ABSTRACT: The study is on the thrust to examined the influence of social media on social capital. This study was anchored on the Putnam’s Theory of Time Displacement and Technological Determinism Theory. The research used cross-sectional survey method while the research population is students of Post Graduate School of the Researchcage University. The research adopted multi-stage sampling method to select respondents from the Post Graduate School. Five (5) colleges/faculties out of ten (10) colleges/faculties i.e Arts, Science, Engineering & Technology, CIS and Agriculture were simple randomly selected. In each college/faculty selected, one (1) department was drawn and in each department selected, 10 PGD, 10 MSc and 5 PhD students were accidentally selected. Therefore, 25 respondents were drawn from each department and the same steps were repeated in other faculties and departments making a total of 125 respondents that were drawn in all. The main data collection instrument for this research was questionnaire out of 125 copies of questionnaire administered 112 copies that were returned and analyzed using frequency and percentage tables. Findings show that substantial numbers of the respondents (88.4%) use social media lots in their everyday life. Also, many of the respondents (52.6%) were highly aware of the concept of social capital. Many respondents (67%) agreed that social media seems disconnecting people from social capital and other physical engagement. It was recommended that, there is need for social media users to understand why they are joining the social media in the first place so that they would not be overcome by any negative impacts but rather use these sites for maximum benefit. Also, people should also ensure that they maintain their existing offline relationships while creating new value through new media.

Introduction

Advancement in Information and Communication Technology particularly in this 21st century has altered all facets of human activities including communication and interaction. The great technology has brought faster and major changes in the society, thus, influencing people’s patterns of communication, interaction and altering our lifestyles. People are becoming glue and relying on social media to gratify their social, business, political and psychological needs. No doubt that social media use facilitates the raise of individual’s virtual ties but disturbs the social capital. Heavy social media users are more vulnerable to separate from physical social ties. Social media can isolate people and reduce social/family and outdoor activities (Attewell, Suazo-Garcia, & Battle, 2003). It is of note that social media withdraws peoples’ interest in the national development, family affairs and community matters.

Sociability is important for establishing and maintaining social capital. Use of social media might change the nature and kind of the individual’s social behaviour and facilitate individual’s virtual ties and disturb social capital. Computer-media communication might be used to reinforce virtual relations, but it also develops weak interpersonal and face-to-face communication (Granovetter, 1973; Resnick, 2001, Riphagen & Kanfer, 1997).

Many investigations have checked the impact of new media consumption on social capital, finding heavy new media users are more susceptible to be separated from usual social ties (Agarwal, Animesh, & Prasad, 2005; Beard, 2002; DiMaggio et al., 2004; Goldfarb, 2006; Weiser, 2001; Widyanto & McMurran, 2004; Young, 2009). Moody (2001) argues that excessive use of new media diminishes and displaces social activities since the user spends much time online and therefore, he/she in not able to take part in social activities. When people are busy and indulged in a large number of virtual contacts, these may reduce the stronger face-to-face communication (Kraut et al., 1998). Other studies report that excessive new media usage not only diminishes and reduces social circles but also raises melancholy and loneliness (Kraut et al., 1998; Lavin, Marvin, McLarney, Nola, & Scott, 1999; Nie & Erbring, 2000; Stoll, 1995; Turkle, 1996). The present study is based on Putnam’s Theory of Time Displacement, which describes says the more time someone spends with new technology/social media, the less time that is given to family members, friends and other social activities.

Many researches have attempted to identify links between social media, social capital and civic engagement in order to clear the air on whether social media usage increases or decreases social capital as earlier research and theorist like Putnam stressed that the Internet users can become alienated from the rest of society because computers are typically used indoors. Additionally, Putnam (2000) argued that communication over the internet is more impersonal, which reduces the level of trust and expectation between online interactions.

Alexandra, S. (2010) stresses that it is easier to see and understand the impact of social capital in community when it happens offline, in the form of a community garden, soup kitchen or street demonstration. She stresses that though social media does make those networks wider and denser: more people are more connected than ever but to what extent are those entire network connections translate into the creation of actual social capital. She belief that social capital can be further strengthened via social media because social media already created that platform for social networking that social capital needed to thrived.

 Alexandra (2010) argues that social media can help to squeeze the latent social capital out of a given community, making it socially useful. It can be said that social capital group such as (BringBackourGirls) can use social media to seek support such as raising fund, cloth or awareness about less privileged, orphans, abducted persons (Chibok Girls) and get lots of results. This investigation is on the thrust to investigate the influence of social media on social capital among Post Graduate students of the Researchcage University.

Statement of the Problem

It is not an overstatement that advancement in information and communication technology in this 21^st century has reshaped all human activities on earth to include communication and how we do things. As a result, social media which has become most populous platform has been accused of causing a great number of influences on our social relations and interaction. Critics claimed that it has altered to a large extent the social interaction and social capital because friends, co-workers, colleagues and relatives have abandoned physical visitation, meeting and group discussion/reading that used to happen in a physical setting.

Previous researchers observed that this emerging habit is believed to have started damaging social interaction including social capital, civic engagement and neighbourhoodness. One of such researcher is Putnam (2000) who believed that the creation of the internet was partially responsible for a decline in social capital, which led to reduced levels of civic and social participation. Stressing that, Internet users has become alienated from the rest of society because computers are typically used indoors. Additionally, Putnam (2000) argued that communication over the internet is more impersonal, which reduces the level of trust and expectation between online interactions.

Whereas, Wellman et al. (2001) who studied 39,211 visitors of the National Geographic website between the years 1998 and 2000 find out that the internet supplements traditional methods of social networking, such as face-to-face or over the telephone. An interesting discovery was that heavy internet users had increased civic participation, but they had reduced levels of commitment to online groups.

 Although, lots of studies have been carrying out on various influences of social media on our various activities but little or no research has been conducted on social media influence on social capital and even where available, they were not mostly conducted in Nigeria making such findings difficult to be replicated in Nigeria. It is against this background that the research investigated the influence of social media on social capital among Post Graduate students of the Researchcage University with the view to know the extent which Researchcage University PG students are using social media and the level of damage it has done for their social capital in the recent time.

Objectives of the Study

1. To examine the extent which PG students of the Researchcage University are involved in the social capital before this social media era.
2. To ascertain whether social media has enhanced or complement social capital among post graduate students of the Researchcage University.
3. To determine the extent which social media has disconnected and undermined social capital among PG students of the Researchcage University.
4. To establish the prospects of social capital in this era of social media.
5. To ascertain the extent which social media has threaten the existence of social capital.

Research Questions

1. What is the extent of post graduate students of the Researchcage University involvement in the social capital before this social media era?
2. Has social media enhanced or complement social capital among post graduate students of the Researchcage University?
3. To what extent has social media disconnect and undermines social capital among post graduate students of the Researchcage University?
4. What is the prospect of social capital in this era of social media?
5. To what extent has social media threaten the existence of social capital?

Scope of the Study

The paper which examines investigate the influence of social media on social capital has been narrowed down to the Post Graduate (PG) students of the Researchcage University. The PG students is selected because they are believed to be experienced. The institution is selected based on proximity to the researcher. Other factors include the time available for this study since it will not only be difficult but may be impossible to study all tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

Significance of the Study

Since social media have emerged as tool for interaction and communication in this 21^st century, it has continued to influence the societal ways of life including social interaction, social capital, civic engagement, political mobilization and socialisation in general. Thus, the finding(s) of this study would be beneficial to individuals, community, future researchers and humanity in general.

The outcome of this research will lead to a better understanding of social media, its uses for social capital and other social engagement thereby minimizing the harmful effects it may want to cause.

The study will let us realize how to effectively use social media to expound and complement our social interaction and social capital since it offers the society the opportunity to connect, interact and create new platform for networking through which people with the same ideology – social, political, economy, social-development etc can extent their frontiers irrespective of geo-location.

Future researchers and scholars who may what to carry out research in this area or related aspect will find this material very useful and serve as reference material while it will further establish the through position of social media in social capital ideology.

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