1. ANALYSIS OF
TIME SPENT
AND
Frequency of
use of
SOCIAL MEDIA
BY School grade
RESEARCHCONDUCTEDANDSUBMITTEDBYMARISTCOLLEGEASHGROVEWITH
ASSISTANCEFROMMOUNTSAINTMICHAELSCOLLEGEASHGROVE

2. Aim & Hypothesis
Aim:
To investigate how much time is spent on
social media throughout high school.
Hypothesis:
It is expected that as the year level of the
student increases, time spent on social
media and time spent per visit will
decrease. It is further expected that male
students will spend less time than female
students on social media.

3. Data Collection:
100 boys and 100 girls were surveyed across Years 8-12 to
determine the amount of time spent on social media, and the
frequency of visits.
The sample population was surveyed via SurveyMonkey.
The sample population was asked the following four
questions:
1) What gender are you?
2) What year level are you in?
3) How much time do you spend per week on social media?
4) How many times do you visit social media sites per week?

4. Results:
Grade Total Time (h) No. Visits Time/Visit (h) Grade Total Time (h) No. Visits Time/Visit (h)
8 13.25 82.75 3:50 8 8.9 13.6 15:42
9 8.69 19.1 10:55 9 5.625 27.375 4:55
10 16 67.25 5:42 10 8.214 86.5 2:16
11 12.18 76.8 3:48 11 7.4 28.4 6:15
12 16.4 46.33333 8:29 12 7.8 49.66667 3:46
GIRLS BOYS
Table of Results
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
BoysGirls
Gender- comparative box and whisker plot of time spent on social media:
Timespentperweek(hours)

5. Results
y = 0.979x + 10.36
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
8 9 10 11 12
Timespentperweek(hours)
Secondary school year
Time spent using social media per week
- Girls
y = -0.042x + 7.715
0
2
4
6
8
10
8 9 10 11 12
Timespentperweek(hours)
Secondary school year
Time spent using social media per
week - Boys
y = 0.009x + 0.245
0:00:00
1:12:00
2:24:00
3:36:00
4:48:00
6:00:00
7:12:00
8:24:00
9:36:00
10:48:00
12:00:00
8 9 10 11 12
Timespentpervisit(minutes)
Secondary school year
Time spent per visit - Girls
y = -0.094x + 0.556
0:00:00
2:24:00
4:48:00
7:12:00
9:36:00
12:00:00
14:24:00
16:48:00
8 9 10 11 12
Timespentpervisit(minutes)
Secondary school year
Time spent per visit - Boys

6. Discussion
The results did not support the initial hypothesis of
an increase in time per an increase in year level.
Instead, results revealed no definitive trend in time
spent using social media over the grades.
However, it was revealed that for both boys and
girls, time spent on social media decreased in Year
11. This is consistent with the significant increase in
workload which Year 11 brings. Time spent on Social
media in Year 12 returned to Year 10 levels, possibly
due to an increase in social commitments during this
year and adaptation to workload.
The results also proved that girls spend more time
than boys on social media, by margins of up to three

7. Improvements
In order to achieve maximum accuracy in
future statistical summaries, it is
recommended that:In order to achieve more representative
results
• Sample sizes from all grades should
be increased.
• Samples should be taken from many
more schools.
In order to increase the scope of the
survey,
• More qualitative data should be
collected and analysed.
• Links should be drawn between time
spent studying and time spent on
social media.
In order to increase the accuracy of the survey,
• All time data should be expressed in HH:MM:SS
format

8. Conclusion
An investigation was conducted into the
amount of time spent on social media by boys
and girls from Years 8 to 12. Although the
results refuted the initial hypothesis of
increasing grade resulting in decreasing
time, various other observations were
made, and accompanying inferences put
forward to explain the trends observed.
Overall, it was found that time spent using
social media did not increase or decrease as
the result of one variable (schoolwork) as
expected, but rather as the result of many