CRUTECH Journal of Communication Volume 3, Number 1 March, 2021

SOCIALMEDIATIZED EDUCATION: AN ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT ON

UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES IN EDO STATE UNIVERSITY UZAIRUE, NIGERIA
Peter Egielewa, Ph.D
Department of Mass Communication
Edo State University Uzairue, Edo State, Nigeria
peter.egielewa@edouniversity.edu.ng
+2349061843274
Precious Unegbu
Department of Mass Communication
Edo State University Uzairue, Edo State, Nigeria

Peace Ekele
Department of Mass Communication
Edo State University Uzairue, Edo State, Nigeria
&
Marvellous Tijani
Department of Mass Communication
Edo State University Uzairue, Edo State, Nigeria
Abstract
This study aims at investigating how 200 undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue, Nigeria use social
media platforms in the course of their studies. The study used the quantitative survey method and deployed a
questionnaire to elicit responses from students of Edo State University Uzairue who were randomly selected
across different levels of studies. The respondents filled in a questionnaire between 16th and 20 March 2021. The
study found out that Whatsapp is the most used social media application by undergraduates of Edo State University
Uzairue while Facebook is the least. The study also revealed that younger students use social media for academic
activities more extensively than older students. Also, the more students use social media for academic activities,
the more likely they will have better grades in their studies. The study recommends further investigation into why
older students who are near graduation do not use social media for their academic activities as much as their
younger counterparts. The study is anchored on the theory of media dependency.

Keywords: Social Media, Undergraduate, Edo State University, Nigeria.

Introduction
Among the many innovations that have become byproducts of the internet are social media. Social media
are not only used for digital interactions in the modern era, but they have become increasingly used for educational
purposes as well (Settle et al., 2012; Mhunpiew & Purayidathil, 2015; Rajesh & Michael, 2015; Boateng &
Amankwaa, 2016; Raut & Patil, 2016). Social media are built on the idea of how people know and interact with
each other and thus giving people the power to locate information within seconds. At the debut of social media,
entertainment and social interactions were the primary goals of social media (Yeo, 2104), but since the ubiquity,
accessibility and affordability of the internet, social media use has become varied, including for business and
health, and in recent times for educational purposes because of their usefulness to teachers and students (Settle et
al., 2012; Mhunpiew & Purayidathil, 2015). Particularly in higher education, undergraduates have begun to use
social media for academic purposes (Rajesh & Michael, 2015; Boateng & Amankwaa, 2016; Raut & Patil, 2016).
Students in higher institutions no longer limit their sources of information during their studies to just classroom
lectures, tutorials, group studies, library visits but have now added social media platforms as important sources of
academic activities This has made students’ use of social media for academic activities far outweigh their use by
lecturers (Jacquemin, Smelser & Bernot, 2014; Rajesh & Michael, 2015). However “during the past few years,
Facebook has become highly popular among college professors and other academic professionals” in their
engagements with students (Bonk, 2009, p.329).

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This increasing deployment of social media for academic purposes is evidenced by a TIMES study which
was carried out to find out US and UK Universities using social media the most for academic activities as of 2021
and found out that the top ten universities that were using social media for academic activities are: (1) Harvard
University, (2) University of Pennsylvania, (3) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), (4) University of
Michigan, (5) Stanford University, (6) University of California, (7) University of Oxford, (8) University of
Sheffield, (9) University of Wisconsin, and (10) University of Texas at Austin (Murphy, 2012; Mhunpiew &
Purayidathil, 2015). In a survey by Rhoades et al. (2008 cited in Settle et al., 2012), 85% of Agricultural students
of three universities: University of Florida, The Ohio State University, and Texas A&M University reported
having a Facebook account and were receptive to the use of Facebook for academic purposes, arguing that
Facebook presents a “unique new teaching opportunity to instructors” (p. 138).

Also, in a study by Boateng and Amankwaa (2016) to determine the level of social media use for
academic activities by International students of the Beijing Normal University (BNU), China, an overwhelming
majority of the students surveyed admitted to using social media platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp,
Wikipedia, YouTube and WeChat for academic purposes. In terms of specific academic purposes, the majority of
the students said they used social media mainly for class schedules and lecture time tables, discussions and
assignments and to receive and send educational information.

However, no known studies have interrogated the social media use for academic purposes in Edo State
University Uzairue Nigeria which is the gap this study intends to fill. Thus, this study is set out to address the
following broad objectives;

i. To find out the social media platforms that undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria use
the most.
ii. To find out the extent undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria use social media for
academic activities?
iii. To investigate the kind of academic activities that undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue
Nigeria use social media for.
iv. To find out how social media impact the academic performance of undergraduates of Edo State
University Uzairue Nigeria.

Research Questions

This research paper addresses the following questions:

i. Which social media platforms do undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria use the
most?
ii. To what extent do undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria use social media for
academic activities?
iii. What academic activities do undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria use social media
for?
iv. To what extent do social media impact the academic performance of undergraduates of Edo State
University Uzairue Nigeria?

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Literature Review

Social Media
Social media refer to "a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and
technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content" (UGC)
(Kaplan & Haenlein cited in Rajesh & Michael, 2015, p.29). In other words, social media are means of individuals
interfacing with one another in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in a virtual
environment and networks (Danciu & Grosseck, 2011; Yeo, 2014). Social media are "a category of online media
where people are talking, participating, sharing, networking and bookmarking online"(Jones, 2012). On social
media, people socialize, share ideas and interests, and network through texts, pictures, graphics, audios and videos.
Social media enable people to meet online with common interests, similar ideas, experiences and activities and
share their commonalities and interests with others (Yeo, 2014; Mhunpiew & Purayidathil, 2015).

In such social media platforms, people can chat, share files (such as pictures, documents, videos, audios,
and graphics), discuss ideas (such as social and entertainment) and email each other. Principally, social media
help people to stay connected with their family and friends (Gustchmidt, 2012; Mhunpiew & Purayidathil, 2015).
The most popular social media platforms are Facebook, YouTube, Whatsapp, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,
Telegram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Google+ (Mhunpiew & Purayidathil, 2015; Boateng & Amankwaa, 2016).

As at January 2021, Facebook was the most popular network site with more than 2.7 billion monthly
active users followed by YouTube (2.3billion) and Whatsapp (2billion). The least patronized social media
platform is Quora with 300 million active users (Tankovska, 2021). However, Egielewa and Ate (2020) and
Egielewa (2021) in a study found out that Whatsapp was the most used social media application by undergraduate
students in Nigeria.

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Figure 1: Most popular social media platforms globally as of January 2021.

Source: Tankovska, 2021.

The use of social media for educational purposes has the challenge of distraction. This is because since
social media are also a medium through which people send and receive pictures and videos of recent events and
happenings, distractions have also become inevitable. The study conducted by Owusu and Agatha (2015) revealed
that the majority of students in Ghana use social media mainly for chatting and downloading purposes with little
academic use. This finding corroborates the findings by Mingle and Musah (2015) which found out that most
students experience negative effects of social media use such as poor grammar spelling, late submission of
assignments, less study time and poor academic performance. Another challenge is the extreme difficulty to
properly scrutinize, verify and evaluate anonymous academic content shared on social media.

Davies and Cranston (2008) and O’keeffe and Clake-Person (2011) enumerated some of the risks
associated with social media which include criminal activities such as identity theft and fake contacts, sexual
abuse, online harassment, cyberbullying, unsuitable advertising, sexting, depression, and privacy concerns.

Socialmediatised Education
Several studies point to the increasing use of social media for educational purposes. Studies by Mazman
and Usluel (2010), Blankenship (2010), Khan (2010) and Mardiana (2016) have revealed that social media can
augment physical classroom interactive academic activities and can even engender greater student interest and
engagement and thus promote more collaboration, critical thinking, active participation and resource sharing. A
similar study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education (2009) to investigate the impact of social media in

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education found out that the classes that integrate social media into their lectures were more effective than the
classes that use only traditional face-to-face instruction. Also, another study conducted by the Educause Center
for Applied Research showed that social media helped the staff and students of US colleges and universities to be
more collaborative and active and the students were already integrating social media in their studies albeit
informally which led US universities to encourage staff and students to integrate social media in their teaching
and learning activities (Smith & Caruso, 2010).

Students’ academic life has moved to a different dimension since the introduction of social media
networks and several studies have affirmed that social media play an important role in higher education including
the study conducted by Wheeler, Yeomans and Wheeler (2008) and Rifkin, Longnecker, Leach and Ortia (2009)
which identified four (4) major advantages of social media usage by students in higher education, namely;
enhancing relationship, improving learning motivation, offering personalized course material, and developing
collaborative abilities. In a study of 60 students of Business Administration and Management Information System
of Jubail University College, Saudi Arabia by Talaue et al. (2018) results showed that social media have dual
effects on students: it can lead to improved academic performance and it can also lead to poor academic
performance depending on how the students deployed the tools in their studies.

Similarly, Kolan and Dzandza (2018) in a study of 150 students of the University of Ghana, Legon found
out that 74% of the students admitted that social media had a positive effect on students’ academic performance.
However, studies by Owusu & Agatha (2015) and Osharive (2015) found out that social media have a dual impact
on students in the sense that they can either lead to good performance or poor performance depending on the
intensity of their use.

Theoretical Framework: Media Dependency Theory

This study is anchored on the Media Dependency Theory or Media System Dependency Theory which
was developed in 1976 by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin Defleur. They perceived a complex of web links
encompassing the mass media and their audience that is a relationship that involves one feeding on the other.

Society according to Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin Defleur has various parts that interact with each
other and each link in their chain is a separate entity and because of the need for more information, people depend
on mass media (in its entirety) for this information. Just as a politician depends on the media to communicate his
manifesto, so also a student depends on certain media platforms for different activities.

According to John (2002), people will become more dependent on the media that meets a number of their
needs than on the media that provide only a few ones. Thus, people are likely to use and depend on social media
platforms because of their creative information feature.

Media dependency theory has been explored as an extension of/or an addition to the Uses and
Gratification Theory; although media dependency theory looks at audience goal as the origin of the dependency,
while the uses and gratification approach emphasizes audience needs. Both, however, are in agreement that, media
use can lead to media dependency. The intensity of the media dependency depends on how much people perceive
that the media they choose are meeting their goals.

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Methodology
The method used in this research is quantitative. Aliaga and Gunderson (2002) have described
quantitative research as an inquiry into a social problem and explains a phenomenon by gathering numerical data
that are analyzed using a mathematically-based method. According to Creswell (2003) researchers primarily use
the post-positive approach to develop knowledge when quantitative research is selected.

The population of the studies is the entire students of Edo State University Uzairue, Edo State, Nigeria
that is approximately 2,000 (Aluyor, 2021) out of which 200 (10%) was randomly selected for this study.

A set of six semi-structured questions was designed by the researcher to collect information and data.
The questionnaire was sent to randomly selected students during lecture periods and in their hostels within the
period from 16th to 20th March 2021. The sample consisted of both male and female students from varied
departments, levels, and courses in the University. SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was used to
analyze the data.

Data Presentation and Analysis

Based on the data obtained from the survey, 77% of the respondents were males while 23% were females.
Also, Table 1 below showed the different Levels of the students that participated in the survey.

Level of Study No of participants Percentage of all participants (%)

100 Level 123 61
200 Level 26 13
300 Level 22 11
400/500 Level 29 15
Total 200 100
Table 1: Academic Levels of undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria who participated in the
survey.

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Research Question 1
Which social media platforms do undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria use the most?

Figure 1: Social media platforms used the most by undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria.

Data in Figure 1 show that Whatsapp is the most used social media platforms by undergraduates of Edo State
University Uzairue Nigeria closely followed by Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram. Facebook is the least used social
media platform.

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Research Question 2
To what extent do undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria use social media for academic
activities?

Figure 2: Extent to which undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria use social media for
academic activities.

Figure 2 above shows that 100 Level undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue overwhelmingly use social
(very large extent +large extent) the most for academic activities (n=113) compared to their older counterparts
200 to 500 Levels (n=77). In other words, 100 level undergraduates use social media 62% of the time for academic
activities compared to other students (Levels 200 to 500) who cumulatively use social media for academic
activities only 38% of the time. This means that for every 5 undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue who
use social media for academic activities, 3 are likely to be 100 Level students.

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Research Question 3
What academic activities do undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria use social media for?

Figure 3: Types of academic activities that undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria use social
media for.

Figure 3 above shows the kinds of academic activities that undergraduates of Edo State University Uzairue use
social media for. Figure 3 shows that Research (34%) was the academic activities that which undergraduates use
social media the most for while Online Academic Discussions (17%) was the academic activity undergraduates
use social media for the least. In the four categories of academic activities, 100 Level students use social media
62% of the time compared to the older students who cumulatively use social media for the four categories of
academic activities only 38% of the time. This finding confirms the finding in Figure 2 which shows that generally
100 Level undergraduates use social media the most for academic activities compared to their older counterparts.

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Research Question 4
To what extent do social media impact the academic performance of undergraduates of Edo State University
Uzairue Nigeria?

Figure 4: Impact of social media on the academic performance of undergraduates of Edo State University
Uzairue Nigeria.

Figure 4 above shows how the use of social media for academic activities by undergraduates of Edo State
University Uzairue impacts their academic performance. Figure 4 shows that students who use social media for
all four categories of academic activities are more likely to get the best grades in their studies (GPA 4.5 & above).
In other words, students with a GPA of 4.5 & above use social media for academic activities 69% of the time
compared to students with a GPA of 2.39 & below who use social media for academic activities only 1% of the
time. Thus, the more students use social media for academic activities, the more likely they will perform better in
their studies.

Discussion of Results
Findings of this research show that Whatsapp is the most used social media platform by undergraduates
of Edo State University Uzairue Nigeria confirming studies by Egielewa and Ate (2020) and Egielewa (2021).
Facebook is the least used social media platform. Also, data show that 100 Level undergraduates of Edo State
University Uzairue overwhelmingly use social media for academic activities to a larger extent compared to older
students of Levels 200 to 500. This confirms studies by Mazman and Usluel (2010), Blankenship (2010), Khan
(2010) and Mardiana (2016) which found out that social media can augment physical classroom interactive
academic activities.

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Data show that Research (34%) was the academic activities that undergraduates use social media the
most for while Online Academic Discussions (17%) was the academic activity undergraduates use social media
for the least. This means that 1 in every 3 students who use social media for academic activities do so for research
purposes.

Data from this study reveal that social media affect the academic performance of undergraduates (Talaue
et al., 2018; Egielewa, 2021). Data show that students who use social media for academic activities are more likely
to get the best grades in their studies (GPA 4.5 & above) and students who don’t use social media for academic
activities are more likely to perform poorly in their studies. Indeed, students who use social media in 70% of their
time for academic activities are more likely to get the best grades while students who spend less than 1% of their
time on social media for academic activities are more likely to get poor grades in their studies. In other words, the
more students use social media for academic activities, the more likely they will perform better in their studies.
These findings confirm earlier studies by the U.S. Department of Education (2009), Caruso (2010), Osharive
(2015), Kolan and Dzandza (2018) and Talaue et al. (2018) which showed that social media benefit
undergraduates and can lead to improved academic performance. Although the findings negate studies by Owusu
and Agatha (2015) and Osharive (2015) which found out that social media negatively affected students’ academic
performance.

The theory of media dependency is confirmed in this study because the students depended on social
media for their academic pursuits which then had both positive and negative consequences on their academic
performance.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Based on the outcome of this study, it can be concluded that Whatsapp is the most used social media
application by Nigerian undergraduates while Facebook was the least used. Also, younger undergraduate students
tend to use social media to a large extent for their academic activities than older students. In addition, students
use social media mainly for research purposes and less for online academic discussions. Similarly, the more
students use social media for academic activities, the more likely they will perform better in their studies by
getting good grades.

Thus, the following are recommended:

1. Undergraduates should continue to use not only Whatsapp but also other social media platforms for their
studies.
2. There should be further research to interrogate why older students who are near graduation do not use
social media sufficiently for their academic activities as much as their younger counterparts.
3. This study should be tested in other institutions of higher learning to interrogate if these findings are
corroborated or refuted.

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