Social media skills and utilization for academic purposes by polytechnic students in Kogi State, Nigeria

Abstract

This research investigated the social media skills and utilization for academic purposes by polytechnic students in Kogi State, Nigeria. The youth population which is majorly students seems to be the highest subscribers of the social media. The social media can be both an asset and a liability depending on the usage. The degree to which their inherent academic values are exploited and harnessed among polytechnic students in Kogi State is the crux of this research. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The population comprises 4682 Higher National Diploma II students of the Federal Polytechnic, Idah, and Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja. The stratified random sampling technique was used to draw 468 of the population. The questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, the mean and standard deviation. Results of the study show that social media platforms available for students studied were of the media sharing and social networking categories. The same categories of media were also applied for academic purposes among respondents. It was recommended that students should be guided to use the social media applications that can improve their education, and be trained in that regard.