The impact of social media on library and information studies students at the University of Ibadan , Nigeria

The significance of social media in the teaching and learning process cannot be overemphasized. However the excessive use of the same can result into inefficiency and poor academic performance. The study examines the impact of social media (SM) on Library and Information Studies students at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. Questionnaire was used for data collection. 100 copies of questionnaire were distributed to the librarians in training at the Department of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of Ibadan. 99 copies were filled and returned, given a response rate of 99%. Data generated were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that Whatsapp was the most preferred social media platform used more frequently by the LIS undergraduates. Majority of the students make use of SM more for other activities than academics, they spend 7 hours each day on the SM on general activities other than course work as against 5 hours spent each day for course work on the media, and as a result this undoubtedly affects their performance.


INTRODUCTION
Information communication technology is transforming the traditional methods of teaching and learning in the 21st century classrooms.The goal is to mould students who can become active, independent and lifelong learners rather than passive recipients of information.This new approach to education takes the students beyond the traditional textbooks and requires students to develop a combination of skills in computer technology, critical thinking and information seeking strategies.Roblyer et al. (2010) highlighted that social networking sites (SNS) are used by librarians to market the library services since many of the students are on Facebook.Today social media is used in public and private organisations to enhance performance as well as in the higher institutions for learning.Lecturers in the institutions of higher learning employ these social media both for teaching and effective learning.If students are made to understand that the use of social media can enhance their academic performance, as opposed to negative uses of these sites, it will encourage optimum use of social media in learning.

LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), social media is "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of usergenerated content."Social media are computer-mediated tools which allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks.Social media tools are rooted in the emergence of Web 2.0 which is the evolution of the internet from the First generation known as informational Internet or Web 1.0.(Which was pursuing various objectives: informational, promotional, relational or transactional, with little or no interactions) to a social and interactive Web that gives everyone a chance to participate.Social media web sites encourage users to share multimedia objects from photographs to videos, and to comment on items posted by fellow users.Users can also tag the content of the media, essentially creating a new classification system within the website itself (Dickson and Holley, 2010).Social media technologies take on many different forms including blogs, business networks, enterprise social networks, forums, micro blogs, photo sharing, products/services review, social bookmarking, social gaming, social networks, video sharing and virtual worlds (Aichner and Jacob, 2015).Popular among the social media are: Facebook, MySpace, Wikis, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Whatsapp and Library Thing.
Many lecturers have found SNS to be an avenue to key in and get students' interest in their services.Other purposes of using social media are to foster positive relationship between the lecturers and students, and it creates a friendly environment between the students and faculty members since interacting using the media is less formal.Such interactions will motivate the students to learn better (Bosch, 2009).Again interactions encourage the students to ask questions and express themselves more than in the classroom especially those students who are shy.Bosch (2009), carried out a research on the use of Facebook at the University of Cape Town and found out that Facebook is used for connecting members of student societies, student groups and halls of residence, sharing information about social events, pictures and videos; academic purposes such as finding learning materials on the internet; sharing information about holiday programmes; and sharing lecture and study notes during holidays.
In the beginning, SNS was developed to create virtual communities to bring people together to interact through chat rooms, later; in 1997 the SNS began to focus more on the users' profiles through personal profiles and lists of friends.These features soon became part of the SM mainstream and quickly grew in popularity globally (Boyd and Ellison, 2007).The growing popularity of SM in the society is clearly evident in the number of SM users.This is made possible with technological advances like tablets and smartphones which have further changed people's way of accessing the Internet.With these devices, students can surf the net at whatever times and wherever places they wish.A survey by Gouveia (2014) found that 23% of the respondents check Facebook whereas 14% check LinkedIn, while only a small number (2%) view YouTube at work.Typically, these users check their SM accounts for 20 minutes a day and two-thirds of them normally log into their SM accounts at least once per day (Ellison et al., 2007).This report applies to students too, researcher's observation has shown that most students do not pay attention while in class, especially when lectures are going on, they devout more time to their phones rather than listen to the lecturers (Ellison et al., 2007).

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As the students use SM at school to keep in touch with their families and friends, the three realms -studies, home, and leisure are combined together and help to make the life of the student more balanced, (Moqbel et al., 2013). Though Friedman (2000) reported that students with more balanced lives feel more satisfied about their academic work and consequently perform better, but a continual and over use of social media by students in the classroom may likely result into poor performance in their academics.According to Johnson and Rawlins (2008), SM loafing is argued to decrease job productivity which then will lead to lower performance.SM loafing is noted to be a theft of work time in which students have shifted their study or lecture time to SM activities.Consequently, they may delay their academic tasks which would cause their performance to decrease (D' Abate and Eddy, 2007;Johnson and Rawlins, 2008;Messarra et al., 2011;Moqbel et al., 2013).Since any slight change in performance will impair the student's grade, it is important that academic institutions check the use and impact of SM on their students.It is against this backdrop that this study is situated to determine the impact of social media on library and information studies (LIS) students at University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Objectives
The general objective of this study is to ascertain the impact of social media on the Library and Information Studies students at University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
The specific objectives are: 1. Find out the various social media platforms used by students of Library and Information Studies, University of Ibadan.
2. Ascertain the frequency of use of the social media by the students of Library and Information Studies, University of Ibadan.
3. Identify the impact of social media usage on the students' academic performance.

Research questions
1. What are the various social media platforms used by students of the Library and Information Studies, University of Ibadan? 2. What is the frequency of use of social media by students of Library and Information Studies, University of Ibadan? 3. What is the impact of social media usage on the students' academic performance?

METHODOLOGY
The study adopted the descriptive survey research design.Questionnaire instrument was used for data collection.100 copies of questionnaire were distributed to the students in training at the Department of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of Ibadan, in 2018.99 copies were filled and returned, given a response rate of 99%.Data generated were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

RESULTS
The The hours spent on the SM daily was captured in Table 3.A significant number of the LIS undergraduates 36 (36.4%) noted that they spent between 1 and 2 h every day on the SM and 30 (30.3%) spent 3 to 4 h per day, while only 4 (4.0%)spent between 12 h and above.In all majority of students (60%) spend a large amount of time (3 to 12 h), which is an average of 7.5 h on the SM every day.Table 4 highlighted information on the frequency of use of the SM by the respondents, and it was revealed that over three-fifths 62 (62.6%) used the SM often, whereas 30 (30.3%) use it much often.While the minority 7 (7.1%)pointed out that they use it less often.Virtually all the LIS student 93(93%) in IU make use of the social media often.
Table 5 revealed that very close to half of the LIS undergraduates 49 (49.5%)spend between 4 and 6 h on the SM for their academic activities and 38 (38.4%) spend between 1 and 3 h each day.On the other hand, the least 12 (12.1)indicated that they spent between 7 and 10 h on the media.Virtually all the LIS student 93 (93%) in IU make use of the social media often use Internet for their studies.
Table 6 presented results on the hours spent on the Internet for general activities.Many of the LIS undergraduates 55 (55.6%) noted that they spent 4-6 hours on the Internet for general activities and 34 (34.3%)spent 7 and 10 h, while 10 (10.1%) spent between 1 and 3 h.It could be deduced that majority of the LIS students 89 (90%) spend more time 4 and 10 h per day on the internet on general activities other than course work which is an average of 7 h per day.facilities in their possession while 63 (63.6%) were of the contrary opinion.In contrast, about 49.5% claimed that LIS undergraduates use social media for their academic activities while 50% rejected the idea.
In addition, most of the LIS undergraduates 86 (86.9%) pointed out that their use of the social media did not contribute to the lowering of their academic performance.But a very significant number 71 (71.7%) made a contradicting assertion that they were not absolutely satisfied with their performance, due to the use of SM.Lastly, 45% of the LIS undergraduates claimed that the use of social media has contributed hugely to their academic performance while more 55% disagreed.

DISCUSSION
Virtually all the Library and Information Studies students 93 (93%) at the University of Ibadan make use of the social media often.The various social media sites visited by the Library and Information Studies students are: Facebook, Whatsapp, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn and Instagram.Whatsapp was the most preferred social media platform used more frequently by the LIS undergraduates, followed by Face book, whereas the least used social media site by the students was MySpace.Many of the students (60%) spend a large amount of their time (3 to 12 h), an average of 7.5 h on the SM every day, while about half of the LIS undergraduates spend an average of 5 h on the SM for their academic activities each day.Most of the students (90%) spend an average of 7 h each day on the SM on general activities other than course work.It could be deduced that majority of the LIS students have a life style of spending more time on the SM for activities other than their academic work.This life style of more use of SM for other activities than academics, which is their primary assignment as students will undoubtedly affect their performance.
From the findings, SM use has a dual impact on the LIS students.While more students (over 70%) indicated that SM has positive impact on their studies and their academics generally, some reported that SM affected their studies and academics negatively.Surprisingly fewer respondents 33 (33%) agreed that SM improves LIS undergraduates' ability to share knowledge with their course mates as opposed to the idea by 67 (67%).One would have expected that knowledge sharing should be the primary factor in student's use of SM at school.A very significant number of the respondents (36%) agreed that LIS undergraduates get distracted by the social media facilities in their possession.This is not surprising hence they spend more time on the media for other activities than study related works.Literature confirms this view that SM usage may delay students' academic tasks which would cause their performance to decrease (D'Abate and Eddy, 2007;Johnson and Rawlins, 2008;Messarra et al., 2011;Moqbel et al., 2013).It could be noted that SM is a point of distraction for undergraduate students as well.The distraction results into procrastination of students' studies and the diversion of the time they ought to use for studies as well as lecture time into unprofitable activities.This invariably results into lowered academic performance which is evident in their dissatisfaction with their academic achievements.

Conclusion
Social media is a tool that enhances students' academic performance when used wisely; with caution and discipline, at the same time it can constitute a nuisance if over used or misused.Therefore appropriate structures need to be put in place to moderate the students' use of the social media.Students need to be educated on the implications of the use of the social media while lecture is going on or engaging in high loafing in issues not related to their course contents.Creating an awareness of the evil effect of misuse and over use of the media will help the educational system take full advantage of all the benefits the social media presents in teaching and learning in this technology age.

Table 1 .
Demographic information of respondents.
social media by students of Library and Information Studies, University of Ibadan?

Table 6 .
Hours spent by LIS undergraduates on the Social Media for general activities every day.