INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN GOMBE STATE.

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of social media on the academic performance of pubic senior secondary school students in Gombe state. The research design adopted for the study was the ex-post factor research design. Population of the study consisted of all 109 public senior secondary school students in Gombe State. Simple random sampling was used in selecting 5 schools which represent 5% of the population. Simple random sampling was also used in selecting 320 samples from the population of 52598 which is based on Research advisor table of population and sample. 64 samples were conveniently selected from each of the schools. The instrument that was used for data collection was social media and Academic Performance of Students (SMAPS) and was made up of 2 sections. Section A and section B. Section A elicited demographic information and the average score of students at the end of their 2022/2023 academic session examination. The B part is made up of 3 sections with 22 items. A Likert scale of very frequent, frequent, occasionally, rarely and never was used in the first part while options were used in the second and third part. To determining the reliability of the instrument, Cronbach alpha was resorted to and an á of 0.766 was realized. The instrument was administered with the help of a research assistant. However, 2 of the instruments were not recovered. Frequencies, percentages, and spearman rank order correlation were used in analyzing the data that was collected.  Face book has been found to be the most visited social media by senior secondary school students in Gombe state, number of hours spent on social media studying is higher than number of hours chatting. Based on the findings the study recommended monitoring of students’ use of the face book by parents, managers of the networks and governments. Age limit can be set to allow only those that are matured enough be allowed to open an account, awareness of the negative side of the social media should be made by the proper agencies to curtail its negative impact on youth.