Industrial Strike’s Impact on Student’s Social Media Addiction Level

Abstract

The study investigates students' levels of social media addiction (SMA) during the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) industrial strike action in Nigeria. It found that excessive social media use affects academic performance (AP), with WhatsApp being the most used application followed by Facebook and Instagram. However, students self-report through surveys was used to measure poor AP attributed to SMA. A combination of purposive and random sampling methods was employed. The survey link was sent to over 200 students via their various WhatsApp groups of students, resulting in 113 responses. R and Smart PLS-SEM 4 was used for the analysis of the data collected. The findings suggest that educators, parents, and policymakers should adopt technology tools such as Parental control Applications, Digital well-being Application and Digital minimization methods to control SMA and focus on implementing features that encourage students to use social media responsibly. The study offers evidence that controlling SMA would improve AP. Hence, the study suggests that addressing SMA in higher education institutions can help improve students' academic performance among the undergraduate students.