Impact of Social Media on Teenagers: Nigerian Experience

Abstract

The paper investigated impact of social media on teenagers, using Abuja as the study area. Specifically, the study: find out the various social media platforms mostly used by the teenagers in Nigeria; ascertain the means that teenagers use in accessing the social media; ascertain the motivating interests to social media exposure; find out the specific areas of their use of the social media; and find out the impact of the social media on the lifestyles of the teenagers. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from secondary school teenagers who were between age 13 and 19 years. The data obtained were subjected to descriptive statistics and inferential statistical analysis, and were and presented in tables that contain frequencies and percentages, while the research hypothesis was tested with Chi-square statistic (χ2 ). The result of the hypothesis testing revealed that the use of social media has a significant impact on teenagers’ lifestyle. (α=0.05,χ2 =0.344, p-value=0.002). This study viewed the impacts of social media and how the social media influence teenagers in their lifestyle and learning behavior. Even though it creates negative impacts on teenagers, we cannot think of a world without social media today. The paper recommended the use of corrective and preventive measures towards the negative effects and teenagers should be well educated and must have proper awareness regarding such problems of Social media.