EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN AKWA IBOM STATE POLYTECHNIC

EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN AKWA IBOM STATE POLYTECHNIC

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the Study

Alfred et al. (2006) says communication is a basic human need and for that reason, man has always fund a means of meeting this need either through interpersonal or mass communication. Unlike the past, the people of the world are today living in a global village because of the various breakthroughs in information technology.

According to Nnamdi Anumihe (2007) communication is social interaction that is actualized through the exchange of messages and their ascribed meaning. Language, which is the medium of interaction, consists of words, signs, symbols, gestures, which are products of perception arising from socio-cultural orientation. In other words the physical act of communication is made possible by input from various human activities transmitted in a form that is meaningful to the participants in the communication context, similarly, the study of communication is made possible by inputs from various disciplines.

Katz, (2009) opines that information that usually takes many days or weeks to disseminate now takes seconds or minute, it is now possible for people to make interpersonal areas of the country or from other countries with the use of social media without leaving their immediate environment.

Howard Greenstein, (2011) defines social media as online technologies and practices that people use to share content opinions, insight, experiences, perspectives, and media themselves. Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to communit-based input, interaction, content – sharing and collaboration. Websites and applications dedicated to forum, micro blogging, social networking, social book marketing, social duration and wikis are among the different types of social media.

Napoleon, Egedogbe, in Girine American university, North Cyprus (2013) make known to use that since the introduction of social media sites some years ago, to communicate with friends and family has been easy once you have access to internet. The internet has given us the ability to connect  with people from around the globe with a few clicks of a button.

More over users of the social media can easily send information to a friend or get feedback social media sites such as my space, facebook, youtube, skype have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices, people consumes a lot time on this site especially students uploading or downloading, getting information concerning their career or academic work, students are always online every second, chatting  with friends, watching online movies, dong research, infact social sites has becomes an habit for some students they find it difficult to study for one hour with login to one network sites and some students have  become very smart because of the information they get from this sites. Why some have very poor academically, because it easy to get almost any materials for school assignment on the social networking sites.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

          Since the advents of social media sites in the 1990s, it is assumed in some quarters that the academic performance of students is facing a lot of neglect and challenges. There is a deviation, distraction and divided attention between social networking activities and their academic work. It is observed that student devotes more attention to social media than they do to their studies.

“Effectiveness of social media on students academic performance” with a specific focus on students of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic. Seeks to find out the extent which social media has been used and its influence on students academic performance.

1.3     Objectives of the Study

• To find out the various social networking sites that students have access to.
• To find out how often students of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic go online.
• To determine how many hours the students spends in social networking.
• To ascertain how the use of social media has affected the academic performance of the students.

1.4     Research Question

• Which social networking site do students of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic have access to?
• How often do students of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic go online?
• How many hours do students spends on social networking activities?
• How has the use of social media affected their academic performance of students of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic?