THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ON THE BEHAVIOR OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to determine how much secondary school students in Nigeria are involved in the virtual world of social networking and the effects of these sites on students. Despite its importance, senior secondary school students’ performance in this critical subject has consistently declined.
As a result, this study examined the impact of social networking on the behavior of secondary school students in Edo state. For the study, a descriptive survey design was used. 400 students were chosen from a population of 4364 students in the study area’s public schools.
The study was guided by four research questions. For the study, simple tables, frequency, and percentages were used. Based on the findings, recommendations were made, one of which was that academic sites be created.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page of certification – – – – –
Dedication – – – –
Thanks – – – – –
Abstract – – – – –
Contents – – – – – –
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 – – – – –
1.1 Research Background – – – –
1.2 Problem Statement
1.3 Research goal – – – –
1.4 Research concerns – – – – –
1.5 Study Importance – – –
1.6 Research scope – – – –
1.7 Term Definition – – – – –
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 Review of Literature
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 Methodology of research – – – – –
3.1 Research plan – – – – – – –
3.2 Research population – – – –
3.3 Techniques for sampling/sampling – – – –
3.4 Research device – – – – – –
3.5 Procedure for Data Collection – – – – –
3.6 Data analysis methods – – – – –
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 Data analysis presentation – – –
4.1 Information Display – – – – – –
4.2 Data examination – – – – – – –
CHAPTER FIVE
5.3 Advice – – – –
5.4 Final Thoughts – – – – – –
– – – – – Bibliography – – – –
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Study’s Background
Social networking sites (SNS) are the most recent online communication tools that allow users to create a public or private profile and interact with other people in their networks in real time (Boyd & Ellison, 2008). Mark Zuckerberg founded the Facebook (FB) website in order to assist residential college and university students in locating fellow students in other halls of residence.
It is described as “an online directory that connects people at colleges and universities through social networks” (Zuckerberg, 2005, p. 1). MySpace and the more popular Facebook both have millions of registered users, with Facebook being the far more popular SNS (Gavin, 2009; Gonzalez, 2009, check facebook.com). According to research, technology has a massive impact on children’s and teenagers’ academic achievement and development. Technology has been shown to have both positive and negative effects on student achievement (Espinosa et al, 2006).
Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, he investigated the role of technology in early childhood development. The findings revealed that students’ access to the internet improved their learning potential. The authors advised parents to encourage educational technology use in order to improve academic achievement. When it comes to technology use and student achievement, studies on the specifics of access and acknowledge that quantity is not as important as quality (Lei and Zhao, 2005).
Computer use, in particular, may do more harm than good to student achievement in school when the quality of technology use is not closely monitored or controlled. Furthermore, technology found to have a positive impact on academic achievement, or technology with educational value, was unpopular among students, and they used it less frequently (Espinosa et al, 2006).
It’s also been proven that there’s no link between computer use and academic achievement. In a sample of adolescents, for example, no relationship was found between time spent on the computer at home and (GPA) (Hunley, Evans, Delgado-Hachey, Krise, Rich, & Schell, 2005).
Other studies have discovered that recreational Internet use is strongly associated with poor academic performance (Kubey, Lavin, & Barrows, 2001). Approximately 10-15% of study participants reported that they did not have complete control over their Internet use and that it interfered with their schoolwork.
Students who reported Internet-caused schoolwork issues spent five times (x5) more hours online than those who did not, and they were significantly more likely to report that their Internet use caused them to stay up late, sleep less, and miss classes (Kirschner, 2009). Although they do not specifically mention Facebook, the authors conclude that it is the Internet’s new social opportunities that cause these problems, not the Internet itself (Kirschner, 2009).
Students who reported academic difficulties were more likely to engage in real-time social activities such as chat rooms on the Internet. According to Kubey et al. (2001), these social uses are what keep students enslaved, especially late at night. Vanden Boogart (2006) discovered in an unpublished Master’s thesis that heavy FB use (i.e., more time spent on FB) is observed among students with lower GPAs, despite the fact that no control variables were used in the analyses.
In a sample of students from a public Northeast Research University, there was no correlation between Facebook use and GPA (Kolek & Saunders, 2008). However, a recent exploratory survey study found a negative relationship between Facebook use and academic achievement as measured by self-reported GPA and weekly hours spent studying (Karpinski & Duberstein, 2009).
Without a doubt, modern communication technology has transformed the world into a global village. Technology has enabled people to become more informed, enlightened, and aware of global developments. There are more people surfing the web than ever before, and a large percentage of these internet users have one or more accounts with some of the major Social Networking Sites. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, 2go, Blackberry Messenger (BBM), Snap Chat, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Google+ are some of the most popular social networking sites.
The widespread use of the internet and communication technology has enabled humans to quickly connect and interact with groups of people from all over the world. This new trend known as Social Networking Sites is more appealing to teenagers and adolescent people (SNS).
Because it is a platform for sharing ideas, expressing feelings, and reconnecting with lost/old friends, these young people are frequently engrossed in the use of the internet. Teenage students’ attitudes and behaviors have changed as a result of social networking sites, and they spend a significant amount of time communicating or chatting via social media.
Adolescents use social media more than other age groups, according to Krishna and Sumana (2015). According to them (Krishna and Sumana 2015), an empirical survey conducted in 2009 found that 73 percent of youths use SNS, an 18 percent increase from three years prior.
A large number of Nigerians have internet access. As of July 2016, approximately 86,219,965 people out of a total population of 186,987,563 used the internet. This represents approximately 46.1 percent of the country’s population (internet live status 2016). The Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC, revealed in August 2016 that the number of internet users on Nigeria’s telecoms networks had reached 97.21 million.
It is worth noting that a large proportion of social network users are between the ages of 14 and 20 years old, which corresponds to the schooling age range for senior secondary schools in Nigeria. The reason for this is the ease with which people can access the internet via mobile devices that are easily affordable. According to premium times’ research, 100% of Facebook users in Nigeria access the site through their mobile phones.
Since the introduction of Social Networking Sites in the 1990s, it is assumed that students’ academic achievement has been neglected and challenged. It is assumed that students’ use of social networking sites will result in deviation, distraction, and divided attention among secondary school students. It has been observed that students spend more time on social media than on their studies. Students chatting (Social Networking) during and after school hours is now commonplace.
A number of studies have been conducted in recent years to determine the impact of social networking on student academic achievement. However, there are various points of view/findings. Ito et al. (2009), for example, believe that teens use Social Networking for a variety of positive activities such as delving deep into interest-driven communities and participating in various activities.
According to Jwaifell (2013), social networking sites could be used as a tool for student-professor interaction and communication. This viewpoint is shared by Shosanya (2013), who stated that teenagers in Nigeria prefer to make and chat with friends on Social Networking platforms rather than visiting them for academic purposes.
According to Oskovei (2010), when used as a tool for knowledge creation and dissemination, the internet benefits both students and teachers. Yunus et al. (2012) expanded on this finding, claiming that students gained more vocabulary development and improved their writing skills as a result of their participation in social networks, which in turn improved their reading skills.
A number of studies, however, have found that social networking has a negative impact on students’ academic achievement. Junco and colleagues (2010), Rithika and Selvaraj (2013), and Mingle and Adams (2014) (2015).
Rithika and Selvaraj (2013) discovered a significant impact of social media usage on students’ academic performance in an Indonesian study. This finding is supported by Yeboah and Ewur (2014), who stated that social media can be distracting to academics in Ghana. Junco et al. (2010) conducted a study in the United States and discovered that Social Networking is associated with academic impairment on a bivariate level.
According to a study conducted in Malaysia by Oye, Mahamat, and Rahim (2012), students become unconsciously addicted to and obsessed with social media networks. They went on to say that students spend minutes with their books and hours surfing, updating profiles, and viewing photos. According to Mingle and Adams (2015), despite the benefits of student participation in social media networks, it can have a negative impact on academic performance if not used properly.
Muhingi et al. (2015) discovered that secondary school students in Kenya were much more vulnerable to the negative effects of social networks in a consistent and concurrent manner similar to that found elsewhere in the world. According to this group of researchers, social networking causes academic sessions to be converted into recreational sessions, resulting in poor academic performance among the majority of Kenyan secondary school students.
Kirschner and Karpiaski conducted an empirical study on the relationship between academic performance and Facebook usage (2010). In the study, samples were taken from 219 university students, and they discovered that Facebook users had lower GPAs, were online most of the time, and used far less time for their studies than students who did not use Facebook.
Only 26% of students said SNS had a positive impact and helped them grow, while 74% said it had a negative impact, such as procrastination, lack of concentration or distraction, and poor time management. Kirschner and Karpiski discovered that even when students use interest for educational purposes, they are attracted or distracted by SNS. Anyaw, Asante, and Asante (2017) discovered that female students spend more time on social networking sites than male students in a study of 258 Kofoidua technical students in Ghana.
Furthermore, SNS has harmed students’ academic performance. However, Shah et al (2011) stated that while some students are positively affected by information they receive from the internet and thus improve their knowledge, a large number of students have a negative impact on their academic performance as a result of their leisure on the internet.
1.2 Research Problem Statement
Social media sites have had numerous positive effects on human life. Through these sites, the concept of the global village has been realized by connecting millions of people from all over the world.
The majority of these media sites are intended to fulfill all aspects of life, including fashion, politics, music, sports, and education, among others. Social networking sites are modern interactive communication channels that allow people to connect with one another and share ideas, experiences, pictures, messages, and relevant information.
For Nigerians, particularly young people, social media is enthralling. This is not surprising given that youths are more predisposed to social communication technologies by nature. Social media sites such as Facebook, WhatsApp, 2go, Badoo, and Myspace, among others, provide youths with constant access to information. Similarly, nearly two-thirds of Nigerian youths use social media to connect with millions of people all over the world.
Despite the benefits of social media for youth, it has inadvertently contributed to moral decadence in Nigeria, particularly among secondary school students. According to Ibrahim (2012), students sometimes abuse socializing tools by ignoring the informative and educational benefits that social media has to offer.
According to Nche (2012), one of these exhibitions has an impact on the immorality displayed by youths in our schools today. Things they learned from social media rather than school or parents because it has no restrictions. As a result, cyberbullying, fraud, premarital sex, homosexuality, lesbianism, examination malpractice, truancy, rape, and alcohol abuse have become issues.
School violence, drug abuse, texting, pornography, privacy, terror groups, secret cult membership, and various types of abuse are easily subscribed to, and this affects their behavior, academics, and social life as a whole.
According to Akintunde (2001), a student’s behavior is the most important aspect of his life to teachers, parents, and society because it portrays the image and name of the family in the eyes of the community. This explains why most parents work so hard to raise their children to be responsible citizens.
According to Sum (2008), the proximity of secondary school students to social media networks has caused them to develop new sets of behaviors as a result of peers and groups they found online. According to Long (2012), decay affects child-parent relationships, student-teacher relationships, and school tie relationships. According to Solanke (2012), social media has influenced secondary school students’ attitudes, as they no longer respect elders.
These students are frequently seen walking down the street with their mobile phones and other technological devices, and even in the face of a disaster in which people are maimed, injured, or killed, youths are more concerned with taking pictures or recording the disaster and the victim with their phones and then uploading their images to YouTube, Facebook, or any online forums.
Some students in Nigeria, particularly secondary school students, have become careless in terms of dressing and developing poor writing skills due to the use of abbreviation in text messages, poor reading culture as a result of the hours they invest in Face booking, prone to disasters, accidents, distracted from their studies and responsibilities to themselves, their families, teachers, friends, and communities as a result of their use of social media.
The aforementioned should not be allowed to continue because it will have ramifications for future generations. What can be done to reverse this trend, and how can the gap in literature on the influence of social networking sites on academics and secondary school students’ behavior be bridged?
1.3 The study’s purpose
The study’s main goal is to investigate the effects of social networking sites on secondary school students’ behavior in Oredo L.G. A., Edo state. The study’s specific goals are:
To learn about the social networking sites that secondary school students are exposed to.
To learn how these social networking sites have affected secondary school students.
To investigate the motivating factors that influence social network use.
To suggest some measures for proper social media use.
1.4 Research Issues
What kinds of social networking sites do secondary school students have access to?
What effect does social networking have on secondary school students?
What are the motivators that drive people to use social networking sites?
What steps can be taken to reduce the negative impact of social media on secondary school students?
1.5 Importance of the Research
The study expanded on how social networking sites such as Whatsapp, Facebook, and Twitter can be used as a medium to source vital information that can be used for academic activities rather than chatting and wasting time.
This study allows proper regulation to be stipulated with the goal of censoring contents posted on these media sites, as well as benefiting the readers by increasing their knowledge on the influence of these media sites on education. This study was carried out to learn about students’ exposure to these media sites and how it has aided their lives as young adults.
It also serves as a source of raw materials for other researchers working in the same or related fields. Finally, this study added to the existing body of knowledge on the relationships between the variables under consideration.
1.6 Study Scope/Limitations
This study examines the impact of social networking on young people, particularly secondary school students. The research was conducted in Oredo L.G.A. The study investigated the effects of social networking on students’ academic activities as well as their behavior.
Because most, if not all, secondary school students in the Oredo Area of Edo State are exposed to these sites, they were chosen as the study’s target population. Due to time and financial constraints, the researcher was unable to cover all social networking sites.
1.7 Key Terms Definition
Facebook: Facebook is one of the new social networks that offer users a unique combination of interpersonal and mass communication capabilities, with an emphasis on interaction and mobility (Paxson,2010).
The Oxford Dictionary defines influence as the effect something has on how people think or behave, or how something works or develops. Influence is also defined as a person’s action on another in order to effect change. Influence is defined as a person or thing that influences how a person behaves and thinks for the purposes of this study.
Social media refers to internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of the web, allowing for creation and exchange. Kplan (2010). They are internet-based social web sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and others that allow users to interact with one another Ikpe and Olise (2010).
Social media are web-based and mobile technologies that transform communication into an interactive dialogue between organizations, communities, and individuals (Adaja and Ayodele, 2013). For the purposes of this study, social media is defined as an online environment where people can interact with others about information, entertainment, and news of their own choosing and creation.
Students: According to the Oxford Dictionary, a student is someone who is enrolled in school, university, or college. It can also refer to a group of people who are studying to obtain an education. A student is defined as a person who is enrolled in college for the purposes of this study.
Whatsapp is a proprietary, cross-platform instant messaging subscription for Smartphones and selected feature phones that uses the internet for communication. Individuals who use this can send themselves images, audio, video, and text messages, as well as their location using the integrated mapping features (retrieved July 2015) www.google.com.
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THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ON THE BEHAVIOR OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS