THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA (2GO AND WHATSAPP) USAGE ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SELECTED UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA

THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA (2GO AND WHATSAPP) USAGE ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SELECTED UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA

Abstract:

The social media platforms provide students with the opportunity to share educational materials interact and participate in group discussion that invariably improves their learning and ability to discourse academic issues. Alongside these opportunities comes the challenges of overdependence and misuse of the social media for other things osther than educational activities. The study investigated the Influence of Social Media (2go And Whatsapp) usage on the Academic performance of some Undergraduate Students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The objectives of this study are; to assess the roles and benefits of social media to students‟ development, to determine how the growing use of the social media affects students‟ academic development, to examine the implications of dependency on social media usage on students‟ development and their academic capacities and to suggest strategies to ensure that social media fully aids students‟ academic development. The Theoretical Framework of the study was based on the Uses and Gratification Theory propounded by Jay Blumler and Elihu Katz where they theorized media technology consumption by how it is consumed and what benefits it creates for the consumer or user of such media or technology. The research deployed quantitative and qualitative survey. 1,200 students from the Faculty of Administration and Social Science of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria who were administered copies of questionnaire and two groups of six (6) students each for the Focus Group Discussion-FGD. From the data and information gathered and analysed from these two instruments, the study found that significant level of students agreed that the use of both social media platforms that is 2go and Whatsapp affects student‟s Academic capacity development in a host of different ways like instant chat, file sharing, video and picture sharing as well as its capability to enable teachers and students interact using the group chat features. More so, study found that there exist a relationship between social media and students‟ academic development and that over dependence on the social media does have a significant negative effect on the socio-cognitive and Academic capacity of the students‟ no matter their level of participation as well as how gratified they are when they used these platforms. The study recommended that over dependence on the social media for activities other than that which could influence their academic capacity development would be detrimental to their overall development. As such, students should be orientated on the dangers associated with the abuse and misuse of the social media to their development. The study concludes that the social media is a very special platform that could influence students‟ Academic capacity as well as their socio-cognitive development considerably.

THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA (2GO AND WHATSAPP) USAGE ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SELECTED UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA