Use of Facebook and Its Impact on Education: A Study on the Students of Private Universities in Bangladesh

At the beginning of this millennium public usage of internet has increased very noticeably in this country, mainly in the capital city. In the last few years, usage of internet has increased in different sectors. Social networking/facebook is one of them which have increased dramatically, especially to the students of different categories. This study is designed with a view to analyzing the use of Facebook by the students of different private universities of Bangladesh and its impact on education. The study is mainly based on primary data which were collected from 500 students as sample of different private universities in Dhaka. Some statistical tools like mean, standard deviation, hypothesis etc. were used for analyzing data in this study. The students of different private universities seem to enjoy discovering the Facebook for chatting, comments passing, message sending, photo and video sharing, and blogging etc. that enable the communication with relatives, friends, teachers and around the globe. They are even using facebook for gathering information and enhancing academic knowledge but as a matter of fact, majority of them still misuse Facebook like unnecessary chatting, bad comments passing, vulgar message sending etc. The study concluded that the excessive use of Facebook can be the reason of decreasing academic result. The students should not ignore their academic activities by using facebook excessively.. The study also recommend some suggestions for the students such as utilizing the Facebook in useful purpose like collecting and gaining information, sharing important ideas, knowing the world etc. and should not ignore the academic activities in the reason of Facebook usage. The authority of the state should also take necessary steps in this regard.