Influence of Social Media Use on the Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt

The tenacity of this research study is to examine the influence of Social Media use on the Academic Performance of undergraduate students of Ignatius Ajuru University of education, Port Harcourt. Five Research questions and one Research hypotheses guided the study. To achieve this, the descriptive survey research design was adopted. The study focused on Ignatius Ajuru University of education, Port Harcourt hence, population consists of all the 12,000 full-time undergraduate students 2017/2018 session. The simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 378 students. A four point Likert Type Rating Scale Questionnaire type titled: Social Media and Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students (SMAAPOUS) was used to collect data from the participants. The descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage were used to analyze the demographic data while inferential statistics of Chi-square(x2) was used in testing the research hypotheses. Research findings showed that a great number of students of Ignatius Ajuru University of education are addicted to social media. To this end, the researcher recommended that social media should be used for educational purposes as well, Social Networking Sites should be expanded and new pages should be created to enhance academic activities and avoid setbacks in the students’ academic performance, and Students should be monitored by teachers and parents on how they use these sites. This is to create a balance between social media and academic activities of students to avoid setbacks in the academic performance of the students