THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF THE STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF BENIN, BENIN CITY, EDO STATE

ABSTRACT

This study covers the impact of social media on the academic performance of the students of University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State. To guide the study four research questions and two hypotheses were raised. The research design used for this study was the descriptive survey research design. A total of 100 respondents were sampled for the study. The instrument used in this study was a structured questionnaire, data was analyzed using mean, simple percentage and t-test.

The findings of this study showed that the specific social media platform that has the greatest impact on the academic performance of UNIBEN students is YouTube. UNIBEN students can effectively manage their use of social media regardless of its distractions. It was also concluded that there is a significant relationship between those who use social media and those who do not and there is also a significant relationship between social media usage and academic performance of UNIBEN students.

Based on the above findings, some of the following recommendations were drawn. Educational institutions should develop and implement social media literacy programs to educate students on responsible social media use, students should utilize productivity apps and tools to minimize distractions, academic advisors should offer guidance and support to students on balancing social media use and academic responsibilities and experts and volunteers alike ought to develop and test strategies for promoting healthy social media habits among students.