Social Media Usage and Academic Performance of Students in Tertiary Institution in Nigeria.

Abstract

Social media platforms have become pervasive in the lives of students, presenting an intricate relationship with academic achievement. This study examined the influence of Social Media Usage and Academic Performance of Students in Tertiary Institution in Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey research design encompasses all HND students of the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, Ogun State. Krejuice and Morgan sample size table was used to determine a sample size of 367 respondents from the population. A research question and two hypotheses were formulated from which the instrument used for data collection was designed. An online questionnaire tagged: “Social Media Usage and Academic Performance of Student Questionnaire (SMUAPSQ)” designed in four-point likert rating scale was used for data collection. However, only 235 responses were received. The descriptive statistics was used to analyze data gathered on research question while inferential statistics was used in testing the research hypotheses at a significance level of 0.005. Findings revealed that social media platforms have positive and negative impact on students'academic performance evidence by weak variation of the independent variable on academic performance (r square= 0.126, pvalue= 0.001). It was concluded that by promoting responsible social media use and integrating its positive features into education, educators and parents can empower students to leverage social media for academic achievement. It was therefore recommended among others, that institution should effectively integrate social media tools into their teaching practices to promote responsible online behavior and fostering a healthy balance between social media use and academic work