Social Media Use and Opinion Change Among Abia State University Students: Evidence from Experiential Data

Abstract

The evolution of social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., has changed the way we look at and do things, act, and expand our opinion formation and change. There are some ways in which social media can produce opinion change, influencing people’s attitudes and behaviours. The platform has become the substrate of our social interactions, and this ultimately leads to an influence on opinion formation and change. The study aims at determining social media use and opinion change among students of ABSU. Apart from finding out the exposure level of ABSU students to social media platforms, used in information sharing and exchanges, the study also specifically aims at checking if exposure to social media posts influences the opinion of students of ABSU. Anchored on the framework of Technological Determinism Theory, this study adopted the descriptive research design. Accordingly, the survey research method was adopted to address our research objectives. This study surveyed undergraduate students of Abia State University Uturu in the 2021/2022 academic session. The target population of the study is 10,062 students in randomly selected Faculties, according to information obtained from the Admissions Office. A sample of 355 was drawn using the Wimmer and Dominick Sample Size Calculator for the research population. The researcher adopted a questionnaire as the only measuring instrument in this study because of the nature of the study and the research method (Survey). Test statistics reveal that opinion change on issues among students of ABSU is highly dependent on exposure to posts on social media