Effects of Social Media Use on Academic Performance of Universities Students – A Case Study of Two Universities in Morogoro Municipality

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the effects of social media use on academic performance of universities students’ The study was carried out in Morogoro municipality. The study employed quantitative approach. A total 260 students were involved in the study by using random sampling. Data were collected by using questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The research findings showed that, the frequent use and addiction of social media by the different students in higher learning institutions poses the effects like distractions, waste of the time and mental illness among students. It also found that, symptoms of anxiety, depression, poor self-esteem, jealous, loneliness, isolation to students are contributed by the serious activeness on social media. As a result, the more usage of social media is affecting the student’s mental health. Also, chatting, posting, commenting, downloading and reading irrelevant contents in social media result to time wastage on it. It also realized that, notifications from social media, seeking for satisfaction and impression on social media has led to distractions to students. Recommendations of the study included there is a need for the higher institutions to embrace and teach students the proper usage of social media accounts or sites. The university administration should consider organizing public dialogues that would help to teach students that, the social media sites can be used to improve the performance of their academics.