THE EFFECT OF WHATSAPP USE ON STUDENTS’ SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

This research investigated the impact of the use of WhatsApp on students’ socio-emotional development and academic achievement. WhatsApp Messenger is a proprietary, cross-platform instant messaging subscription service for smart phones and selected feature phones which uses the internet for communication. The objectives of the study were to investigate how video chatting, online chatting and frequent communication through WhatsApp affect students’ socio-emotional development in the University of Buea. It also sought to establish the relationship between socio-emotional development and students’ academic achievement. This research adopted the quantitative research method and the survey research design. With the use of a structured questionnaire, data was collected and analyzed from a sample that consisted of 180 students of the Faculty of Education, University of Buea. The respondents answered the questions which were analyzed using Chi-square test. The relationship between socio-emotional development and students’ academic achievement was established using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation analysis. The research found out that video chatting, online chatting through WhatsApp and frequent use of WhatsApp has a significant effect on students’ socio-emotional development and academic achievement. These findings are clearly reflected in the responses of the respondents. Based on the findings, the research recommends that students should control the use of WhatsApp and other social media platforms. Article visualizations