CHAPTER
ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Alfred.
et al. (2006). Says communication is a basic human need and for that reason,
man has always found a means of meeting this need either through interpersonal
or mass communication.
Unlike in
the past, the people of the world are today living in a global village because
of various breakthroughs in information technology. According to a Canadian
Professor of English Marshall Mcluhan, “The world is now in a global village
where the whole world is now compressed into a single electronic chat room”.
Katz,(2009).
Opines that information that
usually takes many days or weeks to disseminate now takes seconds or minutes.
It is now possible for people to make interpersonal communication with others
to get desired information as quickly as possible from other areas of the
country or from other countries with the use of social media without leaving
their immediate environment.
The
growth of technology toward the end of the 20th century propelled by the emergency of
the internet, satellite e.t.c led to what is called social media. While social
media on the other hand is a term in this present world which means the
encompasses of the emergency of digital, computerized or networked interactive
information channel. It should be noted that because.
Also,
social media is a form of electronic communication which facilitates
interaction based on certain interests and characteristics. Social media are
media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing
techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast
media monologues into social dialogues. and one of such are Facebook, Twitter,
Eskimi, and 2go social networking.
Therefore,
Facebook started as a local social network made for the students of Harvard. It
was developed by a sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook was actually made by
hacking Harvard’s data base containing identification images of students. The
initial idea was actually to compare the faces of students with images of
animals, for entertainment purposes. However, due to the potentially damaging
contents of the site, the creators decided to put it down before it caught the
attention of school authorities.
The
application was shut down, but the idea of creating an online community of
students came to existence. The platform was then improved and sooner than they
expected, Facebook was released in campuses other than Harvard. Thereafter,
high schools were already starting to get attracted to the idea of having
online communities, thus opening the website to the younger population. In
2006, facebook.com ultimately offered the opportunity to the rest of the world.
As
2007 approached, the registrants reached an overwhelming digit- roughly a
million dozen. Facebook has grown to become the biggest and most popular social
networking site today with a population of above 500 million active users.
(Facebook Statistics, 2012).
Also, 2GO, formally 2GO Travel, is a ferry
company which is based in Manila, Philippines and part of 2GO Group, a private
company owned by the Chinese government through the China-Asean Investment
Cooperation Fund. It is the largest ferry company in the Philippines with its main
hub located in Eva Macapagal Super Terminal in Pier 15 in the Manila South
Harbor.
Until
2012, 2GO was known as Negros Navigation. It changed its name following a
significant realignment of ferry transportation in the Philippines which saw
long-standing companies SuperFerry, Cebu Ferries and SuperCat first merged into
SuperFerry, under the Aboitiz Transport System, and then purchased by Negros
Navigation, in December 2010, for US$105 million.
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, 2go, twitter and
others exchanging views, ideas and other related matters with a good number of
them being young. 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.
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 STUDENTS
i.
To examine whether
students make use of social media.
ii.
To study how much time do
students spend on social media.
iii.
To find out the usefulness
of social media to students.
iv.
To know the nature of
activities which students engage on social media.
v.
To examine if social media
influence students’ academic performance.
vi.
To know the impact of
social media on the social lives of students.
vii.
To study the type of
social media which students prefer to use.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
i.
Do students make use of
social media?
ii.
How much time do students
spend on social media?
iii.
Of what use is social
media to students?
iv.
What activities do
students engage on social media?
v.
Do social media influence
students’ academic performance?
vi.
What is the impact of
social media on the social lives of students?
vii.
What type of social media
do students prefer to use?
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Fundamentally,
it is essential we understand current usage and behaviour and identify
potential problems so that they can bead dressed. This can be seen in the
amount of academic studies on social media within the last seven years.
However,
Danah Boyd has gathered a collection of research about social net working sites
that lists approximately one hundred and fifty research papers, three books,
and seven research reports published in the years 2003-2010. (Boyd, 2010) None
of these papers covers Africa. This shows a lack of research that concerns the
African region and especially Nigeria where this form of media is greatly used.
Therefore
the overall motivation for conducting this study is to contribute to research
about social media in Nigeria. This research should also create a platform for
further research in this field and how it affects business processes as well
other spheres of life.
This
research should provide useful data for market researchers, marketing and
product development professionals as well as educators as to how they can
maximize social media for optimum benefit in their various fields.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This
study has been narrowed down to Ilobu Commercial Grammar School and Ima High
School, Ilobu with the view to represent all other secondary schools since it
is difficult to reach all the youth in Nigeria.
Although,
the primary aims and objectives of the project is to examine the influence of
social media on students academic performance. This cannot be effectively talked
without considering the demographic factor of the selected schools in terms of
experience, education background, professional training, age, sex e. t. c must
be visiting before the distribution of research instruments.
1.7 LIMITATION OF STUDY
Although
this study has accomplished the purpose, which is set out to achieve, one of
the very limitations is that the validity of the results or findings is
depending on the honest of the respondents in providing the needed information.
Due to
constraints of time and money, it is difficult to carry out the research
extensively. This led to the limiting of the scope.
Cognizance
was also taken to the fact that the academic calendar was too short and
academic workload was enormous, as a result of this, no time to run around for
the work.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
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. (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010)
Social Skills: Any skills
facilitating interaction and communication with others. Social rules and
relations are created, communicated and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways
through a process called socialization.
Blogs: A blog (a contraction
of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an
individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other
material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in
reverse-chronological order.
Vlogs: Video blogging,
sometimes shortened to vlogging or vidblogging is a form of blogging for which
the medium is video, and is a form of Internet television. Entries often
combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other
metadata.
Facebook: Instant messaging (IM)
is a form of real-time direct text-based communication between two or more
people using shared clients. The text is conveyed via devices connected over a
network such as the Internet.
2go: This is one of the social networking service and microblogging
service that enables users to send and read text based messages of up to 140
characters known as tweets.
