Ikezam & Eremie….. Int. J. Innovative Info. Systems & Tech. Res.
9 (2): 48-61, 2021
cheaper. It is less expensive as compared to the normal phone messaging. An individual can chat with
friends and family overseas through WhatsApp without having to incur global SMS charges. According to
Asemah & Edegoh (2012), these sites are used by most people to interact with old and new friends,
physical or internet friends. The world has been changed rapidly by the evolution of internet technology;
this has resulted into the use of technology as the best medium to explore the wide area of knowledge.
The evolution of internet technology has led to its use as the best medium for communication.
Whereby, two-third of the world’s internet population visits social networking or blogging sites, thus
serving as a communication and connection tool. The advancement in technology and communication
leads to a considerable improvement in social networking such as Facebook used to keep in touch or
share information with other individuals. According to Zuckerberg, by giving people the control over
whole site, we're making the world more transparent. Making the world get connected is the ultimate
goal behind Facebook. Facebook is an online directory that connects people through social networks in
secondary schools and universities.
Academic performance plays an important role in the life of a student as it determines his or her
placement in the academic institutions or job. Due to this, many parents, teachers, guardians, students
and well wishers are concerned with the ways their students can enhance their academic performance.
The emphasis on academic performance which is also prevalent worldwide has encouraged many
studies about the conditions promoting it. The role of academic performance as one of the predictors of
students’ success and also in the aspect of academic placement in schools to higher institutions as well
as the level of employability in individual’s career is inevitable (Osharive, 2015). Academic performance,
which is measured by the examination results, is one of the major goals of a school. Schools are
established with the aim of imparting knowledge and skills to those who go through them and behind all
this is the idea of enhancing good academic performance. Academic performance or achievement is the
outcome of education, the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their
educational goals. Academic performance is commonly measured by examinations or continuous
assessment but there is no general agreement on how it is best tested or which aspects are most
important, procedural knowledge such as skills or declarative knowledge such as facts (Raymond & Afua,
2016; Santoveña-Casal, 2019;
Stacy, 2018; Tarek & Yasmin, 2015). In today’s world where technology is increasingly invading all
economic sectors inclusive of education, students are seen exposed to smart phones and computers.
They spend time on the internet making use of social media applications accompanying these smart
phones and computers. Thus, there might be an influence between the use of social media and
academic performance, bearing in mind that social media bridges the wall of distance between two or
more persons. 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 do chat online with friends, families, teachers, etc to keep social interaction going.
Mayfield in Joseph (2017) pointed out that one can best understand social media as a group of new
online media which enables wider participation (contributing information or content and giving
feedback), openness (almost no barrier accessing and making use of information), conversational (two-
way communication), community (bonding and sharing of common interests), and connectedness
(linking other online tools or services/resources). In Publication No. 2010-03- E of the Library of
Parliament, Canada, social media as a term was referred to as the wide-range of online and mobile
services that allows users to be involved in online information exchanges and contributions of user-
generated content within the scope of community-based interests. The above source asserted that
social media include blogs, wikis, social bookmarking websites, media sharing websites and, particularly,
social networking websites. Interaction and sharing of contents using a social media is been facilitated
by the internet. Social media are usually on a large scale membership and comprise of the social
interactions (students’ social pages) taking place using website services, online tools and the content
(media) that are created and shared (Naheed & Tasawar, 2014; Abbate, 2017).
___________________________
