Effect of Social Media on Undergraduate Students' Achievement in Adamawa State University, Mubi, Nigeria

Abstract

The study observed the impact of social media on the academic achievement of undergraduate students' in Adamawa State University, Mubi, Nigeria. With the help of a descriptive survey design and the target population comprised of all undergraduate students of Adamawa State University Mubi, which was ascertained at 14,224 from the academic office. The sample size of 400 was chosen using stratified sampling technique from the different faculties and departments within the institution. The self-designed research instrument titled ‘Effects of Social Media on Undergraduates Students Achievement (ESMUSA) was used to collect data. Its face and content validity were established by an expert in Counselling Psychology in the Department of Educational Foundations, Adamawa State University, Mubi and test-retest reliability was carried out and a reliability co-efficient of 0.87 was obtained. The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, Standard Deviation, chi-square and t-test analysis. The result from the findings of this study showed that, the positive influences of social media on undergraduate students included improving daily grammatical expression, knowledge expansion and knowledge creation and dissemination. Though Social media use has negative effects on undergraduate students such as lack of privacy, distracting students from their academic work, taking most of their productive time, and such like, they also have benefits and can be used appropriately. The study concluded that most students of Nigerian universities believe that the use of social media significantly affects their academics; it could lead to positive effects on their academic achievement or negative effects if not managed efficiently. In the light of the findings of this study, it is recommended that students should be properly oriented on the influence of Social media on their academic performance so they can use it effectively towards improving their performance.