Undergraduate students’ use of social media in school: A need for regulatory policies in Nigerian universities

Abstract

Social media/networks have proven to improve learning and overall students’ progress in their programs when properly used. However, social media have been strongly criticized for its strong negative impacts on students’ performance in their studies. This study, therefore, explored the regulatory policy options to effectively manage students’ use of social media/networks in Nigerian universities. The study used a mixed-method design for the collection of appropriate data to address the objectives. The population of the study include all the undergraduate students in Nigerian universities and seven top administrative staff of the universities who often get involved in policy dialogue, policy crafting and policy implementation. To collect both quantitative and qualitative data, both online and off-line open-ended interviews were conducted for undergraduate students of which 498 valid responses were retrieved. For the seven top university administrative staff, open-ended semi-structured interviews were conducted in their offices during fieldwork for data collection. The validity and trustworthiness of the instruments for quantitative and qualitative data collection respectively were determined by three experts. The reliability of the instrument measured using Cronbach’s alpha is 0.87. The collected qualitative data which had been recorded were transcribed and analyzed using text analysis and frequency query cloud with the help of Atlas.ti. Findings from analyzed data show the major challenges confronting students in the use of social media, abuses of social media, and was also found that there are no existing regulations or policies controlling the use of social media/networks in Nigerian universities. The study recommended the enactment of social media regulatory policies in Nigerian universities.

Effects of social networking sites on university students’ academic performance: A systematic review

“…It was found that most of the 22 articles studied (13 articles) were published between 2019 and 2022. This finding can be explained by the rapid growth of communication technologies among university students and the need to research to examine the effects of SNS on achievement (Astatke et al, 2021;Nannim et al, 2023).…”

“…With the rapid growth of communication technologies, social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter have become very popular for connecting with others worldwide (Alfaris et al, 2018;Hossain, 2017;Mark et al, 2023;Owan et al, 2020). With the increasing popularity of SNS among university students, the education systems need to adapt their teaching and learning approaches according to SNS to provide students with helpful information and build learning communities in online learning environments at higher education levels (Gilemkhanova, 2019;Nannim et al, 2023). SNS helps students interact with peers or others, share information, and meet with experts in a particular field to expand their knowledge connections and networks in online environments (Gafarov et al, 2021;Hussain et al, 2017).…”

“…With rapid increase in use of SNS among university students and rapid growth of communication technologies, majority of university students, social media, and their impact on academic achievement have attracted attention of researchers in research literature (e.g., Barton et al, 2021;Nannim et al, 2023). Research (e.g., Barton et al, 2021;Li et al, 2019;Malak et al, 2021) has shown that university students feel dependent on technology because they have grown up with its rapid growth and witnessed its increasing speed.…”

ASSESSING THE ROLE OF TEACHERS & PARENTS IN DEVELOPING STRATEGIES AGAINST SOCIAL MEDIA MISUSE AMONG STUDENTS

“…Martinez-Prather and Vandiver (2014) came to the same conclusion as this study, reporting that 20% of the teenagers posted photographs or videos of themselves wearing only pants. Nannim et al (2023) asserted that teenagers used their mobile phone, computer, or other digital device to send, record, and send sexually explicit messages, images, or videos on social media. Results of this study showed that children who use social media often experience loneliness.…”

Libraries and librarians’ roles in ensuring cyberethical behaviour

“…The above can also be done similarly for those who choose to access online resources, by leveraging ICT and various social media platforms. Nannim et al (2023) and Banjoko et al (2023) listed YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, ResearchGate and Academia as commonly used social media platforms that students use regularly. This education can help users make informed decisions about their online behaviour and understand the potential risks and consequences of unethical behaviour.…”