Impact of Technology Usage on the Educational Performance of Generation Z: A Quantitative Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62843/jssr.v6i2.797Keywords:
Generation Z, Academic Performance, Digital Literacy, Technology Usage, Self-regulation, Higher Education Screen TimeAbstract
Generation Z, defined here as individuals born between 1997 and 2012, is the first cohort to have completed the whole of its formal education embedded within pervasive digital technology. This study investigates the relationship between technology usage patterns and academic performance among Generation Z university students, examining digital literacy and self-regulatory capacity as moderating variables. A structured six-section survey instrument employing a five-point Likert scale was administered to 412 undergraduate students across three public-sector universities in Punjab, Pakistan, and the resulting data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression and moderation analysis (SPSS 27; PROCESS macro, Model 1). Results indicate that daily screen time is significantly and negatively associated with grade point average when usage is predominantly recreational (β = -0.21, p < .01), whereas purposive academic technology use is positively associated with performance (β = 0.27, p < .001). Digital literacy significantly moderates this relationship (ΔR² = .04, p < .01), attenuating the negative effect of high-volume recreational usage on academic outcomes, while self-regulation emerges as the strongest individual predictor of performance variance (β = 0.34, p < .001). These findings suggest that technology usage is not, in itself, deterministic of academic outcomes; rather, the manner, intent, and self-regulatory capacity accompanying usage substantially condition its educational consequences. Implications for curriculum design, digital literacy interventions, and institutional policy are discussed.
References
Alt, D. (2018). Students' wellbeing, fear of missing out, and social media engagement for leisure in higher education learning environments. Current Psychology, 37(1), 128–138. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9496-1
Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (Eds.). (2004). Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications. Guilford Press.
Bennett, S., Maton, K., & Kervin, L. (2008). The 'digital natives' debate: A critical review of the evidence. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(5), 775–786. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2007.00793.x
Bianchi, A., & Phillips, J. G. (2005). Psychological predictors of problem mobile phone use. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 8(1), 39–51. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2005.8.39
Carr, N. (2010). The shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains. W. W. Norton & Company.
Chen, W., & Yan, Z. (2016). Predicting students' academic achievement with technology use: A curvilinear relationship. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 495–503. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.04.023
Cain, C., Bryant, A., Buskey, C., & Ferguson, Y. (2022). Generation Z, learning preferences, and technology: An academic technology framework based on enterprise architecture. Journal of the Southern Association for Information Systems, 9(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.17705/3jsis.00019
Hargittai, E. (2010). Digital na(t)ives? Variation in internet skills and uses among members of the "net generation." Sociological Inquiry, 80(1), 92–113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.2009.00317.x
Hernandez-de-Menendez, M., Escobar Díaz, C. A., & Morales-Menendez, R. (2020). Educational experiences with Generation Z. International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM), 14(3), 847-859. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12008-020-00674-9
Hayes, A. F. (2017). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Hidayah, A. R., Khoirunnisa, F., Nuswantara, K., Rintaningrum, R., Sari, V. F., & Ratu, A. (2026). Artificial intelligence use among Generation Z students and its impact on academic performance and learning behavior. Jurnal Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 11(1), 117-135. https://doi.org/10.24832/jpnk.v11i1.7165
Hsieh, C.-Y. (2025). The impact of smartphone usage frequency on university students' academic performance: A meta-analysis of moderating factors. Acta Psychologica, 259, Article 105374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105374
Junco, R. (2012). Too much face and not enough books: The relationship between multiple indices of Facebook use and academic performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(1), 187–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.08.026
Kates, A. W., Wu, H., & Coryn, C. L. S. (2018). The effects of mobile phone use on academic performance: A meta-analysis. Computers & Education, 127, 107–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.08.012
Khoso, W. (2025). The impact of social media usage on academic performance: A study of university students in Pakistan. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5212630
Kirschner, P. A., & De Bruyckere, P. (2017). The myths of the digital native and the multitasker. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 135–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.06.001
Kirschner, P. A., & Karpinski, A. C. (2010). Facebook® and academic performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 1237–1245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.03.024
Mahmood, A., Khan, M. A., & Khan, A. (2025). Prevalence and effects of smartphone use on academic performance of undergraduate student nurses: An analytical cross-sectional study. Social Medicine, 18(2). https://doi.org/10.71164/socialmedicine.v18i2.2025.1875
Ng, W. (2012). Can we teach digital natives digital literacy? Computers & Education, 59(3), 1065–1078. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.04.016
Ophir, E., Nass, C., & Wagner, A. D. (2009). Cognitive control in media multitaskers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(37), 15583–15587. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0903620106
Onjewu, A. E., Godwin, E. S., Azizsafaei, F., & Appiah, D. (2024). The influence of technology use on learning skills among Generation Z: A gender and cross-country analysis. Industry and Higher Education, 39(2), 139-157. https://doi.org/10.1177/09504222241263227
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816
Rideout, V., & Robb, M. B. (2019). The Common Sense census: Media use by tweens and teens, 2019. Common Sense Media.
Rosen, L. D., Carrier, L. M., & Cheever, N. A. (2013). Facebook and texting made me do it: Media-induced task-switching while studying. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), 948–958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.001
Sana, F., Weston, T., & Cepeda, N. J. (2013). Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers. Computers & Education, 62, 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.003
Seemiller, C., & Grace, M. (2016). Generation Z goes to college. Jossey-Bass.
Seemiller, C., & Grace, M. (2019). Generation Z: A century in the making. Routledge.
Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1), 3–10.
Selwyn, N. (2016). Education and technology: Key issues and debates (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.
Twenge, J. M. (2017). iGen: Why today's super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy—and completely unprepared for adulthood. Atria Books.
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2018). Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population-based study. Preventive Medicine Reports, 12, 271–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.10.003
Uncapher, M. R., & Wagner, A. D. (2018). Minds and brains of media multitaskers: Current findings and future directions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(40), 9889–9896. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1611612115
van Deursen, A. J. A. M., & van Dijk, J. A. G. M. (2014). The digital divide shifts to differences in usage. New Media & Society, 16(3), 507–526. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444813487959
Wajdi, M., Susanto, B., Sutiarso, M. A., & Hadi, W. (2024). Profile of Generation Z characteristics: Implications for contemporary educational approaches. Kajian Pendidikan, Seni, Budaya, Sosial dan Lingkungan, 1(1), 33-44. https://doi.org/10.58881/kpsbsl.v1i1.8
Xu, L., Duan, P., Padua, S. A., & Li, C. (2022). The impact of self-regulated learning strategies on academic performance for online learning during COVID-19. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 1047680. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1047680
Yang, Z., Asbury, K., & Griffiths, M. D. (2019). An exploration of problematic smartphone use among Chinese university students: Associations with academic anxiety, academic procrastination, self-regulation and subjective well-being. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 17(3), 596–614. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-018-9961-1
Zimmerman, B. J., & Pons, M. M. (1986). Development of a structured interview for assessing student use of self-regulated learning strategies. American Educational Research Journal, 23(4), 614–628. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312023004614
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Copyright in the Journal of Social Sciences Review is retained by the author(s). Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
JSSR's Editorial Board shares the vision of providing free access to information, education, and science for everyone, thus promoting its content through an OPEN ACCESS POLICY, fulfilling the DOAJ definition of open access. The JSSR adheres to an Open Access and Copyright Licensing Policy based on the belief that making research freely accessible to the public promotes greater global knowledge sharing.
The JSSR uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. The authors who apply and publish in JSSR consent to abide by the copyright policy set out in the Creative Commons 4.0 license (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license).
- Copyright in the Journal of Social Sciences Review is retained by the author(s).
- Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified.
While "By 'open access' to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself."
