Influence Of Social Media On Cyber Aggression Among Students In Federal College Of Education (Technical) Asaba

ABSTRACT

This study examined the influence of social media on cyber aggression among students in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Three research questions guided the study. The population of the study comprised of 1400 students in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba, Delta State. The sample was made up of 140 respondents selected through simple random sampling techniques. The instrument data collection was a 19-item questionnaire titled Influence of Social Media on Cyber Aggression Questionnaire (ISMCAQ) which was validated by the project supervisor and an expert in Measurement and Evaluation, Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba. 140 copies of the questionnaire were administered to the respondents out of which 134 copies were retrieved. Mean statistics was used for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed among others that social media sites (platforms) such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and snapchat are widely used by students while Tiktok is rarely used by the students in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba, social media use cause cyber aggression among students and cyber aggression to a high extent negatively influences students academic performance in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that government should enact laws that will monitor the use of social media among students in colleges of education.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

The 21st Century has been characterized with unprecedented increase in the

technological advancement around the world. Among these are advances in Internet facilities, establishment of libraries, development of information technology, improvements in communications multimedia and social interaction interaction. Adeniyi (2016) established that everybody needs information to reach his or her potential and that the more information that is available to a system about itself and about its environment the more reliable it becomes and the greater its chances of survival. One of the ways through which communication and information dissemination is made easy is through social media

Basically, social media is a collection of interactive web-based applications integrated on Web 2.0 technology that enable active interactions between web multiple users to create and share information (Boyd & Ellison, 2017). Social media has become pervasive, playing a dominant role in the social structure of the society and changing the nature of social relationships (Al-Sharqi, Hashim & Kutbi, 2015). It has revolutionized the way we communicate, interact and socialize. This new approach to consuming and creating information is in particular attractive to youths as a platform and space for activities not possible in the face-to-face context (Leea, Chena, Lia & Lin, 2015). Social media plays a vital role in the sharing of information and is used to convey different types of information (i.e. sensitive, sensational, political and casual information) (Osatuyi, 2013).

Although the history of social media is not really new, but it has only recently become part of our mainstream cultural activities both in the social and business world, people have been using digital media for networking, socializing and information gathering almost exactly like now for over 30 years (Boyd & Ellion, 2018).  Social media started as a concept many years ago but has evolved into sophisticated technology. The concept of social media can be dated back to the use of the analog telephone for social interaction (Austin, 2016).

The foundation of social media is based on User Generated Content (UGC), that is, various forms of media content created by internet users and available on the web based on Web 2.0 technology (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2015). Social media applications include blogs and micro blogs (logger & twitter), wikis (Wikipedia), social networking (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn), multimedia sharing services (YouTube), content syndication, podcasting and content tagging services (Shneiderman, & Smith, 2015). One of the most used social media platforms is Facebook. Facebook started as a local social network made for the students of Harvard. It was developed by a sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg.

Social media has increasingly influenced the information behavior of students in higher education over the past decade. Social media is a broad concept covering a wide range of the Internet applications that support social communication between individuals (whether direct or indirect, synchronous or asynchronous), with an emphasis on interaction between users (i.e. conversation or dialogue), user-generated content, and building of online relationships and communities (Turban, King & Lang, 2017). Social media is centered on enhancing the progress of communication in the society i.e. sharing of ideas, thoughts, and opinions among people.       Among the vast variety of online tools which are available for communication, social networking sites have become the most modern and attractive tools for connecting people throughout the world (Aghazamani, 2014). It is also about allowing people to connect with others just as it has been for many years. According to Khoo (2014), social media applications have influenced all areas of our lives and are having a major impact on how we live, work, play, learn and socialize. Social media in its various manifestations present a golden opportunity and rich environment to study information behaviour, as much of the information (in text, image and video format) are recorded and stored in publicly accessible repositories and on personal devices

(Khoo, 2014).

Social media technologies are enjoying a phenomenal success, for example, Facebook, a social networking website, claims that its active users reached 1.8 billion worldwide, more than 50% of which log in every day (Facebook, 2017). In the same vein, Twitter, micro-blogging website hosts 317 million users who post on average 500 million tweets per day (Twitter 2017); More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month, watching more than 6 billion hours of video (YouTube 2017), and at the same time it is estimated that there are over 181 million blogs worldwide (Nielsen 2012). Among the users of social media are students who use social media tools for many purposes such as access to information, group discussion, resource sharing and entertainment (Wang, Chen & Liang, 2018).

Social media platforms have increased their popularity in recent years attracting millions of users, who spend on them an increasingly amount of time sharing personal information and interacting with other users. For example, sites like Flickr, YouTube, Facebook or Twitter allow users to create content, publish photos, comment on content other users have shared, tag content, and socially connect with other users. In conjunction with the recent growth of social media popularity, other undesirable phenomena and behaviours have appeared. The above-mentioned social media platforms are used by different people for different reasons. Even though most of the time Internet use could be safe and enjoyable, there are risks involving the online communication through social media. As the real-world could be a dangerous place, social media sites are not exception. Users might have to deal with threatening situations like cyber aggression, cyberbullying, suicidal behaviour or grooming (Obed, 2018).

Cyber aggression is a serious and widespread issues increasingly affecting Internet users. Cyber aggression can be defined as aggressive online behaviour that intends to cause harm to another person, involving rude, insulting, offensive, teasing or demoralizing comments through online social media that target educational qualifications, gender, family or personal habits (Justin, 2017).

Links were found between experiences of cyber aggression and negative outcomes, such as decreased performance of students, dropping out and violent behaviour, in combination with devastating psychological effects such as depression, low self-esteem, and even suicide. In recent years, there have been several high-profile cases involving teenagers taking their own lives in part for being harassed and mistreated over the internet. While these incidents are still isolated and do not represent the norm, their gravity demand deeper understanding (Roy, 2015). Additionally, cyber aggressive comments make their targets feel demoralized and frustrated, thus acting as a barrier for participation and socialization.

Considering the gravity of the consequences that cyber aggression has on its victims and its rapid spread amongst internet users there is an imperious need for research aiming at examining the influence of social media on cyber aggression among students in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba, Delta State.

Statement of the Problem

The use of social media by the students in higher institutions is very high. They spend most of their time on social media. This has become a lifestyle of most students because it seems like they cannot do without social media. A lot of students use social media for things that will add value to their lives while others use it to bully their fellow youths. This has become a serious concern to school managements and the entire society as a whole. Students share aggressive contents and messages on social media to demoralize and intimidate others which results in low self-esteem and even suicidal attempts. These aggressive contents have become a growing problem in today’s society. It offers convenient opportunities to humiliate, bully, or harass others online.

Experience have shown that cyber aggression negatively affects students in areas such as decreased performance of students, dropping out and violent behaviour, in combination with devastating psychological effects such as depression, low self-esteem, and even suicide. In recent years, there have been several high-profile cases involving teenagers taking their own lives in part for being harassed and mistreated over the internet.

While these incidents are still isolated and do not represent the norm, their gravity demand deeper understanding. Additionally, cyber aggressive contents make their targets feel demoralized and frustrated, thus acting as a barrier for participation and socialization. It is against the light of the above that this study is carried out to examine the influence of social media on cyber aggression among students in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba.

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to examine the influence of social media on cyber aggression among students in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba. Specifically, the study is aimed at examining:

1. The kinds of social media sites used by the students in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba.
2. The extent to which social media use cause cyber aggression among students in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba.
3. The influence of social media aggression on students’ academic performance in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba.

Research Questions

To effectively carry out the study, the following research questions were raised:

1. What are the kinds of social media sites used by the students in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba?
2. To what extent does social media use cause cyber aggression among students in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba?
3. How does social media aggression influence students’ academic performance in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba?

Significance of the Study

The study could be of great benefit to the students, lecturers, school management, parents and society.

The findings of the study could go a long way to educate the students on the influence of social media on cyber aggression among them so that they can apply the suggestions to tackle this menace.

It could equally be of benefit to the lecturers because it could help them understand the kinds of social media sites used by the students and the influence on cyber aggression among. This could help them work together with the management to reduce the rate of cyber aggression among students in the college.

The college management could also find this study useful because it could help to call their attention to the rate of cyber aggression among students which is caused by addiction to the use of social media. This could enable them apply the necessary measures to ensure that cyber aggression is brought to an end.

Findings of the study could be beneficial to parents because it could help them understand the negative effects of social media aggression on their children’s academic performance as well as the ways through which they can assist their children to overcome social media addiction for improved academic performance.

Finally, the findings of the study could be a wakeup call for the society to the negative influence of social media on cyber aggression among students. This could enable them to sensitize people from the grassroot to reduce to the barest minimum the rate of social media addiction among students which would help to stop cyber aggression and improve standard of education.

Scope of the Study

This study was carried out in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba, Delta State. The content scope consisted of the kinds of social media sites used by the students, the extent to which social media use cause cyber aggression among students, and the influence of social media aggression on students’ academic performance.

Pages:  73

Category: Project

Format:  Word & PDF               

Chapters: 1-5                                          

Source: Imsuinfo

Material contains Table of Content, Abstract and References.