EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM ON INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP AMONG STUDENTS OF FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC OFFA

ABSTRACT The study examined the “effect of social media platform on interpersonal relationship among students of Federal Polytechnic Offa. ” The study was guided by five objectives specifically to understand the influence of social media on interpersonal relationship of students of Federal Polytechnic Offa, to examine the frequency and duration of social media usage among students of Federal Polytechnic Offa, also, to investigate the impact of social media on the quality of interpersonal relationships among students, also to explore the correlation between social media usage and face-to-face communication skills among students and to identify the factors that influence the use of social media platforms in maintaining interpersonal relationships among students. The study adopt survey research method, it uses questionnaires as the research instrument for collection of data. The finding of the study indicates that, social media has reduced face-to-face communication among friends through improving their interpersonal relationships. Additionally, the potential drawbacks of media platforms on interpersonal relationships among them in Federal Polytechnic Offa is cyberbullying and online harassment. The study concluded that, social media has improve relationships among close teenagers as friends, they have also made the teenagers to be able to build interpersonal relationships among other friends who are not close to them. Also, the study recommend that, government and non-governmental organizations should begin educating students on how to best use social media to meet their information needs.