EXPOSURE AND USE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: STUDY OF NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AWKA.

 CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

A social networking site is a platform use in building social networks or social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections. It is a service which consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his social links, and a variety of additional services. Social networking is also a web-based services that allow individuals to create a public profile, to create a list of users with whom to share connection, and view and cross the connections within the system. It allows users to share ideas, pictures, posts, activities, events, and interests with people in respective of their geographical location.

1.1      Background Of The Study

The first recognizable social network site was launched in 1997.  This site is known as SixDegrees.com which  allowed users to create profiles, and list their Friends. Each of these features existed in some form before SixDegrees. Profiles existed on most major dating sites and many community sites. Later American Instant Message (AIM) was launched  followed by Classmates.com  which allowed people to affiliate with their high school or college and surf the network for others who were also affiliated, but users could not create profiles or list Friends until years later. SixDegrees was the first to combine these features. SixDegrees promoted itself as a tool to help people connect with and send messages to others. While SixDegrees attracted millions of users, it failed to become a sustainable business and, in 2000, the service closed. Looking back, its founder believes that SixDegrees was simply ahead of its time (A. Weinreich, personal communication.,2007). While people were already flocking to the Internet, most did not have extended networks of friends who were online. From 1997 to 2001, a number of community tools began supporting various combinations of profiles and publicly articulated Friends.  Later in 2004,Mark Zuckerburg, then a Harvard undergraduate, created Facebook which is one of the popular social networking site today. The site is unique among social networking sites in that it is focused around universities, Facebook” is actually a collection of sites, each focused on one of 2,000 individual colleges. Users need an @college.edu email address to sign up for a particular college’s account, and their privileges on the site are largely limited to browsing the profiles of students of that college. Over the last two years, Facebook has become venture at campuses nationwide and Facebook evolved from a hobby to a full-time job for Zuckerburg and his friends. In May 2005, Facebook received $13 million dollars in venture funding. Facebook sells targeted advertising to users of its site, and partners with firms such as Apple and JetBlue to assist in marketing their products to college students.

All data fields on Facebook may be left blank, aside from name, e-mail address, and user status (one of: Alumnus/Alumna, Faculty, Grad Student,   and Summer Student). A minimal Facebook profile will only tell a user’s name, date of joining, school, status, and e-mail address. Any information posted beyond these basic fields is posted by the will of the end user. Although the required amount of information for a Facebook account is minimal, the total amount of information a user can post is quite large. User-configurable setting on Facebook can be divided into eight basic categories: profile, friends, photos, groups, events, messages, account settings, and privacy settings. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with over 500 million registered users as of 2012, generating over 340 million tweets daily and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day.

1.2      Statement Of Research Problem

This research aims to study the exposure and use of social networking sites among university students. Over the years, exposure and use of social networking sites among university students has become more and more popular for this reason, it is paramount that students exposure to social networking site and its impact on their academic performance and social lifestyle is evaluated due to their exposure to social networking site.

1.3 Significance of Study

This study is significant since social media network usage among undergraduate is continuing to grow at a fast pace, it is important to understand the effects it has on personal communication and academic performance of undergraduate students. Since social media networks offer a straightforward way to converse with peers and get peer feedback, it may influence a young adult’s self-esteem. Therefore it is necessary that the exposure level and the impact of this social network on undergraduate students are evaluated.

1.4      Research Questions

1. Are you really aware of social networking site?
2. Do you make use of social networking site?
3. How often do you make use of social networking site?
4. Which of the social media networking sites do you frequently use?
5. Have you benefit from your exposure to social media network site?
6. What is the level of benefit you have derived from making use of social networking site?
7. How much of your time do you spend in social networking site per day?

1.5      Objectives Of The Study

The objective of this study is to find out the followings

1. To find out If the respondents are really aware of social networking sites
2. To know if they make use of social networking sites.
3. To know how often they make use of social networking sites.
4. To find out which of the social media networking sites do they frequently use.
5. To know if they in any way benefit from their exposure to social media networking sites.
6. To ascertain the level of benefit they derive from making use of social networking sites.
7. And to find out how much of the time they spend in social networking site per day.

1.6      Scope Of Study/ Delimitation

Since the rate of exposure of undergraduate students and the utilization of social media networks among them are on the increase, the scope of this study will cover the level of exposure and use of social networking sites among Nnamdi Azikiwe University Students.  In view of this, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Undergraduate students are used as a case study.

1.7      Conceptual Definition Of Terms

• Social networking sites (SNS): Social networking sites are web based services that allow individuals to Construct a public or semi- public profile within a bounded system.
• Student: According to Cambridge advanced learners dictionary, student is the person who is learning at a school, college or university.
• Utilization: to make use of  a material or an object.
• Profile: It is the personal home page of the user of SNS(social networking site). It usually contains identifiable information about the user, profile photo, contact information and friend list.
• Self-esteem: Confidence in one’s ability or worth.
• Performance: The action or process of carrying out an act.
• Evaluated: to analyse.
• Lifestyle: Way of life
• Communication: To pass information from one person to another or to a crowd.

Paramount:  Important

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