Social media addiction among selected Nigerian adolescents' university undergraduates

Abstract

In the contemporary world, social media network has become an important and growing part of the lives of the vast majority of the global population, most especially, in the younger generation. Thus, social media platforms are used for entertainment, communication, information sharing, building online relationships with relatives, friends, and colleagues without boundaries of distance and time constraints. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Snap Chat, YouTube, and so on exist in the social media space. However, despite the significance, the social media network aided by technology-induced anonymity, unlimited access, convenience, low cost, visual simulation, and autonomy seems to be at best easily overused and at worst, addicted to (Greenfield, 1999). This study investigated the level of addiction to social media among some selected Nigerian adolescent university undergraduates. Descriptive survey method was used in this study. The participants of the study were drawn from four Universities in Nigeria which include two private and two public universities. The two public universities are: University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State, and University of Lagos, Lagos State; while the private universities are: Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State, and Bowen University Iwo, Osun State. From each of the universities, a total of fifty adolescent undergraduates were purposively selected. The selection criteria used in the study is that every participant must be a regular internet user and must have a social media account. A total of 200 adolescent undergraduates participated in the study. Data were analyzed with simple percentages and t-test. The finding of the study showed meeting people and chatting as the most frequent activities of adolescent undergraduates on social media, while WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram were social media mostly used by adolescent undergraduates. Moreover, many undergraduates access social media every passing hour and every two to six hours. Also, adolescents spent one to six hours on the social media network site at each login. The result of the study showed a moderate level of social media addiction (6%), particularly among adolescent males in Nigerian universities. The study therefore suggests that government and policy makers should put in place measures and policies that could check problematic social media use. Developmental and counselling psychologists should design interventions that could be used for managing social media addiction among adolescents.