ABSTRACT: The study investigated the effect of social media on academic performance of secondary school students with a specific focus on Ilobu Commercial Grammar School and Ima High School, Ilobu. There is no doubt about the fact that the world is completely in a global village as postulated by Professor Marshall McLuhan, according to him the world is now compressed into a single electronic room where information from far and near can be exchanged with a click of mouse or touch of screen. The study was anchored on Technological Determinism Theory. A survey research method was adopted with the use of questionnaire to elicit data from the respondents. Accidental sampling technique as a non-probability approach was used to select respondents. The data collected were analyzed in frequency and percentage method. The study finds out that has enhanced interaction with less time spent on other online activities that can enhance their academic performance. The study recommended that students especially in secondary school should minimize the time spend on social media and use other internet platform such as Google classroom etc to boost their academic performance.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0       INTRODUCTION
1.1       Background to the Study

Human activities and events have been altered by the emergence of the internet especially in the last ten years. One of the aspects of life that has been seriously redefined is communication. Before now, people communicate with friends, families, institutions etc via letter either send through a commercial bus or somebody travelling to the same spot; and later through the post office and other means peculiar to different people in different region with no feedback or with a delayed feedback. In the search for better and effective means of communication led to the development of telephone which most homes cannot afford and it was wired then until the GSM came to the rescue.

However, the arrival of the internet and the proliferation of the social networking platforms have completely revolutionalised the means, efforts, time and speed of communication coupled with effective feedback and interaction that goes into communication in this era. Business and commerce have moved from physical buying and selling to e-commerce, e-marketing, e-shopping, e-banking. Sport and game have shifted to e-game and virtual games, education has become e-learning and e-book. Other activities that the internet have plugged into is e-dating, e-friend, e-marriage, e-politics, e-music, e-movies, e-meeting, e-communication and interaction.

Today, students especially in secondary schools up to the tertiary institution levels are making use of one social media or the other to get hooked and connected with friends and family where they share their status, opinions and trending events including commenting, liking, sharing and participating in group discussions.

Social media can be seen as one of the tools or platforms available on the internet that facilitate effective communication and interactions among people. Social networking has become one of the highest and busiest activities on the internet today in the world and in Nigeria in particular. For instance, Facebook.com has 1.94 billion monthly active users and over 16 million users in Nigeria as at 2017. YouTube.com records 1.4 billion users; Twitter.com accounts for 400 million users while Instagram has 275,000,000 etc.

In Nigeria, chatting, tweeting, liking, sharing, picture upload, status management, discussing and interacting on social media are the busiest activities on the internet as well. This is evident when Alexarank.com ranked facebook and Twitter.com as the first and second most visited social media globally (Alexarank, 2016).However, the availability and over dependence of this platforms have initiate and change the way students especially secondary schools behave as literacy is being damaged by social media. Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and other social networking platforms are ‘harming students literacy as such sites causes spelling and grammar decline.

The reasons are not far fetch as people tend to make communication faster and effective without waste of time resulted to the adoption and application of abbreviations and acronyms that are not only unregistered but that can be unconsciously introduced while writing examinations or class work. For instance, students write U (You), 4 (For), 2 (To), LOL (laugh out loud), L8 (late), fone (phone), nd (and), RW (reword), imp (important), B4 (Before) b/c, bc (Because), BRB (Be Right Back), BTW (By The Way), FB (Facebook) etc including symbols and signs. Another side effect of the social media to students is extent which they can be hacked especially when their account is invaded by receiving spam (unsolicited) message or mails or accepting unknown friends. Students equally spend the little money they have on buying call and data for browsing which placed them at lost. It also, cause them to be over dependent on the internet, spending huge amount of time and energy online with many sleep at a very late time on a daily basis forcing to sleep or doze while in class the following day.

Social media provides a fertile breeding ground for obscenities, indecencies, pornography, invasion of privacy and other issues that are considered unethical in the society because of their potentials to corrupt the mind of the adolescents and teenagers and thereby injure society. Many porn sites videos and images are shared to social media. In fact, https://www.sex.com and https://www.porn.com are in the top 10 most expensive website in the world and often time there content are share online.

It is against this background that the study investigated the influence of social media on Academic Performance of Secondary School Students” with a specific focus on Ilobu Commercial Grammar School and Ima High School, Ilobu. The study wants to finding out the extent which social media has been used and its influence on students’ academic performance.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

Advancement in technology in this era has reshaped all human activities on earth to include communication. The world has become a global village as postulated by Prof. Marshal McLuhan where the use of computer and internet facilities is indispensable. Social media is among the numerous means which the people interact and communicate online.      

Today, millions of people are now on social media such as Facebook, Twitter and others exchanging views, ideas and other related matters with a good number of them being young. Since social media have emerged as tool for interaction and communication among youth particularly students in Nigeria, it has continued to influence their ways of life including their academic performance in the area of grammar and spelling in particular.

Technology is constantly blamed as the cause for grammar skill issues in younger generations i.e Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and other social networking platforms are ‘harming students literacy as such sites brings about spelling and grammar deterioration. For example, some write ‘l8’ rather than ‘late and others rely on device spellcheck. to correct their mistakes. To make matters worse, many parents do nothing to try to improve these crucial skills.

Similarly, thousands of students are poor spellers with little understanding of grammar as a result of too distracted and addiction to sites such as Facebook and Twitter to bother to read a book (Charlie, 2011).Also, students nowadays spend the better part of their time in school on information technology devices particularly on Smartphones, palmtops, iPods and computer. On close enquiry, one usually finds out that they are social networking with friends and rarely getting information on their various school courses.

Often times, information sought is subject to the use of technological media especially for pleasure, to while away time and to interrelate with friends and pals on Twitter and Facebook e.t.c.. It is against this background that the study investigated the influence of social media on Academic Performance of Secondary School Students” with a specific focus on Ilobu Commercial Grammar School and Ima High School, Ilobu. The study wants to finding out the extent which social media has been used and its influence on students’ academic performance. 

1.3       Objectives of the Study

1. 1. To examine the extent at which students are using social media.
   2. To examine how social media has influenced students’ academic performance

Research Questions

1. To what extent students of are using social media?

2. How has social media influence students’ academic performance?

1.5       Significance of the Study

Conducting this research is very significant in a number of ways apart from fulfilling academic requirements e.g.

The research of this kind becomes necessary as its findings will provide the public with comprehensive and broad knowledge of what could be the impacts of internet on the readability and research among Nigerian students.

This research will help government to benefit from the suggestion and recommendations offered by the study if applied, as it would lead to an improvement in the education policies, programme and implementations.

The Nigerian students will find this research useful as it will enable them to know how to effectively employ the internet for academic advancement rather than frivolity.

Thus, the value of this study will be beneficial to the management team, students, future researchers and technical centres at college.

The management, teachers of secondary school and secondary school boards will use this research to create programmes and formulate better lecture materials or study guides that include internet and other emerging media to aid learning, teaching and communication.

The outcome of this research will lead to a better understanding of the Internet more, its uses towards academic performance. It will also enable students to know their flaws and make corrections to it. The output of this research work will also add to the current literature on the Internet usage in academic generally.

Future researchers and scholars who many what to carry out research in this area or related aspect will find this materials very useful and serve as reference material while the findings will serve as eye opener to parents and guidance’ eyes on the need to monitor their children on who they do on the Internet.

1.6       Scope of the Study

The study which investigates the effect of social media on the academic performance of secondary school students has been narrowed down to Ilobu Commercial Grammar School and Ima High School, Ilobu. Thus, the geographical location of this study is Ilobu, the headquarters of Irepodun local government, Osun State.The choice of Ilobu Commercial Grammar School and Ima High School, Ilobu is due to its proximity to the researcher, inadequate time to study all secondary schools in Osun State among other logistics. Also, the demographic variables of the respondents will be carefully studied before the administration of research instruments (questionnaire) such factors include: age, gender, academic level e.t.c

1.7       Operational Definition of Terms

Effect:  It refers to the contribution, influence and how the social media impacted on the academic performance of students in Ilobu Commercial Grammar School and Ima High School, Ilobu.

Smartphone: A mobile phone that performs many of the functions of a computer, typically having a touch screen interface, Internet access, and an operating system capable of running downloaded social media apps.

Social Media: A group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.

Academic Performance: This is the overall performance of students in their studies (academic classwork, assignments, examinations etc

“INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS“

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