EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS ON THE INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP AMONG STUDENTS: A STUDY OF MASS COMMUNICATION STUDENTS

EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS ON THE INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP AMONG STUDENTS: A STUDY OF MASS COMMUNICATION STUDENTS

ABSTRACT

This study examined the effect of social media platforms on the interpersonal relationship among students (a study of Mass Communication Students). The study focused on the social media platforms used by Mass Communication Students, Delsu; prevalence of social media usage among undergraduate students of mass communication in Delsu; effects of social media on interpersonal relationship of undergraduate students of mass communication in Delsu; and role of social media in enhancing the interpersonal relationship of undergraduate students of mass communication in Delsu. The study was divided into five chapters. A total of 100 copies of the questionnaires was administered to the respondents in Mass Communication, Delsu, Abraka using the descriptive survey research design and the simple random sampling techniques. The data collected were analyzed and the mean score and standard deviation values were used to ascertain the agreement of the respondents with the issues raised. The result of the findings showed that the various social media platforms are used by Mass Communication Students. The findings showed that social media usage is prevalent among undergraduate students of mass communication. The result of the findings showed that social media play a significant role in enhancing the interpersonal relationship of undergraduate students of mass communication in Delsu. The study concluded that Social media have significant effect on the interpersonal relationship of undergraduate students of mass communication. The study recommended that young people should be warned against the use of social media platforms in the negative issues that may affect family relationships between students and members of their families, so it must be emphasized on the preventive side and awareness of the importance of social media and its effects on social relationships for young people.

TABLE OF CONTENT

Cover page -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- i

Title -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- ii

Certification -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- iii

Dedication -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- iv

Acknowledgment -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- v

Table of content -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- vii

Abstract -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- x

CHAPTER ONE:  INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 1

1.2 Statement of the problem -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 5

1.3 Objectives of the study -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 6

1.4 Research questions -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 7

1.5 Significance of the study -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 7

1.6 Scope of the Study -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 8

1.7 Definition of terms -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 9

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Literature Review -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 10

2.1.1 Social Media: Definition and Concept -- -- -- -- -- 10

2.1.2 Social Media Platforms -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 12

2.1.3 Social Media and Interpersonal Relationship -- -- -- -- 14

2.1.4 Social Media and Communication -- -- -- -- -- 18

2.1.5 Effects of Social Media Platform on the Interpersonal

 Relationship among Students -- -- -- -- -- -- 20

2.2 Theoretical Framework -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 22

2.2.1 Uses and Gratification Theory -- -- -- -- -- -- 22

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 24

3.2 Population of the Study -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 24

3.3 Sample Size -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 25

3.4 Sampling Technique -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 26

3.5 Research Instrument -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 26

3.6 Method of Data Collection -- -- -- -- -- -- 27

3.7 Method of Data Analysis -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 27

3.8 Limitation of the Study -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 28

CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS 

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Summary of Findings - - - - - - - 61

5.2 Conclusion - - - - - - - - - 62

5.3 Recommendation - - - - - - - - 63

5.4 Suggestion for further Studies - - - - - - 64

References  - - - - - - - - - 66

Appendix - - - - - - - - - 70

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Around the world, the daily usage rate of social media is increasing. For example, everyone owns a Whatsapp or Facebook account due to the extremely popular growth of the social networking sites. There are many features provided by social media platforms such as it allows them to add friends, comment on others’ status and send messages (Chris, 2015). Nowadays, social media sites have become very popular and provide more convenient lifestyle to the people today. A large number of social media users are the youth aged from 15 -29 (Kemp, 2014). Social media is a computer-mediated tool with many features and characteristics. It allows people to communicate and connect with each other by texting, sharing or exchanging information, images or video in virtual communities and network (Marvis, 2020). The social fabric of the society has been impacted by the social media as social media become pervasive today. The nature of social relationship keeps changing. Social media could be defined as an electronic communication tool where the users share their personal information, ideas, personal messages and videos with the public (Chris, 2015). Without the existence of Social Media, there is no way for globalization and contacts establishment. All the global activities are operated through the power of Social Media technologies (Khalil, 2013).

Social media is an important tool that allows people to communicate with others. There are many advantages of using the social media, but one of the most serious challenges that the youth is facing, is that, it is affecting their interpersonal communication. According to Chris (2015), they use social media to share their feelings instead of face to face communication. There are several studies that have addressed the impact of social networking sites such as Facebook on the interpersonal relationship of Nigerian youths.

The use of social media over the years has influenced the interpersonal relationship among Nigerian students. This is because, human interaction has changed drastically in the last 20 years, not only due to the introduction of the internet, but also from social media and online communities. These social media options and communities have grown from being simply used to communicate on a private network into a strong culture that almost all individuals are using to communicate with others all over the world. We will concentrate on the impact that social media has on human communication and interaction among young adults, primarily college students. In today’s society, powerful social media platforms such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (IG), and Pinterest have been the result of an evolution that is changing how humans communicate with each other (Marvis, 2020).

The motivation behind this research has been personal experience from interaction and communication with friends and family; it had become difficult, sometimes even rare, to have a one-on-one conversation with them, without having them glancing at or interacting with their phone. It has been observed that personal communication has decreased due social media influence encouraging them to have online conversations, as opposed to face-to-face, in-person conversations (Hinduja and Patchin, 2017). The present age is featured as the era of information and communication revolution. All of the globe becomes a single electronic village as a result of the World Wide Web, which effectively contributed to the interaction between people of different cultures. In addition, it is noticeable that the group that uses the social networking site more than others is the youth. However, it seems striking that the extensive use of the social networks by these young people reduces their personal interaction with other members of the community.

The interpersonal communication is one of the most important types of communication that are held between the sender and receiver with a face-to-face meeting such as: lectures, interviews, and seminars. Further, the interpersonal communication is regarded as the most common type of the influential and persuasive contact because it moves in two directions from the sender to the receiver and vice versa. It has an immediate response. It is also characterized by the presence of the human senses. It is a necessary and essential process to strengthen the human relations between people, individuals, groups, institutions and peoples, taking into account that no nation can live without regard to information technology (Kasteler, 2010).

Today, 80% to 90% of humans conduct their daily life activities and learn about the world through interpersonal communication, or "IPC". Interpersonal communication is the practice of exchanging information between two or more people in a face to face communication setting. Moreover, it depends on the quality of the communication itself. Interpersonal communication is a very important part of humans’ lives and allows them to conduct both physical and mental movements; however, the majority of the world’s population has been shifting their communication roles from interpersonal communication (face to face communication) to an electronic communication, which is through the access of the Social Media (Stone, 2014). Social Media, the most welcoming electronic communication platform, brings the enormous globe into a small village. It narrows the route of human communication across the vast globe. Seemingly, it comprises these noteworthy interactive communication tools such as Wikipedia, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Skype, etc. (Andreas, Kaplan, Michael, and Haenlein, 2010).

It has been a well-known truth that in order to utilize social networking websites, one needs to create an account and sign in every time they want to access the website. Every social networking site does not give its clients a choice to keep their online appearance private. In addition, there is an absence of mindfulness on approaches to hide the private data of the clients. Due to this reason, individuals face various privacy and accountability issues while utilizing online networking. Besides, there have been questions on the quality and dependability of the data that is accessible on the online networking in view of the absence of information on the effect of social media platform on the interpersonal relationship among students. Individuals want to get the news instead of checking it. This makes them deceived and once in a while prompts mistaken assumptions. Moreover, it gives them a misguided feeling of being progressive (Marvis, 2020).

Another challenge is the issue of social media on generic health concerns of the society. The main concern of this study is to investigate the main idea of social media interpersonal relationship, its importance and utilization among undergraduate students in Nigeria. The study will also focus on how the use of social media affect daily life of the students and how it influences their relationship with people outside school, their academic as well as their social prosperity. The present study is an attempt to explore this knowledge gap by examining the effect of social media platform on the interpersonal relationship among students (a study of Mass Communication Student).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Social media can be regarded as one of the greatest achievements that have occurred to humanity, especially in the area of Mass Communication. However, Stone (2014) say that there is poor interpersonal relationship regarding the role social media play in engaging students. Amedie (2015) corroborates this, when he noted that social media promotes superficial connection that can end up causing long term emotional and psychological problems. It has been argued by Chris (2015) that the poor usage of social media networking sites has led to the collapse of most sectors in the Nigerian society. Studies carried out by these authors have also shown that social media are causing near total collapse of most cities in Nigeria particularly in the Nigerian institutions, with social media taking over 90% time of students. Khalil (2013) noted that wrong value systems and the desire to get rich quick without working for it are the key factors encouraging students to spend more time on social media thereby neglecting the interpersonal relationship between students in Nigeria. It has been observed that less efforts have been directed towards examining the effect of social media platform on the interpersonal relationship among students (a study of Mass Communication Student). Efforts have mainly geared towards ascertaining the positive impact of social media but none have carefully looked at its negative effect on students. This study therefore seeks to proffer solutions to these problems.

According to Stone (2014), social media has modernized the way people connect, interact and socialize with each other. Due to the proliferation of social websites and applications, social media has become an indispensable part of life with the increase in complexities of contemporary times. Besides, the variety of social networking platforms delivered by developers gives end users most likely to facilitate communication by sharing through text, video and audio streams. As a matter of fact, the diversity of entertainments in social media sites might make an individual over spend time on the computer or smartphone. These circumstances show that people might physically become inactive to learn new knowledge and lack of interest to go for outdoor activities.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The broad objective of this study is to investigate the effect of social media platforms on the interpersonal relationship among students (a study of Mass Communication Students). The specific objectives however include;

i. To identify the social media platforms used by Mass Communication Students, Delsu;

ii. To examine the prevalence of social media usage among undergraduate students of mass communication in Delsu;

iii. To study the effects of social media on interpersonal relationship of undergraduate students of mass communication in Delsu;

iv. To ascertain the role of social media in enhancing the interpersonal relationship of undergraduate students of mass communication in Delsu.

1.4 Research Questions

The following are some of the questions which this study intends to answer:

i. What are the social media platforms used by Mass Communication Students?

ii. Is social media usage prevalent among undergraduate students of mass communication?

iii. Does social media have any significant effect on the interpersonal relationship of undergraduate students of mass communication?

iv. Does social media play any significant role in enhancing the interpersonal relationship of undergraduate students of mass communication in Delsu?

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study focuses on the effect of social media platform on interpersonal relationship among undergraduate students using mass communication students in Delsu as a case study. This study will be of immense benefit to students, academicians, policy planners, government parastatals, educational planners, and the general public. Students will benefit more since this the findings from this study will build inter-personal relationship with social media which is highly preferred around the world. It is also common among university students. University students prefer new technological devices more when compared with the older generations. Especially, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp etc are preferred mostly by the new generation. Therefore, inter-relationship choice of university students as new generation will indicate communication devices and communication channels of the future. Accordingly, it can be claimed that the effects of social media on university students are of significant and worth researching. Therefore, the study can be a good academic source for researchers, especially in Nigeria, where there is scarcity of such literature. This research will be a trusted academic source and pave the way for scholars, lecturers and students to know the effects of social media, and the effects on the undergraduates' inter-personal relationship. It will raise the awareness of the general public about either positive and negative impacts of social media on the inter-personal relationship of students in the Nigerian society. It will also encourage students to use social media beneficially as effective communication tools as well as educational media to improve their knowledge and skills.

1.6 Scope of the Study

This study will be carried out to examine the effect of social media platform on the interpersonal relationship among students (a study of Mass Communication Student in Delsu).

1.7 Definition of Terms

Effect: The result or outcome of a cause

Social Media: Social media is means of connections among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.

Platform: An avenue that allows people to interact or share ideas

Interpersonal Relationship: A cooperation between two or more people. A connection or association or a way in which two or more people behave and are involved with each other. An interaction that is cordial.

Students: A person who studies or learns about a particular subject.