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Background of the Study

Social media usage by students is so rampant recently because of easy access to devices

such as smart phones, i-phones, black berry, tablets, i-pad and laptops which are connected to the

internet. Addiction to the usage of social media has extremely increased in recent times. The

perils of its effects on the academic performance of the over-involved students are disturbing.

Academic performance which is depicted by the grades of students is a great concern student that

spends excessive time on social networks become dependent on it and it is believed that their

academic performance diminishes proportionately. It is perceived that school grades will suffer

when spending too much time on social sites such as Facebook, twitter and 2go as valuable study

time is lost.(Kubey, 2001). These therefore necessitate the study of the impact of social network

usage on academic performance of secondary school students in Englishlanguage : implication

for counselling

Social media has exploded as a category of online discourse where people create content,

share it, bookmark it and network at a prodigious rate. Because of its ease of use, speed and

reach, social media is fast changing the public discourse in society and setting trends and agenda

in topics that range from the environment and politics to technology and the entertainment

industry (Asur and Huberman, 2010). In the last ten years, the online world has changed

dramatically, thanks to the invention of social media, young men and women now exchange

ideas, feelings, personal information, pictures and videos at a truly astonishing rate. Seventy-

three percent of wired American teens now use social media websites (Oberst, 2010). Martn

(2008), and Lusk, (2010) share the same concept of social media. To them, social media is the

use of Facebook, blogs, twitter, my space and linked in for the purpose of communication,

sharing photos as well as videos. However for the purpose of this study social media is captured
within the use of internet through facebook, whatsap, twitter, skype, myspace as well as yahoo

messenger for communication sharing of ideas, sharing of photos and videos by users. What

started out as a hobby for some computer literate people has become a social norm and way of

life for people from all over the world (boyd 2007). Teenagers and young adults have especially

embraced these sites as a way to connect with their peers, share information, reinvent their

personalities, and showcase their social lives (boyd, 2007).

Different researchers have conducted research to ascertain the influence of social media

on users; for example, moon (2011) in a study on “impact of Facebook on undergraduate

academic performance, averred that social media have negative impact on students. According to

the result, the more students use Facebook, the more it affects their academic performance.

Similarly, oye (2012), noted that most of the younger students use social networking sites mainly

for socialising activities, rather than for academic purpose. Oye, (2012) further observed that

most of the students do feel that social networking sites have more positive impact on their

academic performance. In another study conducted by Shana, (2012), it was revealed that

students use social network mainly for making friends and chatting. The result showed that only

26 percent of the students (respondents) indicated that they use social media for academic

purpose.

According to junco (2010), social media are a collection of internet websites, services,

and practices that support collaboration, community building, participation, and sharing. The

growing dimension of the use of social media among the youth of today cannot be over

emphasized. Many researchers such as Choney (2010), san Miguel (2009) and Enriquez (2010),

studies on students’ use of the social media sites revealed a negative effect of the use of social

media sites on students’ academic performance. Nielsen media research study conducted in
June2010 stated that almost 25% of students’ time on the internet is spent on social networking

sites (Jacobsen and Forste 2011). The American educational research association conducted a

research and declared at its annual conference in san Diego California (2009), that social media

users study less and generate lower grade (Abaleta 2014). Social media and Nigeria youth

burden, (2014) stressed the negative effect of giving too much time and undue attention to

online socialization to the detriment of academics. According to the researcher, the 21st century

brought with it the advent of the new media with its fast tracking means of sending and receiving

information via internet in our contemporary society, the new media has gained popularity as its

been used for entertainment, networking and academics. The study noted that, the social media

was given a boost as a result of ideas from youths.

The study criticized seriously the obsessive attitude of Nigeria youths towards social

media. It pointed out that the rate at which youths devote their quality time in chatting, calls for

urgent attention. The study also observed that some students are always busy pinging and

charting while lectures are on. Time ought to be channelled towards learning, academic research

and innovations have been wasted by the passion of meeting friends and discussing trivial issues,

hence, most students’ academic suffer setbacks as a result of distraction. In the past years, social

media websites have become common; giving young people a new way to interact with each

other and communicate with the world. Social networking became popular between 2004 and

2006, after Facebook and Myspace were created. Facebook, for example has over 500 million

members and it is still growing and approximately 85% of undergraduate students are Facebook

users (Schneide 2009). These numbers are expected to grow since Facebook users will continue

to grow. And this is not only true for Facebook, numbers for Youtube users closely follow as well

(university of new hampshire, 2009).


The Guardian, a press association also mentioned that the Internet has revolutionized

English language by making misspelling and new alien jargons the norm, people tends to type

faster on the Internet and this generates a unique behaviour that ignores the importance of proper

language.With the popularity of social networking websites on the rise, our social interaction is

affected in multiple ways as we adapt to our increasingly technological world. The way web

users interact and talk to each other has changed and continues to change. These users now

socialize through the internet and it takes away from the person socialization that has been

around forever. Most of the studies, Choney (2010), San Miguel (2009), Enriquez (2010),

Karpinski and Duberstein (2009), khan (2009), Kubey et al (2010), conducted on students’ use of

the social media sites and its impact on academic performance focused on students in the

developed world.

It is against this background that it has become necessary to conduct this research aimed

to investigate the impact of social media usage on academic performance of secondary school

students in English language: implication for counselling


Statement of the Problem

The rapid advancement of media technology has had a great impact on the way people

communicate on a daily basis. The growing dimension of the use of the social media among the

youth of today cannot be over emphasized. Over the years, social networking among students has

become more and more popular. It is a way to make connections, not only in school but with

friends outside of school. Social networking is a way that helps people feels they belong to a

community. Due to the increased popularly of it, scholar is questioning whether grades of

students in English language will not be affected by how much time is spent on these sites.

The use of technology such as internet is one of the most important factors that can

influence educational performance of students positively or adversely. Many parents and

guardians are worried that students are spending too much time on face book and other social

media sites and have not enough time to study. Though parents are worried about students’

constant use of the social media sites, many students continue to utilize these sites on a daily

basis. It is against this background that this research is being conducted to ascertain the impact of

social media usage on academic performance of students in English language.

Purpose of the Study

The general objective of the study was to investigate the impact of social media on

academic performance of secondary school 2 students in English language: implication for

counselling.

The specific objectives of the study were as follows:

1. Investigate the relationship that exists among the independent variables (Whatsapp,

Facebook, My space, Instergram, 2go and Googleplus) and dependent variable

(Academic Performance) among secondary school students.


2. Determine the combined contributions of Whatsapp, Facebook, My space,

Instergram, 2go and Googleplus on academic performance of the secondary school

students in English language.

3. Investigate the relative contribution of Whatsapp, Facebook, My space, Instergram,

2go and Googlepluson academic performance of the secondary school students

4. To find out differences in the academic performance of male and female students in

secondary school
Research Instrument

The instruments selected for this study is adapted from Media Influence Investor

Survey, Scale developed by Luuk (2000). The instrument contain 35 items which is

divided into five sections, namely section A,B,C, D and E. Section A is made up of five

items measuring the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondent and Time

spend on social media. Section B is made up five items 1-5 measuring the frequency of

the use of the Social Media. Section C is made up five items 6-10 Measuring the type

of social media which students prefer to use for academic exercises. Section D is made

up ten items 11-20 measuring the frequency of performing some activities on the social

media and Section E is made up ten items 21-30 measuring the academic performance

of the students.

The participants were asked to respond to each items ranging Agree to disagree,

Frequently to Rarely, and Yes or No. The questions were arranged according to the

arrangement of the objectives of the study. The respondents were not required to

identify themselves on the questionnaire. This anonymity and impersonality no doubt

enhanced the rate of return of the questionnaire and objective response.


DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

Demographical variables:
Table 1 Distribution of the respondents by Gender
Gender Frequency Percentage
Male 90 42.9

Female 120 57.1

Total 210 100.0

Table 1: Above showed that 90 (42.9%) of the respondents are males and 120 (57.1%) are
females.
FIGURE 1:Pie chart showing distribution of the respondents by Gender

GENDER

MALE
42.90% FEMALE

57.10%
Table 2: Distribution of the respondents by Age

Age Frequency Percentage


10-14 years 27 12.9

15-18 years 138 65.7

Above 18 45 21.4

Total 210 100.0

Table 2: Showed that 27 (12.9 %) of the respondents are age 10-14 years. 138 (65.7%)

age 15-18 years and 45 (21.4%) above age 18 years respectively.

FIGURE 2: Bar chart showing distribution of the respondents by Age


160

140

120

100

80 FREQUENCY
Column1
60

40

20

0
10-14 YEARS 15.18 YEARS ABOVE 18

Table 3: Distribution of the respondents by Class

Class Frequency Percentage


Science 70 33.3

Commercial 80 38.1

Arts 60 28.6

Total 210 100.0

Table 3: Showed that 70 (33.3 %) of the respondents are in Science class. 80 (38.1%)

are in Commercial class and 60 (28.6%) are in Arts class

FIGURE 3:Bar chart showing distribution of the respondents by class


90

80

70

60

50
FREQUENCY
40 Column1

30

20

10

0
SCIENCE COMMERCIAL ART

Table 4: Distribution of the respondents by Religion

Religion Frequency Percentage


Christianity 118 56.2

Muslims. 92 43.8

Total 210 100.0

Table 4: Showed that 118 (56.2 %) of the respondents are Christians and 92 (43.8%)

are Muslims.

FIGURE 4:Pie chart showing distribution of the respondents by Religion


RELIGION

CHRISTANITY
ISLAM

Table 5: Distribution of the respondents by time spend on social media

Time Frequency Percentage


0-2 hours per day 43 20.4

3-5 hours per day 105 50.0

6-10 hours per day 52 24.8

Above 10 hours per day 10 4.8

Total 210 100.0


Table 5: Showed that 43 (20.4 %) of the respondents time spend social media, 105

(50.0%) of the respondents time spend on social media, 52 (24.8%) of the respondents time

spend on social media and 10 (4.8 %) of the respondents time spend on social media.

FIGURE 5:Bar chart showing frequency of use social media


120

100

80

60

40
FREQUENCY
20 Column1

0
Y Y Y Y
DA DA DA DA
R R R R
S PE S PE S PE S PE
O UR O UR O UR UR
H H H HO
2 5 10 0
0- 3- 6-
1
OVE
AB

Testing of Research Questions:

Table B:Types of Social Media used by the students

Frequentl Rarel
S/ ITEMS y y Mean S.D
N

1 186 24 3.13 .714


Facebook
88.6% 11.4%

2 190 20 3.10 .857


Whatsapp
90.5% 9.5%

3 163 47 3.03 .753


2go
77.6% 22.4%

4 186 24 2.82 .923


Twitter
88.6% 11.4%

5 179 56 2.76 .930


Google
73.3% 26.7%

Responses on frequency use of social media as shown below:

Facebook (mean=3.13) ranked highest by the mean score rating, followed by Whatsapp

(mean=3.10), 2go (mean=3.03), Twitter (mean=2.82), and Google (mean=2.76)

Ho1: There is no significant impact of social media usage on academic performance among

males and females secondary school 2 student in English Language.

Variable Mean Std. N R P Remark


Dev.
Social media 27.6650 4.7185
Academic performance 9.9400 0.2381 210 -.254 .450 n.s.
* Sig. at .05 level of significance

It is shown in the above table that there is no significant relationship between social media

usage and academic performance among males and females secondary school 2 students in

English Language (r = -.254, N= 200, p> .05).

Null hypothesis is accepted.


Ho2: There is no significant impact of social media usage in academic performance among

urban and rural secondary school 2 students in English Language.

Variable Mean Std. N R P Remark


Dev.
Social media 30.3500 5.0869
Academic performance 9.9400 0.2381 210 .076 .288 n.s.
* Sig. at .05 level of significance

It is shown in the above table that there is no significant impact of social media usage in

academic performance among urban and rural secondary school 2 students in English Language

(r = .076, N= 210, p> .05).

Null hypothesis is accepted

DISCUSSIONS
When respondents were asked whether the use of the social media usage has a negative

influence on their academic performance, 189 of the respondents resenting 90% answered Yes

while 21 representing 10% said No. It could be deduced from the result that majority of the

respondents 90% affirmed that the use of social media affect their academic work. This study

confirms MehMood&Taswir’s, (2013) study that the use of technology such as the internet is one

of the factors that can influence students’ performance positively or adversely. This is further

supported by Choney, (2010) and San Miqual (2009) who believe that students’ use of social

media will have negative effect on their academic performance.

The analysis shows that Facebook and Whatsapp are the favourite social media site. This

confirms Schreider’s (2009) assertion that approximately 85% of undergraduate students are

Facebook users. Time spent on social media site per day Response Frequency Percentage
(20.4%) spend 0-2 hours , (50 %) spend 3-5 hours, (24.8 %) spend 6-10 hours and (4.8%) spend

Above 10 hours per day on social media which in this study confirmed that it has negative effect

on their academic performance in English Language.

The study confirms Choney’s (2010), assertion that due to the popularity of social media sites,

economists and Professors are questioning whether grades of students would not be affected by

how much time they spent on these sites. MehMood&Taswir, (2013), further corroborated this

and state that the use of technology such as the internet is one of the most important factors that

can influence educational performance of students positively or adversely.

The more the use of social media, the less academic performance students. This implies students

that who use the social media sites frequently turnout to perform poorly academically. San

Miguel (2009), focused on the relationship between the use of Facebook and the academic

performance of students.

Conclusion:

This study has demonstrated that the students of secondary school are aware of the social

networking sites and have access to them. Findings also indicated that they are influenced to a

great extent by the social media negatively because attention there is focused on chatting and

music while their academic activities are neglected and left to suffer.

The study was conducted to examine the impact of students’ use of social media sites on their

academic performance. The study revealed that majority of the respondents had mobile phones

with internet facilities and had knowledge of the existence of social media sites. As a result they

visit their social media sites and spend between 0-2 hours per day, 3-5 hours per day, 6-10 hours

per day and above. The hypothesis tested on impact of the social media usage and academic

performance revealed that there is no significant relationship between social media usage and
academic performance. The study further revealed that most respondents use the social media

sites to chat than for academic purpose.

Recommendation:

Based on the findings, the researchers made some recommendations as follows;

1. Students with phones having internet facility should be encouraged to either use it to

supplement their academic work rather than the usual chatting with friends all the time.

2. Students should be advised by the school management, counselors, teachers and parents

to limit the time they spend on social media sites per day and encourage them to rather

substitute those hours to read novels and relevant academic books to improve their

knowledge. Since the study confirmed that the use of social media sites had affected the

academic performance of students negatively, there is the urgent need for the introduction

of students to the availability of novels and other information resource or e-materials in

the library that can help them.

3. Social networking sites should be expanded and new pages should be created to enhance

academic activities to avoid setbacks in the students’ academic performance.

4. The students should create a balance between chit-chatting and academic activities. More

attention should be directed to academic activities.

5. There should be a decrease in the number of time spent by students when surfing the net

which will help them to focus on their study.

6. School management should provide visual library so as to encourage the students to use

internet for academic work and counselors and others teachers should monitor and guild

the students on how to get materials online.


7. The examination board and ministry of education should orientate the students on the

benefits and aversion of the social media on academic performance

Suggestion for further Studies on the impact of social media on academic performance of

secondary school students.

Further studies should be conducted to create more pages for research and

academic activities to enable Students improve in their academics performance,

thereby avoiding a distraction which leads to deviation from their academic work.

Furthermore, access to the media should be made easy for students as an

encouragement and should be for both the lecturers and students to meet up with the

academic work. The scheme of work for the academic session should be placed

online to enable the students get interested in academic activities.

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