platform because 83% of students follow all the necessary safety rules to ensure their privacy on the platforms. Therefore, from the above argument and analysis, it can be argued that Bangladeshi secondary school students’ activities on social media have serious adverse effects on their personal, social and academic lives. Moreover, it adversely affects their physical and mental health.
6. Theoretical Application
The result of this study supports Space Transition Theory, Social Learning Theory and Uses and Gratification Theory. The Space Transition Theory claims that the user could commit a crime in cyberspace that the user would not do in physical space because of losing his/her status and position (Jaishankar, 2008) . This study also found similar behaviour among Bangladeshi secondary school students. They are committing various crimes and unethical activities on online platforms, but they are not practising that in their physical life, fearing punishment and losing their social status.
The Social Learning Theory claims that people learn or follow one’s behaviour to be rewarded. This study also found the same among students (Bandura, 1977, 1986) . For example, students follow virtual trends, practice that in their physical life, take pictures and videos of that, and share that on their social media profiles to be treated as modern and stylish by their friends, which means being rewarded.
The Uses and Gratification Theory claims that the audience selects the media that can meet their needs (Love, 2005) . This study found that most students are using Facebook as it fulfils their demands. They also said that they will use the platform if it fulfils their demands in the future. Hence, the study supports the theories.
7. Conclusion
With the advancement of the internet and information communication technology, people of different ages use various social media worldwide to fulfil their different purposes. Bangladeshi secondary school students also use social media to achieve academic, communication, and entertainment purposes. Though most students are involved in educational content, another significant proportion of students are involved with sexual and unethical content on the platforms. Using the platforms, they collect and share educational materials, information and news; communicate with their desired persons; join various study groups; create, share and watch videos; pass their leisure time; search for friends; play games, and present themselves to their friends according to their wishes or desires and many things.
Though their activities influence them positively and negatively, they are influenced negatively more than positively, hampering their personal, social and educational life. It is also adversely affecting their physical and mental health. Using the platforms, they involve themselves with various unethical, sexual and criminal content such as writing sexual comments on another post, watching sex movies, etcetera. Their activities prove that this platform is not entirely safe for them.
Their parents and teachers are also concerned about their platforms’ activities and believe that they should not use them before the age of 18. They urge the government to prohibit them from using the platforms through laws or policies. They also urge the government to create a unique internet search engine for students of this level that prohibits all unethical content automatically while working. The excellent point is that most students are very much aware of privacy issues on this platform. To protect their privacy, they follow the necessary rules and regulations.
However, this study has collected data from 400 students from sixteen schools in eight districts, eight teachers, and eight parents. There are sixty-four districts and thousands of secondary schools in Bangladesh. Hence, it is not easy to generalise the result of this study to all Bangladesh secondary school students. It would be better if its data could be collected from a large volume of students from many schools.
Funding Statement
The Bangladesh University Grants Commission funded this study.