UNIZIK JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE (UJOLIS) Vol. 4 No.

1 July, 2019

Social Media Use and the Study Habits Of Secondary Schools Students in
Anambra State
By
Dr. Ifeka Okeke
Library and Information Science Department
Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka
&
Chibueze Maureen Nneka
Library and Information Science Department
Nnamdi Azikwe University Awka
[email protected]

Abstract
This study investigated social media use and study habits of secondary school students
in Anambra State. Three research questions guided the study while four null hypotheses
were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The design of the study was descriptive survey.
The population of the study is 4,996 consisting of Senior Secondary Two (SS2) students
from public secondary schools in Awka Education Zone of Anambra State. The sample
size consisted of 500 students chosen from their local governments and were randomly
chosen. The instrument used for the study was Social Media Use Questionnaire and
Study Habit Inventory. The instrument was validated by three experts and reliability
index established to be 0.82. Statistical weighted mean was used to answer research
question one while summated scores was used to answer research question two. t-test
was used to test hypotheses one and two while Pearson Correlation Statistics was used
to test hypotheses three at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed
that students access various social media but mostly accesses facebook, whatsapp and
yahoo. Majority of the students 429 in number indicated that they have poor study habit
while 326 students also indicated that they have good study habit. The findings also
showed that student differ significantly in ten out of 21 social media they access due to
gender. It is also observed that there is no significant difference in the mean scores of
male and female on their study habit as they make use of social media .The finding also
revealed that there is no significant relationship between students use of social media
and study habit(r=0.02, p=0.57 ). Based on the findings the study recommended that
Teachers, parents, guardians and school management should monitor their students on
their use of social media even though it was observed in this study that social media has
no significant effect on their study habit. They should also guide and inform them
properly on the vulnerability they may face on these sites if not utilized in moderation.

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Introduction
Modern technology in communication no doubt has turned the entire world into a global
village as the world today is celebrating the improvements in communication
technology. This has broadened the scope of communication through Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs). ICT has helped people to be better informed,
enlightened and kept abreast with world developments. The 21st century continues to
marshal in technological advancement that change the nature of communication,
socialization and private versus public information. One of such change is the
emergence of social media site that the world's population currently enjoys, especially
among the younger generation where they socialize with peers and friends (Adomi &
Ejirefe, 2012).

Social media comprises of activities that involve socializing and networking online
through words, pictures and videos. Kaplan and Halein, (2010) defined social media as a
group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological
foundations of Web 2.0, and that allows the creation and exchange of user-generated
content. It also refers to activities, practices and behavior among communities of people
who gather online to share information, knowledge and opinion using interactive media.
Through social media people seek and enjoy the companionship of others online. It
supports the sharing of information and services among individuals and groups having a
common interest. Social media platform can be relevant to information seeking and
sharing on information retrieval perspective by providing speed and quick information
to the information community by connecting and collecting digital information required
by the user (Sherwin, 2013).

It is also of importance to students for various reasons like exchanging ideas, feelings,
personal information, pictures and videos. It also encourages interaction between
students. This is especially helpful in college environments where students create a bond
within the institution. Likewise, it is useful for team projects where students can hold
meetings in real time and work on their projects and also provide a richer experience for
resources like videos, resource website, tutorials which can be shared very easily with
the entire classroom at the click of the button. Additionally, some of the postings can be
informative and educative and the students after reading such posts can comment on
them. Some of the students use them mainly for making friends, chatting, exchange
news and photographs (Young, 2006). They also use it to access information that is
involved in school life as well as entertainment.

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Consequently, the use of social media extends opportunities for formal learning across
geographical contexts and there are various social media sites that are been accessed.
Kuss and Griffiths (2011) described social media sites as virtual communities where
users can create public profiles; interact with real- life friends and meet other people
based on shared interests. It is also referred to as virtual places where people find
themselves and share information. These social media sites have an open membership
that as soon as one opens an account and uploads his or her data on the profile page, the
person is entitled to create a network of friends. Depending on the website in question,
many of these online community members share a common interest such as hobbies,
religion or politics. According to Wortham (2010), social media sites are defined as web-
based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within
bounded system, articulate a ;list of other users with whom they share a connection and a
view of the list of connection made by others within the system. With social media sites,
one can send and receive messages almost immediately; however some social media
sites are specifically designed for mobile phones. Some are accessed via computers and
others could be accessed using both mobile phones and computers or other information
communication technologies. Some examples of social media sites include Facebook,
2go, Naijapals, whatsapp, classmates, yahoo messenger, twitter etc. There are no
restrictions as to which social media sites one should belong; one can be a member of as
many as possible. According to Loving and Ochoa (2010), social media can used for the
purpose of connecting with friends and family regardless of location, keeping up with
the latest events and for academic purposes.

Meanwhile a student's primary objective is the academics especially at secondary school

level because it is the stage of career building; therefore, the need to take their studies
much seriously cannot be overemphasized. Study is a systematic acquisition of
knowledge and an understanding of facts and principles that calls for retention and
application(Mace, 2002). Shabi and Udofia (2009) affirms that studying is most
important activities of life through which one enter into the life and experiences of
others, extends knowledge, scope of experience and enjoyment.

Due to technological development, study habits are changing. Study habits are defined
as those techniques such as summarizing, note taking, outlining or locating material
which learners employ to assist themselves in the efficient learning of the material at
hand. According to Chand, 2013 study habit is the tendency of pupil to study when the
opportunities are given, whether systematic or unsystematic, efficient or inefficient.
Additionally, study habit is a process from which an individual gets proper input to feed
hunger and to quench thrust for knowledge. The study habits thus are of great assistance
to actualize the potentialities of the individual(Vyas,2002).Good study habit plays an
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important role in human performance in academic field. Vyas further emphasizes that
despite possessing good intelligence and personality, the absence of good study habits
hampers academic achievement. Hence, the study habits of students plays important
role in learning and fundamental to school success.

In our society today, while technology is slowly taking a steady control over individual
lives, the study habit is fast vanishing into thin air (Ezema & Ekere 2009). Additionally,
Ezema and Ekere affirm that students now lack the skill of reading. Instead they spend
more hours on electronic media. Browsing the net, playing with handsets and passing
non-stop SMSs seem to be the order of the day, thereby making reading a book or any
other piece of written material in a quiet or peaceful corner of a library or home become
an archaic idea for most school children and adults. Long (2012) postulated that it is so
common these days that many young people are addicted to social media activities,
abandoning homework and reading time in preference to chatting with friends, even at
lecture times. . Mefor (2010) urged all Nigerians schools to launch a readership
promotion campaign which will help to inculcate the culture of reading in children that
will help then to develop a proper study habit. Also Olukemi (2010) advised Nigerian
youths to imbibe the reading culture in all their endeavors. She lamented that lack of
reading culture among youths nowadays has greatly affected quality of graduates being
produced by the nation's higher institutions. When students have established good study
habits, they would likely to be less stressed and not anxious during exam day,
thus students who also organize and adhere to their established study schedules are
more confident and calmed at test-taking time and yield better grades. Based on the
above statements, it seems that social media may badly affect the study habit of the
students.

It is against this background that this study seeks to ascertain if there is any possible
effect social media use has on the study habits of secondary school students in Anambra
State.
Two research questions and one hypotheses guided the study and they include:
1. What are the various social media commonly accessed by secondary
school students?
2. What are the study habits scores of students?
There is no significant relationship between social media use and study habit.
Method
Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Descriptive survey design study
seek to portray accurately the characteristics of a population with the attempt to make
generalization of the result to the entire population (Nworgu,2015). The population of
the study is 4,996 SS2 students of public secondary schools in Awka Education Zones of
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Anambra State. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select
500 students representing 10% of the entire population. The research instrument for the
study was a researcher structured questionnaire and a study habit inventory titled social
media and study habit (SMQ). This was developed and adopted to collect data for the
study with the response mode of Highly Accessed, Moderately, Rarely Accessed and not
accessed. The response for the study habit inventory includes Always, Sometimes and
Never. The reliability co-efficient of 0.87,0.85 and 0.75 were obtained. The research
questions one was answered using statistical weighted mean while research question
two were answered using summated scores. Item with mean (x) score of 2.5 and above
were given positive interpretation (Agreed) while items that received mean (x) scores
less than 2.50 were interpreted negatively (Disagreed). Decision rule for research
question two(2) is that any score below 3.00 to 6.00 was considered as poor study habit
while the maximum score of 7-18 is considered as good study habit.

Results
The findings of the study were based on research question and hypothesis and were
presented below:

Table 1 Mean scores of the students on the social media they commonly accesses
S/No The Social Media N X Remarks

Facebook 495 3.37 Accessed

Whatsapp 495 3.15 Accessed
Yahoo 495 2.50 Accessed
Instagram 495 2.27 Not Accessed
Ask me 495 2.17 Not Accessed
2go 495 2.12 Not Accessed
Twitter 495 2.10 Not Accessed
Blackberry messenger 495 1.80 Not Accessed
Pin interest 495 1.72 Not Accessed
Classmates 495 1.71 Not Accessed
Google buzz 495 1.52 Not Accessed
Slideshare 495 1.37 Not Accessed
Skype 495 1.37 Not Accessed
Naijapals 495 1.36 Not Accessed
Blogs 495 1.36 Not Accessed
Netlogs 495 1.30 Not Accessed
Web biographies 495 1.28 Not Accessed
Linkedin 495 1.25 Not Accessed
Bebo 495 1.24 Not Accessed
Flicker 495 1.21 Not Accessed
My space 495 1.20 Not Accessed

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Table 1 shows that with mean scores ranging from 2.50 to 3.37 that only three social
media were commonly accessed by students. They include: Facebook (X 3.37),
Whatsapp (X 3.15) Yahoo (X 2.50). Also with mean scores ranging from 1.20 to 1.37 the
students indicated that they do not access 10 out of the 21 social media studied.

Table 2: Range of scores of the students on their study habit

Range of scores N % Remark
3 – 5.97 66 13.3 Poor study habit
6–9 429 86.7 poor study habit
7-11.98 169 34.1 Good study habit
12-18 326 65.9 Good study habit

In table 2 it was observed that with scores ranging from 3-5.5.97 (13.3%) and 6 to 9,
429(86.7%) students indicated that they have poor study habit, while 7-11.98(34.1%)
and 12-18 (65.9%) have good study habit.

Table 3 shows Pearson's correlation for the relationship between students social
media use and study habit. (N=495)

Social media use Study habit REMARK

Social media use Pearson Correlation 0.024 (p)

Sig (2-tailed) -

N 0.74 (r) 0.024

Pearson Correlation NS
Study habit
Sig (2-tailed) .000 _

N 495 495

NS= Not Significant correlation at 0.05 level of significance

The result in Table 4 revealed the significance relationship between social media use and
study habit. The result showed that there is no significant relationship between social
media use and study habit of students (r = 0.02, p = 0.57). Therefore, the null hypothesis
was accepted. Therefore, whether the students access social media or not, it does not
have a significant relationship on their study habit.

Discussion
The findings in table one (1) revealed that students secondary school students uses three
social media, Facebook, Whatsapp and Yahoo to a high extent. It revealed that secondary
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school students visit social media sites to get their assignments done, communicate with
their peers and get information that supports their education. The findings of
Chinthakayala et al. (2013) and Eke, Omekwu and Odoh (2014) gave credence to the
findings of the present study. Chinthakayala et al. (2013) pointed out that facebook is a
general social networking site and is more popular among college students. Eke,
Omekwu and Odoh (2014) however, pointed out various social media sites used by the
students. In their studies of use of social media, they reported that mostly all the student
were using the social media sites especially facebook and whatsapp in interacting with
friends, connecting to their class mates for online study and for discussing serious
national issues which is also among the sites that are commonly accessed by the student
as revealed in the present study. These results are in line with Humimed,(2016) which
opined that the right mindset is essential in order to study smarter and a positive attitude
makes oneself loves learning. He further added that there be no distraction, problem or
upcoming event which is going to make studying frustrating or exhausting and that study
should be done when focused. Slicker (2017) also pointed out that before one would
engage in the actual study, enough energy is needed for learning a material so as to take
notes word to word. This is of importance because it will help the reader to gather
information that is needed to understand the material of study and where to study is to be
a place that is conducive to concentrate in order to make study easy. The study of Yadav
et al (2000) also gave credence to the findings of the present study. Yadav et al (2000)
pointed out student improves in their performance through proper study habit and that
study habit contribute significantly in the development of knowledge and perceptual
capacities. Ogbodo, 2010 also pointed out that good study habit leads to the
achievement of the learners goal through a prescribed pattern of steady behavior.
Ogbodo further attest that many students do not have proper attitude towards study so
they hardly care for developing good study habit. Bashir and Mattoo (2012) is of the
opinion that good study habit acts as a weapon for the students to excel in life.
Additionally, Palani (2010) stressed that effective reading is important avenue of
effective learning and reading is interrelated with the total educational process and
hence, educational success requires successful study habit.

Conclusion
Based on the findings of the study, it is concluded that , it has shown that secondary
school students in Awka Education Zone of Anambra State, Nigeria, accesses various
social media but the ones commonly accessed are facebook, whatsapp and Yahoo.
Majority of the students(429) possesses poor study habit and most of them (326) also
have good study habit. There is also significant difference in ten out of 21 social media
they access due to gender. Therefore, they do not differ significantly in their access of the
other 11 social media studied. The second hypotheses showed that there is no significant
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difference in the mean scores of male and female secondary school students on their
study habit There is also no significant relationship between social media use and study
habits of the students.

Implications of the Study

The findings of this study have some educational implications. The findings of this study
have provided a basis for parents/guardians and teachers to understand the exposure
their children and wards face while using social media.

The result of the study revealed that both male and female student's uses social media,
this calls for the regular monitoring of students by the school management and teachers
to ensure that they students do not drift away by the negativism on these sites.
Therefore, any parent who wishes to improve and encourage the study attitude of their
children should monitor their use of social media.

As the study revealed that social media sites such as Facebook, Whatsapp, and Yahoo are
commonly accessed by the students, these sites have become an imminent medium of
these students expression and also strengthen previously established relationships such
as family, friends and peers. This implies that this means of communicating lessens the
importance and relevance of face-to-face exposure to people.

As the study revealed that though students spend amount of time on social media but
didn't affect most of the students study habit, there is still need for louder calls for Parents
and teachers monitoring the students so as to make certain that they do not waste away
useful time on meaningless online activities.

Recommendations
Based on the findings and conclusion of this study, the following recommendations are
made;
1. Teachers, parents, guardians and school management should monitor their
students on their use of social media. They need to be guided properly and
informed on the vulnerability they may face on these sites if not utilized in
moderation.
2. Parents, teachers and the school management need also to teach the students'
about time management. They should put a limitation to students activities while
at school and at home so that they do not fritter away useful time on irrelevant
activities like chatting.
3. School management and teachers should checkmate students' use of computers
and cell phones especially during school hours to ensure that students are not
carried away by the use of these technological devices.
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