Influence of Social Media Networks and the Internet on the Study Habits of Students

This investigation sought to assess the use of social media and its influences on the academic performance of students. It was case study which focused on students of a leading polytechnic in Nigeria. The study revealed the level of access of students to the Internet has improved tremendously - a large percentage of the respondents have mobile phones, laptops/palmtops with constant internet facility and internet sites. While many of these respondents spent between one and three hours on daily basis chatting, messaging with families and friends; also confirmed from the study that the use of social media sites, hand phones, laptops had affected the students’ academic performance negatively. The study suggests that students would need to be encouraged to use social media for research and academic activities rather than irrelevant messages and chatting with friends. A majority of the students use the social media for activities and tasks not related to academics. On the other hand, library and information science professionals would need to re-invent their engagement modules for students as many of them shun the conventional library. It could be realistic to devise ways of making them use the “libraries on their palms and in their pockets” more meaningfully, especially for academic purposes.