Influence of Social Media Use on Face-to-Face Interaction Among University of Lagos Undergraduates

Abstract

The use of social media has brought with it tremendous benefits and at the same time negative influences have been observed especially on human interactions. Today, many youths appear to be stuck with different social media platforms in order to meet varying needs depending on the user and the features of such platforms. The result is a depleted quality and importance of face-to-face interaction which remains an important aspect of human interactions. This study investigates the influence of social media use on face-to-face interactions among University of Lagos undergraduates. Anchored on three theoretical assumptions namely uses and gratification, media dependency theory and media richness theories, the study adopted the mixed method research methods involving both qualitative and quantitative data gathered using two different instruments - questionnaire and focus group guide. Data were derived from 397 students from two departments. Findings showed that majority of the respondents are dependent on social media as they make use of its different platforms regularly for communication (80.3%), with the most commonly used being Facebook (31%). Whereas, face-to-face interaction is still a relevant form of communication because majority of the respondents agreed that it allows them to relate better (64.1) and is the most preferred (75.7%). The study recommends enlightening students about the advantages and disadvantages of social media use especially as it concerns face-to-face interactions Keywords: Influence, Social media, Face-to-face interaction DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/88-04 Publication date: February 29 th 2020