Relationships between social media addiction and academic motivation, self-control in communication and procrastination

Abstract

Mass fascination of students with social networks causes serious concern among parents and teachers due to a number of unfavorable manifestations they observe: 1) social networks take up a lot of time, so there is no time left for homework; 2) there are upbringing and socialization risks, since the influence of parents and teachers is largely replaced by the influence of other people through social networks (who may be pedophiles, drug addicts, potential terrorists, recruiters of destructive and criminal groups, etc.). The purpose of this research is to show the links between social network addiction and academic motivation, self-control in communication and procrastination, as discovered by the study. A total of 2,364 network users were tested online (1,055 males and 1,309 females). The following methods were used: a questionnaire on social network addiction (V. P. Sheynov, A. S. Devitsyn), a short version of the questionnaire on smartphone addiction (V. P. Sheynov), the ‘Academic Motivation Scale’ method (T. O. Gordeeva et al.), the ‘Procrastination Scale’ (K. Ley) and ‘Self-control in Communication’ (M. Snyder). The study established a negative impact of social media addiction on motivation for studies (negative relationships of both male and female social media addiction with cognitive motivation and achievement motivation, and its positive relationships with introjected and external motivation (nonlinear relationships with cognitive motivation in women and linear relationships in men), as well as positive relationships with self-control in communication and smartphone addiction. A relationship between social media addiction and procrastination was also found in women, but not in men. This is at odds with a similar relationship found in women and men by a number of foreign researchers. The relationship with self-control in communication found in this study is consistent with a similar result shown in foreign publications. The results obtained in this study can be instrumental in raising awareness about the dangers of becoming addicted to social media due to its direct relationships with procrastination and decreased motivation for studies among students, their parents, teachers and psychologists at educational institutions.