The Influence of Social Media Reels Normalizing Academic Disengagement on Internal Motivation of the University Students of Lahore
Abstract
This quantitative study attempts to examine the relationship between the normalization of academic disengagement through social media reels and the internal motivation among university students at University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore. The study examined how exposure to the specific content on reels that portrays academic disengagement as relatable or humorous affects the internal academic motivation of students. The study employed a cross sectional survey design using a Likert scale online questionnaire administered to 37 undergraduates (59.5% females and 40.5% male) at UMT. Three main constructs; the patterns of reel consumption, academic disengagement and the internal motivation were analyzed. The descriptive analysis showed that the degree of exposure to normalization was moderate-high (M = 3.39, SD = 0.76), and 64.9% of the respondents watched short-form reels regularly. There was moderate cognitive disengagement (M = 3.20, SD = 0.84) and 56.8% said that they were less able to deep-study. The internal motivation was moderate in general (M = 3.42, SD = 0.72); it was found that the motivation resilience at the time of reel exposure was lower (M = 3.19) and only 43.2% continued to be passionate about learning after consumption. Correlation analysis, which was done theoretically, indicated negative correlation between high scores of normalizations and internal motivation mediated in the processes through attention fragmentation. The findings demonstrates that disengagement-normalizing content may contribute in influencing the motivational orientations of students. It was also indicated that there is an urgent need of digital literacy as well as focus-based interventions in institutions of higher education to maintain the intrinsic motivation of learning among the students.
Keywords: Academic Disengagement, Social Media Reels, Intrinsic Motivation, Short form Videos, Students.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18393040
