Investigating Social Media Usage and Addiction Levels among Undergraduates in University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Aim: Social media networks have become popular among the students because of the great potential they have in facilitation, collaboration, communication and sharing among the students while the students’ exposure to social media networks has been found to have the potential to determine the way students would perceive themselves. This study, therefore, examined social media usage and addiction among undergraduates in university of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Methodology: The study adopted the survey method of ex-post-facto design. Multistage sampling procedure was adopted to select nine hundred and seven (907) undergraduate students from seven (7) faculties in University of Ibadan. A questionnaire named “Social Media Utilisation and Addiction Questionnaire” was used for data collection. Five (5) research questions were answered in the study. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s product moment correlation.
Findings: Facebook (751 or 90.2%) and Twitter (646 or 77.6%) were the most commonly accessible social media networks. Also, Facebook (695 or 65.2%) Twitter (467 or 56.1%) were the most regularly used social networks while meeting friends (651 or 78.2%), getting news (566 or 67.9%), communication (554 or 66.5%) and online learning (450 or 54.0%) were major purposes for social media usage among the undergraduate students. High level of social media addiction was also established among the undergraduates. Social media usage was found to be positively related to social media addiction among the undergraduates studied.
Recommendations: To control high level of social media addiction among the students and guarantee positive usage of social media adequate attention should be given to undergraduates’ level and purpose of social media usage to ensure that excessive and abusive usage are controlled.