INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
(A case study of Ikorodu senior high school, Ikorodu and Baptist High School, Agbowa) 

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).

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 Ikorodu high school, Ikorodu and Baptist High school, Agbowa. 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 

To examine whether students make use of social media.
To study how much time do students spend on social media. 
To find out the usefulness of social media to students.
To know the nature of activities which students engage on social media.
To examine if social media influence students’ academic performance.
To know the impact of social media on the social lives of students.
To study the type of social media which students prefer to use.

1.4        Research Questions  

Do students make use of social media?
How much time do students spend on social media? 
Of what use is social media to students?
What activities do students engage on social media? 
Do social media influence students’ academic performance?
What is the impact of social media on the social lives of students?
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 Ikorodu high school, Ikorodu and Baptist High school, Agbowa 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 secondary school 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. 

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