SOCIAL MEDIA EDUCATIONAL SITE AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN AKWA IBOM STATE POLYTECHNIC, IKOT OSURUA

ABSTRACT The study examined the influence of social Media Educational Site and Students’ Academic Performance in Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua. The objectives of this study were to; to find out if students of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic are exposed to social media, to find out the social media sites students of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic are exposed to, to find out if such social media sites influence Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic Students’ academic performance and to find out the extent of such influence. The research design used for this work was the survey. The instrument for data collection was the questionnaire. The cluster technique was used 300 samples. The Theories used for this study were social information processing, media equation, diffusion of innovation and uses and gratification. Findings revealed that; students of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic are really exposed to social media., the social media network that the students of College of Education are more exposed are Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Messenger, Tiktok and Togo, social media sites influence Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic Students’ academic performance and social media influence Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic Students’ academic performance very extent, extent and not really. It concluded that students of Akwa Ibom state Polytechnic frequently use social media daily, and they spend unnecessary time/hours on these platforms. It emerged from the findings that students faced some challenges in using social media. They were lack of power supply, data, network and time management. The study recommends among others that the management of the institutions should organize workshops, conferences, and seminars to educate students about the dangers of excessive use of social media and that the college should provide students with websites created for academic work to encourage students to visit these sites for educational information/materials.