The use of social networking service among Nigerian youths between ages 16 and 25 years

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation of the use of social networking service among youths aged 16 through 25 years, in Nigeria.The convergence of information systems and networks, the Internet and mobility has brought about a fundamental shift on how people generate and share information. Specifically, social media has emerged as a powerful tool in a digitally connected world, touching every aspect of human existence. This paradigm swing cuts across people of diverse age albeit affects each age category differently. This work presents the outcome of a study conducted in select towns in central part of Nigeria between January and June 2015. The focus was to determine how youths (age 16 through 25) use social media platforms in terms of the frequency, and purposes of social networking site usage. The survey revealed that, 99% of the respondents have social media accounts out of which 95.2% use smartphones to access various social media platforms. 46.4% from the respondents fall under the category of those very likely to use social platforms in a week, while 26.8% account for those who are extremely likely to use the social networking service within same time frame. Only 0.7% of the respondents were not likely to use social networking service within a week. Among the twelve social media platforms surveyed, Facebook ranked top as the most commonly used social networking channel with 91%, followed by WhatsApp (87%) and Tango ranked last at 1%. Based on the analysis of the result, it is highly likely that social media may have severe impact on young people who have no form of restrains with consequences of huge distractions and privacy intrusions. Conversely, the fact that social media is rapidly building social and communications habits into the youths point to its potential to enhance their learning habits if properly harnessed and formalized to aid pedagogy at secondary and tertiary levels.