The Impact of Social Media on Students' Academic Performance among Senior Secondary School Students in Makurdi Metropolis, Benue State, Nigeria

This study investigated the impact of social media on students’ academic performance at the Senior Secondary School level in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. Three research questions were answered and three hypotheses were also tested. The study adopted survey research design. The sample comprises 109 students from 547 secondary school students in Makurdi metropolis. The researcher-developed structured questionnaire was the main instrument for data collection. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions while chi-square was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result shows that there is significant relationship between usage of social media sites by student and their academic performance. It also revealed that time spent on social networking site have significant impact on the student academic performance. The study recommends that students with phones having internet facility should be encouraged by their school authorities to either use it to supplement their research in the library rather than the usual chatting with friends all the time, students should be advised to limit the time they spend on social media sites per day and encouraged to rather substitute those hours to read novels and relevant academic books to improve their knowledge.