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 CONTENTS
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.
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