Paper Details

Name: Vishakha Kamal
Country: India

Year: 2025
Volume: Volume-12, Issue-2 (July-December)
Page Number: 588-599
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22708319

Social media has become an important part of the educational and social environment of higher education students. This revised paper focuses on Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh, and examines social media use through educational, social, economic and digital-safety dimensions. The analytical structure is based on the supplied study of 190 higher education students, whose reported distributions are retained here as the numerical evidence base. The results show very high reported use of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube, while 43.2% reported 2–3 hours of daily use and 26.8% reported more than three hours. Entertainment was the leading stated reason for use (31.1%), followed by job-related information (20.5%) and academic needs (18.9%). Social media was also strongly embedded in daily routines: 84.2% reported checking it before sleep and 70.0% reported stronger contact through information and communication technology than in person. At the same time, respondents reported concerns about time waste/addiction, privacy, cyberbullying and e-crime. From a societal perspective, the findings suggest that social media is neither wholly beneficial nor wholly harmful; its outcomes depend on patterns of use, digital literacy, institutional guidance and responsible participation.

Keywords: social media; higher education; students; Lucknow District; society; digital citizenship; academic learning; cyber safety