Abstract
This study using a sample size of 400 for survey and 12 focus group participants drawn from the population of a federal University in Nigeria, investigates the practicality of thinking about social media as online public sphere that offers Nigerian youth opportunity for such meaningful civic engagement and agenda setting. It investigates the level of access and social media literacy inherent in these youth, the uses they make of it, the extent of exposure and use and whether these translate into a culture of social transformation among these youth. Using the Uses-and-gratifications and public sphere theories, the study combined the use of survey and focus group discussions. The study finds that the level of awareness, exposure and use of Facebook among these youth is quite high. It is however found that the youth tend to make more personal, trivial and entertaining use of Facebook. The youth’s social media usage thus disengages rather than makes for active engagement with their expected role in social transformation and development. The youth, with reasons, have never used Facebook or indeed any other social media to advocate or win support for a cause geared towards social change or social development of the society. It is concluded that Nigerian youth should be challenged to embrace serious online activism through the positive, prudent, informed, literate, and better appropriated use of the social media as both a socialisation and an empowering tool.
Highlights
This study using a sample size of 400 for survey and 12 focus group participants drawn from the population of a federal University in Nigeria, investigates the practicality of thinking about social media as online public sphere that offers Nigerian youth opportunity for such meaningful civic engagement and agenda setting
This finding is sustained in the focus group discussion, as the participants unanimously agreed that Facebook is their most preferred and most used of all the social media, which ranges from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Blogs, Wiki, Instagram, Badoo, to mention a few
What came out strongly from the focus group discussions was the fact that the respondents did not mince words in saying that social media, with the help of smart phones in vogue today, are giving even Nigerian youths opportunities to bring to the fore societal injustice and other issues and upheavals that could make Nigerians better informed, just as the young passer-by who got the video clip of Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian who set himself on fire and caused the upheaval that led to the revolution, did
Summary
Making new Engaging friends friends in discussions Reading updates via posts from friends. 97.1 percent of the survey respondents aver to having Facebook accounts This finding is sustained in the focus group discussion, as the participants unanimously agreed that Facebook is their most preferred and most used of all the social media, which ranges from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Blogs, Wiki, Instagram, Badoo, to mention a few. 59.7 percent of the survey respondents affirm their awareness of other Facebook applications/features aside the most common ones like News feeds, Timeline, Wall, and Notifications In furtherance of this finding, participants in the focus group discussions were asked to name, off-heartedly some of the Facebook features or tools aside the most common ones mentioned above. These findings inevitably create a paradoxical feeling of whether to allude blessing to it or a curse, instead
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