For more than 45 minutes Labake Balogun, not her real name, a 200-level mass communication student at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) struggled to concentrate on the book she was reading.
The second-semester test on the media and society course was fixed for the next day. But as she tried to read she was constantly distracted by the pinging of her phone by the messages coming in.
As much as she tried to ignore them, she was invariably drawn to check them. Hers was the social media bug. As the distraction prolonged, Labake was forced to put her phone in silence mode.
Labake was just one of the millions of students all over Nigeria that are constantly distracted from their learning by the social media bug. Social media refers to a group of Internet-based applications that is based on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 that allows the design and exchange of ‘user-generated content’.
These social media sites vary from application to usage and content. The most popular of these are Facebook, Skype, Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter.
The 21st century education sector recognises social media sites as vital windows to accessing academic resources.
Social media comprises activities that involve socialising and networking online through words, pictures, and videos.
It is without doubt redefining how people relate to each other and how individuals relate to organisations. They facilitate effective interaction between teachers and students and promote prompt and frequent interactions among students.
Statcounter Globalstats, a research firm in its study of the usage of social media from November 2021 to November 2022 found out that Facebook has 67.13 percent, Twitter has 10.38 percent and Pinterest has 7.44 percent globally.
In Nigeria from November 2021 to November 2022, Facebook has 95.82 percent, Twitter has 2.75 percent and YouTube has 0.76 percent. The popularity of Facebook globally is also confirmed in Nigeria, as over three million Nigerians are presently registered members of the social media site. The exuberant zest of Nigerian students for social media platforms is unequal.
Tola Kolade, an undergraduate at UNILAG, who uses WhatsApp and Instagram mostly for interactions and information exchange, believes social media can sometimes be time consuming to the disadvantage of studying.
“The precious time that a student would have spent reading his/her books is sometimes spent browsing the social media; and most times this leads to poor academic performance,” he said.
The emergence of the social media has increased communication between people all over the world, as they help people gain access to any information that they desire at any time, anywhere, on any digital device as well as on any interactive user feedback.
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals or organisations called ‘nodes’, which are connected by one or more specific types of interdependency such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationship or relationship beliefs.
Social media network sites such as WhatsApp, 2go, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs and Blackberry (BBM) were created for chatting and catching fun at leisure time.
Social media is believed by many to have its values and toxic vagaries which offers both sweet and unsavoury experiences to its users. To some, it is a welcomed development to the world of the 21st century students, while to others; it is rather a negative development to the lives of many students of the contemporary age.
However, there are some schools of thought who believe that social media usage among students can be either good or bad; depending on the users and what he/she uses them for. Just like it is said in computer fraternity, ‘garbage-in, garbage out’, this group of people strongly believe that it is what one is looking for in his/her usage of social media application that determines what the individual gets, and what is gotten determines where and what the classification would be. Charles Onwunali, a senior lecturer at UNILAG, observed that the goodness or otherwise of social media depends on the user and what he is using the applications for.
“Most students do not have time to read for examinations because they spend most of their time chatting on social media platforms. These students lost interest in reading because they are addicted to social network sites,” he said.
Johnson Eya, a student, social media applications serve useful purposes in the areas of interactions, information exchange, academic research and fun.
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However, he believes there are some negative attributes to it, particularly in the area of immoral influences. Eya has WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram as his main source of social media apps.
Social media applications are inextricably linked to modern education and learning. Some social media platforms have been used to share educational related and other kinds of information among students. They allow students to engage in learning interactions with various scholars and application users. They present people with a countless array of internet platforms that increase and enhance the sharing of information thereby making the transfer of text, photos, audio, videos and electronic information faster and easier.
The introduction of social media applications and platforms without doubt has greatly impacted every aspect of human life and society, the education sector inclusive.
However, Mfon Inyang, a graduate of Economics at UNILAG University of Lagos noted that the major harm of social media to students is its time consuming syndrome, which does not allow an average student the grace to marry his study and the social media at the same time.
“This is so because no one can serve two masters at the same time. I use WhatsApp and Facebook platforms most, because they help me to keep in touch with those I need to be in touch with,” he said.
Inyang’s view is also shared by Chinedu Nwankwo, another undergraduate, who said he uses social media for news, especially political news and as a forum for information sharing.
“Social media is necessary for quick exchange of information and idea sharing, but is very time consuming, which is to the detriment of the students,” he said.
For Aleshinloye Oluwaseun, the social media platforms help him majorly in promotion of services and goods, research, preservation of memories and as a forum for information exchange among other -things.
“Social media is essentially beneficial to students in research, opinion sharing and as a source of information. However, more often than not, they lead students to living ‘fake’ lives as well as encourage cyber bullying,” he noted.
Christabel Akubueze, believes the advantages of the social media can be easily eroded by the new crazy quest by some students to share pornographic and other immoral materials.
“WhatsApp is my main take and I use it for forum and information exchange with my acquaintances, I believe social media is useful for information sharing and keeping in touch, but it exposes students to indecent images such as pornographic pictures,” she noted
The enthusiasm for social media among students is not limited to undergraduates alone as it is catching up fast among secondary school students across the country.
Many of these students use the platforms for studying just as some of them use them for social activities, which sometimes are inimical to their studies.
Ekeoma Onya, a teacher at Holy Rosary Secondary School, Umuahia, Abia State sees social media as a worthy tool that can help students excel in their examinations by connecting to ‘group forum’ which helps facilitate learning among students.
Divine Nwobi, a fresh SSS3 graduate of Seed of Knowledge School, Okota-Lagos State, uses WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram mainly for chatting and uploading pictures. Nwobi acknowledges that social media is beneficial to students in passing their WAEC, NECO and other examinations by joining the WAEC Group Chat which affords them the benefit of asking questions on topics they need clarifications and getting the supposed answers on the spot. However, he noted, “social media can be very distractive.”
Nevertheless, many education stakeholders are worried that social media addiction is affecting the reading culture among the students. Samuel Afolayan, a teacher, noted that “most students do not want to read their books again just because they know that with some data on the phone, they can easily have solutions to their academic challenges via social media. This has given rise to a high rate of examination malpractices in our schools today.”
Another teacher observed that some hardworking students are becoming lazy as a result of bad company on social media platforms. Many of them, she said, are being introduced to examination malpractice at social network sites, and that this has contributed to the decline in the academic standard among many.
