6152 Effects of Social Media on the Academic Performances of Students of Faculty of Agriculture, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria P.E. Adejo1, M.K. Ibrahim2 and O.A. Ogurinde3 ABSTRACT The main purpose of this research study was to examine the effects of social media on students’ performances in Faculty of Agriculture, Kogi State University, Nigeria. All the 1673 full-time undergraduate students formed the sample. A multistage sampling procedure was used for this research & a well structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient were used to analyze demographic data. Research findings showed that there was a positively significant relationship between the time spent on social media and academic performances of students. Results also showed that socio-economic characteristics of students had an effect on the level of subscription to social media by students. Keywords : Agriculture; Social Media; University; Students; Academic Performance; Nigeria 1,2 & 3 Lecturers, Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Kogi State University, Anyigba, P.M.B. 1008, Kogi State, Nigeria. Research Article Journal of Extension Education Vol. 30 No. 4, 2018 DOI:https://doi.org/10.26725/JEE.2018.4.30.6152-6156 INTRODUCTION The evolution of internet technology has led to its use as the best medium for communication. Whereby, two- thirds of the world’s internet population visits social networking or blogging sites, thus serving as a communication and connection tool. Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are online Communities of Internet users who want to communicate with other users about areas of mutual interest, whether from a personal, business or academic perspective. Social networking sites include: Twitter, Yahoo Messenger, Facebook Messenger, Blackberry Messenger (BBM), WhatsApp messenger, 2go messenger, Skype, Google Talk, Google Messenger, Facetime, WeChat, Instagram, Snapchat etc. These networking sites are used by most people to interact with old and new friends, physical or internet friends (Asemah and Edegoh, 2012). One component in determining how to use agriculture to improve the economy in Nigeria is the training of more youths in tertiary institutions. Students of agriculture are potential ambassadors of agricultural development, they are trained on how to use new technologies and innovations in agriculture as well as disseminate such innovations, and students of agriculture also provide skilled labor in the agricultural sector of the country. Received : 03-12-2018; Accepted : 06-03-2019 6153 A direct relationship exists between Social media usage and the academic performance of students in universities. However, the darker side within technological evolution has resulted in dilemmas such as the setback of real values of life especially among students who form the majority of users interacting through the use of social networking sites. Online social networking sites focus on building and reflecting social associations among people who share interests and or activities. With so many social networking sites displayed on the internet, students are tempted to abandon their homework and reading times in preference for chatting online with friends. Many students are now addicted to the online rave of the moment, with Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other social-networking applications. Lenhart and Madden (2007) revealed through a survey that students strongly recommend social networking websites to stay in touch with friends to keep informed and aware. Social information processing theory is an interpersonal communication theory which suggests that online interpersonal relationship development might require more time to develop than face-to-face relationships, but when developed, it has the same influence as face-to-face communication. This means, the more students use social media, the more they influence their disposition to studies, given the fact that friends from social media will begin to exert influence on each other. The objective of this study generally is to examine the effects of social media on students’ performances in Faculty of Agriculture, in Kogi State University Nigeria. Specifically, the study seeks to: • identify the social media network that the students subscribe to; • examine the frequency of social media usage by students; • ascertain the time spent on social media by students; • ascertain the influence of time spent on social media on the academic performances of the students of Faculty of Agriculture in Kogi State University, Nigeria. METHODOLOGY The study area for this research was Kogi State University, Anyigba. Kogi State University which is located in Anyigba in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State in Nigeria. The total population of full-time undergraduate students in the Faculty of Agriculture, Kogi State University was 1673. A multistage sampling procedure was used for this research. The first stage was purposive selection of all departments in Faculty of Agriculture which include; Agricultural Economics and Extension, Animal Production, Crop Production, Soil and environmental Management, Fishery and Aquaculture, Food Science and Technology and Home science. The second stage was random selection of 25 students from each of the departments, bringing it to a total sample size of 175 respondents. Data used for this research were collected through primary source. A well- Effects of Social Media on the Academic Performances of Students of Faculty of Agriculture, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria 6154 constructed questionnaire was used to elicit desired information from the students. Randomly selected 25 students in each of the departments in the Faculty of Agriculture were administered the questionnaire. The tools used to analyze this research work were descriptive statistics, Likert-type scale and Pearson’ Correlation Coefficient. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Social Media Subscription The collected data were analyzed and the results are presented here. Table 1 shows that majority (61.14%) of the respondents subscribed to WhatsApp as it was the most trendy social media platform among the students especially for its friendliness and relative privacy attributes which students enjoy. This was followed by subscription to Facebook (54.86%), and only 7.43% had subscribed to Snapchat. The result indicates that a higher percentage had subscribed to WhatsApp. Social Media Usage by Students Higher percentages (42.30%, 30.30% and 29.70%) of the respondents strongly agreed to the fact that they use WhatsApp to pass information about lectures with the mean score of 4.1, they also attested to the fact that they use video clips from YouTube to compliment the practical with the mean score of 3.4 and chat with friends on non- academic issues with the mean score of 3.5 respectively. This result is relatively in consonance with Kolan and Dzandza (2018) who indicated that the majority (84.3%) of the respondents agreed to using materials from social media platforms to enhance their academic work. Again a majority (79.2%) indicated they agree to the fact that engaging in academic forums on social media increases their understanding of topics discussed in class and 76.6% thinks these discussions yield good results. Table 1: Distribution of Respondents based on Subscription to Social Media n= 175* Sl.No. Variables Frequency Percentage 1 WhatsApp 107 61.14 2 Facebook 96 54.86 3 Instagram 68 38.86 4 YouTube 39 22.29 5 BBM (Black Berry Messenger) 24 13.71 6 Twitter 25 14.29 7 Snapchat 13 7.43 *Multiple responses Journal of Extension Education 6155 VO-Very Often, O-Often, S-Seldom, N-Never Frequency of Social Media Usage Analysis on the frequency of social media usage by respondents in Table 2 shows that 48% of respondents use WhatsApp very often while 42.3%, 6.3% and 3.4% of respondents use WhatsApp often, seldom and never respectively with mean score of 3.3 which implies that respondents use WhatsApp often. Time Spent on Social Media Table 3 shows that 46.86% of respondents had spent 0-4 hours on social media in a day while 49.14%, 3.43% and 0.57% of respondents spent 5-9 hours, 10- 14 hours and 20-24 hours respectively. This means that higher percentage (49.14%) of respondents spent 5-9 hours on social media in a day. It implies that despite the benefits derived from social media in terms of it use for academic purposes, some students may be tempted to spend more time than necessary, doing things other than academic on social media in expense of their academic work. Relationship between the Time Spent on Social Media and Academic Performances of Students The study reveals that there is a significant (p<0.5) positive relationship between the time spent on social media and academic performances of students, an Table 2. Distribution of Respondents based on Frequency of Social Media Usage Sl.No. Variables VO O S N Sum Mean 1 WhatsApp 84(48%) 74(42.3%) 11(6.3%) 6(3.4%) 586 3.3 2 Facebook 73(41.7%) 62(35.4%) 23(13.1%) 17(9.7%) 541 3.1 3 Instagram 64(36.6%) 62(35.4%) 24(13.7%) 28(16%) 533 3 4 YouTube 65(37.1%) 57(32.6%) 26(14.9%) 27(15.4% 510 3 5 BBM 31(17.7%) 39(22.3%) 57(32.6%) 48(27.4%) 403 2.3 6 Twitter 30(17.1%) 36(20.6%) 59(33.7%) 50(28.6%) 396 2.2 7 Snapchat 21(12%) 28(16%) 49(28%) 77(44%) 343 2 Table 3. Distribution of Respondents According to Time Spent on Social Media. Sl.No. Time spent on social media (hours) Frequency Percentage 1 0-4 82 46.86 2 5-9 86 49.14 3 10-14 6 3.43 4 20-24 1 0.57 Total 175 100.0 Effects of Social Media on the Academic Performances of Students of Faculty of Agriculture, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria 6156 hour increase in time spent on social media improves individual grades by 0.129 (12.9%). The correlation coefficient shows that there is a positive relationship between the time spent on social media and academic performances of students and thus the null hypothesis that “the time spent by students on social media have no influence on their academic performancesed was therefore rejected. The increase in academic performances when more time is spent on social media may be due to the fact that students spent most of their time on academic related activities on social media or share useful academic information via social media to one another. This result is however, not in agreement with the study conducted by Owusu and Agatha (2015), wherein it was revealed that majority of students in Ghana were engrossed in social networking sites. It also brought to light that most users utilized these sites for chatting and downloading purposes only which affected their academic performance negatively. Also of the opposing view was a study by Mingle and Musah (2015), which revealed that most respondents in their study experienced negative effects such as poor grammar & spelling, late submission of assignments, less study time and poor academic performance. CONCLUSION The outcome of this study shows that majority of students subscribed to at least two social media sites which were WhatsApp and Facebook. Furthermore, results indicated that students spent more time on academic related activities on social media, as well as share and receive information among themselves such as lecture notes, time table for lectures, assessments, etc. Students may be educated on the effects of social media on their academic performances and may also be encouraged to form online communities in order to plan for a project, have group discussions about class material, or use the Social networking sites(SNS) as a way to keep in contact and to update themselves on current academic issues. Lecturers may endeavor to encourage the use of social media as a tool to improve the academic performance of students in universities. REFERENCES Asemah, E.S & Edegoh, L.O.N. (2012). Social media and insecurity in Nigeria: a critical appraisal. Proceeding of 15th National Conference of AfricanCouncil for Communication Education, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria. Mingle J., & Musah, A. (2015). Social media network participation and Academic performance in senior High schools in Ghana. Library philosophy and practice (ejournal). 1286 Retrieved from http:// digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1286. Owusu, A., & Agatha, G. L. (2015). Use of social media and its impacts on academic performance of tertiary students. A case study of Koforidua polytechnic, Ghana. Journal of education and practice, 6. Retrieved from https://www.iiste.org/journals/ ndex.php/JEP/article/view/20048. Journal of Extension Education