Impact of Social Media Usage on Academic Performance of University Students in Enugu Metropolis

Abstract

The use of social media has affected communication between people in the past decade. This paper tries to examine the influence of social media on the academic performance of the undergraduate students in Enugu metropolis. It focuses on extent and frequency to which undergraduate students use social media. The study adopted a survey research design. A close-ended questionnaire was designed to address the key issues in the research. Three tertiary institutions were used for the study. The data collected was analyzed using percentages. The hypotheses were tested using regression and correlation analysis. The findings show that undergraduate students in Enugu metropolis have access to social media. It also shows that majority of them were active users ofFacebook, Twitter, BBMand Whatsapp. The findings also revealed that the success of a student is weakly related to social media used but strongly related to the time spent and social media used. As a result the paper recommends that students should minimize social media use in order to increase their academic performance, students academic advisers should guide the students on sites that will assist them in their academic work since
they are closer to the students.