The Use of Social Networking Sites among the Undergraduate Students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka

This study was carried out to investigate the use of social networking sites among the undergraduate students of university of Nigeria Nsukka. In the context of today’s electronic media, social networking sites have come to mean individuals, using the Internet and web application to communicate in previously impossible ways. This is largely the result of a culture-wide paradigm shift in the uses and possibilities of the internet itself. The objectives of the study are to ascertain the various categories of social networking sites used by UNN Undergraduates, to examine the extent of usage of social networking sites by UNN Undergraduates, to examine their (UNN Undergraduates) purposes of using social networking sites, to determine the benefits of using social networking sites and to identify the dangers associated with social networking and to proffer strategies to ameliorate such dangers. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design which was employed to derive responses from a sample size of 150 undergraduate students of university of Nigeria Nsukka who were selected via random sampling techniques. Data were collected from this population using questionnaire. The 150 respondents completed and returned the questionnaire correctly representing 100% response sate. Means (x) were used to analyze the six research questions that guided the study. The result of the study reveals that mostly all the student were using the social networking sites in interaction with friends, connecting to their class mates for online study and for discussing serious national issues and watching movies etc. There are also laudable benefits of using social networking sites and dangers associated with social networking and such dangers can be ameliorated using the strategies available in the work. Drawn from the findings, it was recommended that university Authorities should organize seminars to enlighten students on the not-so good aspects of social networking sites etc. In addition useful suggestions for further research were equally made.