Social platforms, A reversion or an academic boost: A systematic mapping on students’ perceptions of social media

The massive popularity that social platforms have gained, notably Facebook, among university students is still growing, since those means launched their flagship. This paper projects the way students perceive them and handle their academic performance. With a qualitative content analysis, we identify the link between social contacts involvement and educational task management. The matter under study has three plausible variables. Firstly, are social media a reversion, in the sense of a regressive tool, or an academic support? Secondly, are those means sustaining the educational process, or not. Thirdly, and does this depend heavily on the awareness degree of the user/student? All these considerations will be pondering in the Algerian context. The findings postulate that self-regulation was found to be a significant predictor of educational success. And that, effective learning requires a self-regulated learner, and the one who maintains monitoring the task in hand till the end. Rationally, students at this age should be recognizant and aware of the potential outcomes of social media’s trickery. Therefore, this paper highly recommend effort-adjustment towards learning, besides, purposeful and reasonable social sites engagement.