ABSTRACT

This study assesses the Influence of Social Media on Secondary School Students in Zaria, Kaduna State. The essence of this study was as a result of how much secondary school students are involved in this virtual world of social networking in Nigeria and the effects of these sites on students. The specific objectives of this study includes knowing the types of social media secondary school students are exposed to; to know the influence of social media sites for students, motivating factor that influences the use of social media and proper ways of using social media among selected secondary schools in Zaria. A review of related literatures on the effects of social media on students was done so as to fill the gap others literatures failed to cover. The study adopts rational choice theory.A mixed methodology was used which is surveyed and in-depth interview. For the survey method, the data was obtained through the use of questionnaire, of which the researcher administered 250 questionnaires to the selected secondary school students. For the in-depth interview, 4 class teachers and 2 principals were interviewed. Furthermore, probability and non-probability sampling techniques were adopted by random selection of 3 schools from the two educational Zones in Zaria and purposively interview 4 class teachers and 2 principals from the selected schools in Zaria. The finding shows that the negative effects of social media outweigh the positive effects, the negative effects are distractions from studies, it exposes them to juvenile delinquency, lack of privacy, poor grammar and spellings, procrastination, indecent dressing, use of foul words, internet fraud, school violence, disrespect for elders, suicide and exposure to pornographic sites etc.

Also, the findings reveal that despite the negative effects of social media sites, they attested to the fact that social media broaden their knowledge on different subject matters. Again the study reveals that the majority of students used social media sites mainly for socializing. Further finding shows that the majority of secondary school student‟s login to their preferred sites on a daily basis. In line with this, the study recommends that most negative aspects can be controlled by reducing the amount of time spends on social media sites. There is a need for parents, teachers and the school authority to monitor their children's activities closely to know what they do with their time; this will go a long way in reducing secondary school students‟ exposure to activities that will affect their behaviour negatively.Parent should avoid buying internet enable phones for their children in secondary school since it has been identified as one of the motivating factors that influences their use of social media. Also, school authorities should intensify effort to checkmate the kind of phones their students bring to school, and when they use it for lack of strict regulation in schools encourage the students to use the chat even during classes.

ix

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION 1.1            Background to the Study

The act of interacting with others, of being social is a lifestyle process which is carried on

as society itself changes. Interacting with one another is an age human activity which

implies the relationship between human being and its social environment. Interaction has

long existed before the invention of technology and this technology has changed into a

new structure of the society. The process into this new technological age is what brought

about the internet and social media in particular. Historically, newspapers were the most

common of all media, but today, internet is regarded as one of theimportant element of

modern society which cannot be ignored. We have a large community including a

majority of youth and teenagers who use the internet for only social media (Boyd et al.,

2013).

Social media sites first existed as an invention created in 1975 known as email, which is

still used today. However, social media has advanced into using a profile to give

information about user such as sharing of stories, photo as well as messaging to

communicate with others. Now social media has become popular in 2004 when facebook

was launched.

Internet was felt in Nigeria after the evolution of telecommunications especially after

2001 Digital Mobile Licensing (DMC) round by the Nigerian Communication

Commission (NCC) opened up the sector. Access to telephone became more profound and

soon internet flagged off purely on commercial levels when several ISPs had the political

and financial wills to open up for businesses, after due licenses by the NCC.

In Nigeria today, the number of social media user has grown from a pitiful 100000 in

2004 to more than 7milion in 2010 (Akpore, 2013). He further stated that access to social

1

media has grown with the reality of Blackberry and other modern devices deployed for

internet connectivity, the number of users was doubled by the end of 2014. With the

increasing rate of social media usage, it becomes necessary that they be education about

the problem s and risk associated with the internet and social media in Nigeria (Abimbola,

2014).

Social media is one of the breakthroughs in information and technology in the 21st century

because it facilitates the creation of different platforms of social interaction. It sprouted

from the internet as a tool for publishing and also for connecting and supporting

communication so much that it has become an increasingly popular component of our

everyday lives in today‟s globalizing society (Pempek and Calvert; 2008). Social media

are now one of the most significant and online tools for communication that links people

together all around the world. It is an addiction to the online communicators that already

affecting the human life. (Boyd, 2006).

Shresthaet al. (2013), referred to Social media as a means of connections among people in

which they create, share, exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and

network. This is in line with Asian (2010), who described social media as a virtual place

where people find themselves and share vital information. For the purpose of this study,

Social media is defined as an online location where people can interact with others about

information, entertainment, news and which will be their own choice and creation.

The rise of social media sites has gained popularity in the world over the decades now, the

sites have attracted millions of users world-wide. These users comprise of business,

academia and govern