1.1 Introduction
Social media is the connection of friends or family together which allows one to communicate easily. With media one can have a long chain of friends chat, or share information or ideal with. According to Boyd & Ellison (2008), Social networking sites can be defined as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. It is difficult to imagine a young man who at least once a day did not check for updates in social networks and did not leaf through the news lines. When social media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter appeared, our world was divided into online and offline (Shensa et al., 2015).
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
The internet is more than just a means of seeking information. People have discovered that the Internet can be used to connect with other people for business or commercial purpose, to make new friends, or to reawaken old friends and long lost relatives. The emergence of social media simplifies the process because they do not require advanced internet knowledge or experience and are made up of a wide array of different formats and topics. This means that anyone can connect through social media. With such extensive acceptance, it is no surprise that social media have impacted the way people live and socialize. Social media are also being used by teachers and students as a communication tool, especially in the West. It is a bidirectional process as students are using these mediums to share comments with their teachers.
Reading is the essential factor that forms the foundation of greatness in everyone’s life irrespective of gender, status and age. It helps to develop an individual and is also important when trying to pass an examination. One of the major reasons for the decreasing rate at which students read is due to the introduction of phones, computers, laptops and the wrong usage of all forms of communication technology. Social media and its networks such as BBM, , Instagram, 2go, Facebook, Twitter, Badoo, YouTube and the use of internet as a whole has been the major obsessions of most Nigerian youths. Despite the fact that the social media is making student’s academic performance to deteriorate, it also has some positive contributions to education.
According to Boyd and Ellison, Social network site is a web based service which allows people to sign up in a bounded system, articulating group of people within the same system so as to share personal or academic related information. This indicates that social media entails a place where people connect with each other and share common issues relating to relationship, sports, politics or academics. However, Boyd and Ellison argue that participants from certain social media sites are not primarily there to connect with people they are not familiar with, rather they sign up to connect and catch up with loss but found offline friends as well as close ones. Social network sites have attracted considerable attention among scholars and educators due to the growing popularity among students and the potential effect on academic performance. However, the studies appear from two opposing views on the impact of social media on users. While proponents argue that it allows users in connecting people of common interest and value, opponents claim that excessive use of these sites affect the social, mental and physical health of the users.
Many students who have access to the social media waste their time on it by chatting and surfing the internet for non-educative information. They are glued to their phones all day making them loose sense of time. Some students are also seen pressing their phones during classes, seminars and also in the libraries. Some of them will even plug in their ear pieces and hum out the songs they are listening to when studying which reduce their rates of assimilation and act as a source of disturbances to others around them. In a bid to know what is going on in the world and to be current with events, they are always seen on the internet reading, browsing and reading fashion and social blogs. There is obvious a great decrease in student’s passion to read for pleasure and enjoyment but instead prefer to seek pleasure from the media by streaming videos on Social Media and playing with their Smart phones. The main reason why they now read is just to pass examination and not to gain knowledge. This has reduced the vast use and development of the brain. Students are no more learning through reading. Students who so much devote their times on networking have a great tendency of having low grades, poor academic performance and become unsuccessful.
The social media also have numerous positive impacts. Firstly, it enhances learning and education. Students, with the help of the Internet now have access to all form of information. Nothing is strange to ‘google’. No matter how old the information is, the internet serves as search lights to them. Some information that cannot be found in the libraries and research centers are now available online. The use of search engines such as Google and Google Scholar has helped many students in their educational life. The world is now a small place where there is circulation of knowledge and information. Some educational problems encountered by students are being discussed and solved through interaction with online counselors. Distance learning is made possible by the use of social media. Many universities now offer online courses to the public. The social media has brought education and learning to our doorsteps. No need of traveling and risking lives just to study. Options of studying abroad when in Nigeria are open to students who are not financially buoyant to travel out of the country. Lecturers now prefer assignments and projects to be submitted to their emails. Lecture notes, handouts and reading materials are made available by the teachers online and downloaded by the students. This reduces cost of making photocopies and the risk of misplacing them.
Individual’s beliefs and self-acceptance based on evaluation of self on different components of the environment could influence students’ attitudes toward the use social media. An assessment of the influence of social media on the academic performance of students can become a decisive step towards the effort to stem the trend of attitudes toward the use social media.
Therefore, in Graceland Polytechnic Offa where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to examine the Use and Gratification of Social Media for Information Accessibility among the Library and Information Science Student.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Students’ addictiveness to social networks, students’ frequency of exposure to social network, social media network that the students are more exposed to and the influence of social media as a medium of interaction between students has been part of discussion in recent times and which have imparted on their academic performance. Instead of students reading their books, they spend their time chatting and making friends via the social media and this might definitely have influence on their academic performance, because when you do not read, there is no way you can perform well academically. It is a common sight to see a student chatting in sensitive and highly organized places like church, mosque and lecture venues. Some are so carried away that even as they are walking along the high way, they keep chatting.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to examine the Use and Gratification of Social Media for Information Accessibility among the Library and Information Science Student of Graceland Polytechnic Offa. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To discover the reasons why the Graceland Polytechnic Offa Library and Information Science students use the social networking sites
- To determine the ways social media can be used as a platform for educational learning among Library and Information Science students of Graceland Polytechnic Offa
- To establish the uses and gratifications drawn from social media and its effects of learning among Library and Information Science students of Graceland Polytechnic Offa.
- To ascertain how the use of social media has effect the academic performance among Library and Information Science students of Graceland Polytechnic Offa.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Does social media have effect on the academic performance of Library and Information Science students in Graceland Polytechnic Offa?
- What are the reasons why the Graceland Polytechnic Offa Library and Information Science students use the social networking sites?
- What are the ways social media can be used as a platform for educational learning among Library and Information Science students of Graceland Polytechnic Offa?
- What are the uses and gratifications drawn from social media and its effects of learning among Library and Information Science students of Graceland Polytechnic Offa?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There is no significant relationship between social media and academic performance of Library and Information Science students.
- H1: There is a significant relationship between social media and academic performance of Library and Information Science students.
Hypothesis Two
- H0: There will be no significant influence of social media towards the academic performance of Library and Information Science students in Graceland Polytechnic Offa.
- H1: There will be a significant influence of social media towards the academic performance of Library and Information Science students in Graceland Polytechnic Offa.
1.7 Significance of Study
This study is significant to the teachers, parents and students. This study will help the teachers of the school to know the influence that social media has on their students, so as to assist them to enlighten and create awareness to the students on the possible influence it has on them.
The study is of significant to parents in the sense that they will know the possible effects these social media usage has on their children, so as to serve as watch-dog to their children on the usage of the social networking site.
The findings from this research will hopefully create awareness among Nigerian students who access social media. The findings will also help students to use social media appropriately.
1.8 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Use and Gratification of Social Media for Information Accessibility among the Library and Information Science Student of Graceland Polytechnic Offa in Nigeria using Graceland Polytechnic Offa as a case study.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Operational Definition of Terms
The following terms were used in the course of this study:
Social Media: This refers to computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.
