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 SOCIAL MEDIA IN MUSIC PEDAGOGY: AID OR IMPEDIMENT?  

 

Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 

 

Abstract 

usic education incoporating social media is one of the most 

recent trends in the history of formal education system. This 

has faced a lot of criticism as to whether it is an aid or 

impediment; taking into consideration the economic situation of the 

country. Adopting historical and survey designs, this paper seeks to 

ascertain the challenges and prospects associated with music 

education using social media, as it affects the students and lecturers 

alike. For the purpose of continuity or discontinuity, the paper 

suggests ways of critical examination of the right choice of social 

media platforms to either use or not in music education. The findings 

of this paper are hoped to add to the existing facts as it relates to 

the use of social media in music education. 

 

Introduction  

Music education in a formal school setting is an old practice which 

sprang out during the colonial era whereby structures were erected 

for the purpose of teaching and learning that involves the students 

and teachers. Teaching and learning in those days under this given 

principles is what is known as formal learning setting. Recently, there 

emerged a platform in which such teaching and learning also take place 

with little or no commitment on the part of both the students and the 

teachers. This paper seeks to identify the stand in the use of these 

social media platforms in the teaching and learning environment as 

they concern music education and to know actually whether the use 

really aids or impedes the learning process. 

 

 

M 

 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts (AJRMA) Vol. 13 2019 



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Concept of Music Education  

Education is the aspect of teaching and learning either in a semi-

formal or a formal setting. It is a basis or foundation of learning. 

Okafor 1992 in Alu and Ugwu 1999 states that education is all those 

experiences of the individual through which knowledge is acquired, the 

intellect enlightened or they will be strengthened p85. Nnanyelugo 

(2014) stipulated that “Education is the impacting and acquiring of 

knowledge through teaching and learning especially…..in schools or 

institutions.” It is also a process by which a person begins to learn how 

to learn. In summary, Education involves a teacher and a student in 

either formal or semi-formal environment with the aim of impacting 

knowledge into the learners from the teacher. 

 

Music which is a compound of societal cultural demonstrative practice 

involves a group of societal cultural materials and elements which 

portrays the identity of a particular community. Music according to 

Adeogun (2012): 

is a product of people and societies. Musical knowledge is 
a transmittable constellation of enduring socio-musical 
traits which codify, articulate and validate the unique 
practice of human group; its organisation depends largely 
on the use of society widely recognized theories of 
tonality and/or modality thematic structures, rhythmic 
patterns, tempo, timbres, use of language and musical 
instruments.In communicating ideas, thoughts contacts 
and meaning to members of the society. p85. 

 

Music Education deals with inculcating and transmitting the musical 

knowledge into the leaners from the teachers. According to Ezeani 

(2004): 

it reflects the psychomotor domain which is the 
development of musical skills, the cognitive domain which 
focuses on the acquisition of musical knowledge and 
finally the effective domain which involves musical 
appreciation and sensitivity p 17. 



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Therefore, music education is the impacting of musical knowledge and 

the essence of developing musical skills out of the students by the 

teacher and forcing and instigating the student‟s interest willingness 

into effectiveness to learning. Music education recently could no 

longer be dependent on the physical human teacher and the familiar 

class room setting but look far beyond that therefore, the need to 

introduce the recent development in music education which involves 

the use of social media in music education. 

 

Concept of Social Media 

The word „social‟ deals with human society and the individual or groups 

interactions as to what relates and concerns them and the rest of the 

individuals in the society whereas „media‟ is a platform whereby 

information and messages are passed or interacted or issues are 

discussed. Media according to business dictionary.com; is a 

communication channels through which news, entertainment, 

education, data or promotional messages are disseminated. By 

implication, social media is a platform for communication and 

interaction of a group or between individuals or group. Social media is 

a forum whereby people come together in one community which is the 

medium to discuss and interact issues concerning them as in the case 

of music, these social gathering and interaction with the aim of music 

learning, involves selection of favourable medium or platform which is 

most suitable for learning environment. There are several platforms 

which aim at teaching and learning; these platforms are not selected 

randomly for purposes of effective utility and services. Its selection 

depends on the course of study and functionality as well as relevance 

to a target problem solving. 

 

Methodology 

This work adopted historical and survey designs using in-depth 

interviews technique whereby questions pertaining to the problem 

under study were asked the students and music teachers in the 

tertiary education were music is thought for their candid opinion and 

observations. 



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Population 

The population for this study is both the music students and teachers 

in the tertiary education in the eastern part of Nigeria. With a target 

population of 350 social media users which includes the students and 

teachers from a selected undergraduate level which is between 300 to 

400 level.  

 

The Situation: Challenges  

Based on the present situation and trend, there are challenges which 

hinder the proper selection of social media platforms for proper music 

education as highlighted below: 

1. Risk of lifting unwanted materials which could cause 

obstructions in the teaching and learning environment. 

 

2. Wrong information on issues have become the order of the day 

on social media platform 

 

3. Laziness in investigating over things and issues before reaction 

or rather before jumping into conclusion and acceptance of 

wrong information without proper investigation 

 

4. Educational degradation; which implies improper scrutinization 

of the materials often uploaded on social media platforms and 

serious use of grammatical error in most of the social media 

platforms. 

 

5. Exposure to immoral views/practices and corruption. 

 

How do the above specified issues affect and address the problem of 

music education using social media: an aid or impediment? Highlighting 

the challenges above will be most appropriate for a better 

understanding of the problem under study. Let us take a closer look at 

these challenges listed above. 

 

 



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Wrong information about issues and things 

Social media is one of the new media platforms which allow the 

interaction between persons, groups, communities, societies and so on; 

to communicate and discuss issues concerning them. This privilege has 

been very beneficial to many and has erqually been misused by many 

users; by using it as an avenue for dissemination of wrong information. 

Music is not left out of this menace as many aspects of music including 

historical aspects of music, musical practices, trends and 

performances have suffered great deal of misinformation. This 

ofcourse has led to students and teachers going by what some of the 

wrong information say without further consultation and investigation 

for authentication. This brings and causes displacement of knowledge; 

causing lots of contradiction of facts. It creates room for 

misunderstanding amongst the teachers‟ opinion and that of the 

students. 

 

 

Laziness in investigation 

Social media in music education provides quick answers to questions. 

But going by the issues earlier raised, it requires critical screening 

and a closer marking, because, a teacher who stumbles on some wrong 

information and posts without consulting an authority in the area; 

assumes quickly that his/her opinion is concrete. On the other hand, a 

student may stumble on it first and will end up having a contradictory 

opinion about what the teacher teaches. This brings about 

discrepancies in the teaching and learning as it concerns the subject 

of study for as long as it is not resolved and proper consultations 

made. It is therefore, advisable to prepare lectures with authentic 

backups from an authority (ies) in the area one teaches to avoid such 

incidents because it is very common with the advent of social media, 

new technology and modernization. 

 

 

 

 



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Educational degradation  

This is a very crucial aspect which poses lots of harm and danger to 

the teaching and learning. The rate at which grammatical errors fly 

around on social media platforms has become unbearable and demands 

urgent intervention. In some cases, due to over familiarization within 

the group members, people post all manner of things in the name of 

short cuts and this has affected the way they write in serious 

academic settings and learning environments. It is disheartening that 

one would not find up to 10% of students and even teachers who take 

time to have a second look at what they write. It is also evident in 

some official write ups due to lassitude they have groomed themselves 

to, via social media platforms communication. 

 

 

Another instance is when assignments are given and meant to be 

submitted through social media. Teachers witness all kinds of 

grammatical blunders; such that they wonder if the students are not 

aware of the implications - as marks attached to assigments involve 

the logic and the grammatical interactions. This is very serious and 

common these days with the use of social media unlike when things 

were done manually using paper and ink. The level of education is going 

down by the day and requires serious checkmating and restoration. 

Also there are no room for editing and scraping what has been in view 

as scam news and fake information or even past events which are not 

supposed to still be in circulation are there. It is indeed a big problem 

which is gradually outgrowing the positive influence of social media on 

the teaching and learning environment.  

 

 

Exposure to immorality and increase in corruption 

Immorality has become the order of the day and this is widely 

circulted by social media usage whereby uneducative music and dance 

steps are spread like virus via this platform. Instead of students 

logging in to search for useful educative documents, they stumble on 

those kinds of music to waste their time and data. Youtube platform 



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has been misused by students as site for having access to contra-

banned music which in turn does great harm to their mental and 

psychological judgements. Manwhile this is a site where one can 

download useful musical videos for analysis, performances and 

tutorials of various musical instruments. You could now imagine what 

kind of person/student he/she will grow up to be; as it is said that 

“you are what you view.” Aristotle (nd) in Nnanyleugo, (2017) 

foundations of music education, informs that a person is what he/she 

watches. In his words, he stipulates that “if one listens to the wrong 

type of music he would become the wrong kind of person, on the other 

hand, if one listens to right kind of music he would become the right 

kind of person” 

 

 

Therefore, social media with the aim of promoting education has not 

been able to attain this goal perfectly due to its porous and 

unchecked activities. It allows any sort of interactions, visual and 

audio displays without properly scrutinizing the educative implications 

of that which is uploaded for public view and consumption. Also 

because of the corrupt nature of the heart of man, who sees every 

opportunity as one to introduce negativity to satisfy his/her quest for 

perpetration of evil. 

 

 

With reference to what has been observed by some researchers and 

scholars like Masood Badri, Alliahl Nauaimi, Yang Guang, Asma Al 

Rashedi the negative effects of social media in pedagogy can come in 

many ways. According to informationparlour.com/article.ed. on the 

negative effects of social media in music education, students glue so 

much to their phones which makes them lose their sense of quick 

remembrance or recognition and assimilation to the physical class 

activities. Such a student becomes a distraction and disturbance not 

just to him/herself, but to other students sitting beside them. 

 

 



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Other instances specified is nonpayment of attention to details and 

research in the sense that, the utility of students retentive memory 

has declined tremendously recently to the disadvantage of their 

educational career. Also abbreviations and shortcuts have displaced 

the usual way of writing while affects the students‟ performances and 

general educational standards. Also, students‟ grades suffer and 

probably drop every time in the recent studies carried out as a result 

of constant and extensive use of social media platforms. (Malaney, 

2005, Banquil et al, 2009, Gafni and Deri, 2012, Junco, 2012,2011, 

Ndaku, 2013, Roius et al, 2011, Paul et al, 2012, Burak, 2012). 

 

 

Prospects 

Some scholars who have carried out similar investigations regarding 

the problem under study have some contrary views in terms of the 

importance of incoorparating social media in teaching and learning. In 

their views, Borja (2005) notes that “teacher use blogs as teaching 

tools and reinforcement of skills, expressions and creativity;” while 

Boyd (2008) supports that it is connectivity between 

students/teachers for academic purposes. English and Duncan – 

Howell, (2008) observes that social media help the teacher to be able 

to share course related materials with their students, create student 

groups, collaborate on projects, providing peer support and facilitating 

teaching. In addition, Nnanyelugo (2017) believed that; 

social media is a platform that is conducive for teaching 
and learning especially the learning environment as 
regards music which helps in the strengthening of the 
students‟ interests in continuous struggle to develop 
themselves in musical instrument skills and also in 
compositional skill development for the betterment of 
the students and for a better presentation of musical 
ideals to the society‟s consumption. (p.144). 

 

These and many more are the expectations and the benefits of social 

media which authors have reported as positive and progressive; but its 



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164 

unchecked and unsupervised nature has led to lots of lapses and 

misuse that has brought about negative utility.   

 

 

Data Presentation 

The data collected was analysed and presented in tabular form as seen 

below; 

S

/

N 

Positive use of 

social media 

Over 

100%

AG 

S. 

AG. 

Negative use of 

social media 

Over 

100%

AG 

S. 

AG 

1 Teacher use blogs 

as teaching tools 

and 

reinforcement of 

skills, 

 

 

20 

 

 

 

44 

 

Risk of lifting 

unwanted 

materials which 

could cause 

obstructions in 

the teaching and 

learning 

environment 

34 61 

2 For expressions 

and creativity. 

Providing peer 

support and 

facilitating 

teaching. 

 

15 56 Wrong 

information about 

things and issues 

have become the 

order of the day 

on social media 

platform 

39 58 

3 to share course 

related materials 

with their 

students, create 

student groups, 

collaborate on 

projects,  

29 44 Laziness in 

investigating over 

things and issues 

before reaction 

or rather before 

jumping into 

conclusion and 

acceptance of 

wrong 

information 

42 67 



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165 

 

This means that the percentage average of the negative influence of 

the use of social media in music education is of the ratio of 60% to 

40% as against the positive influence of the use of social media in 

music education for strongly agreed analysing from the opinions of the 

interviewees.    

 

Summary 

Music education using social media has been seen and proven to be 

more of the negative than the positive in the sense that in as much as 

it is an aid to learning which could be positive or negative; it is also an 

aid to negative practices which impedes learning and is against the 

without proper 

investigation 

4 helps in the 

strengthening of 

the students 

interest in 

continuous 

struggle to 

develop 

themselves in 

musical 

instrument skills 

and also in 

compositional skill 

development 

23 41 Educational 

degradation. This 

implies improper 

scrutinizing of 

the texts 

materials often 

uploaded on social 

media platforms 

and serious use 

of grammatical 

error in most of 

the social media 

platforms. 

34 63 

5    Exposure to 

immoral views and 

immoral 

practices. 

35 62 

6    

 

 

 

Enables  

increase in  

Corruption 

26 72 

 Total percentage  40%   60% 



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166 

intended benefits of social media platforms for teaching and learning 

especially when music is concerned.  

 

This research found out the results of the previous researches of 

some scholars and researchers in the area of social media usage in 

music learning in which the results found were of negative influences. 

Some of such findings like laziness on the part of both the students 

and teachers to actually investigate trends and happenings around the 

educational environment before putting up assumption and drawing 

conclusions on the matter, educational degradation, continuous drop of 

students grades, poor performance of students etc. These bad 

influences have more impact and are felt so strongly on education than 

the positive as was found in the cause of this investigation as reagrds 

teaching and learning music using social media platform. 

 

Conclusion  

This paper concludes that social media in music education should be 

applied with caution and people should actually know that it is just a 

platform that only guides and should not be depended on totally for 

every fact.  One should cultivate the habit of investigating properly 

into situations and events of society and not to forget the natural 

embellishment in human brain formation and the ability to always make 

reference to the formal educational ways. 

 

Finally from the observations and information derived so far in the 

course of the study, this research work concludes that, music 

education using social media is an aid to an extent if applied with 

caution and an impediment when applied without any form of 

moderation and caution.  

 

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Social Media in Music Pedagogy...                                               Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 

 
 

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