Influence of Social Media Usage on the Behaviours of Students: A Study in Colleges of Education in Ghana

Abstract

The study tries to examine the influence of social media usage on the behaviour of Ghana students. Cross sectional descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. A sample of 378 students was selected using proportional stratified sampling technique from a population of second and third year college of education students. Questionnaire was used as the instrument for the collection of data. Data were analysed descriptively using frequencies and percentages, and means and standard deviations. The study revealed that all the respondents were using social media with the most common social network sites used by the respondents being WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. The study revealed also that most of the respondents spent an average of six to 10 hours on social media in a day for above an average of five days in a week and considered their social media usage to be more than necessary and interfering with their lives. The results revealed finally that social media usage influences students in terms of learning new behaviours, making new friends, becoming addicted, being peer pressured while at the same time withdrawing from real life. It was recommended that authorities of Colleges of Education should organise workshops for students on the proper usage of social media to equip students with the right skills to benefit from their social media usage.