The Social Media Scourge among University Students: A Study of the University for Development Studies, Ghana

In spite of the development potential of social media, various studies have revealed worrying trends of such media’s abuse especially among students of tertiary institutions. Using interviews conducted with students and staff of the University for Development Studies, the study set out to establish the frequency of social media usage among students, their reasons for using such media and the harmful effects of new media usage on the academic and socio-economic lives of students. The study found that Facebook and Whatsapp are the most frequently used social media followed by Twitter, Skype and YouTube. Also, more than a quarter of respondents use such media more than once a day while over half of them engaged in social media usage once a day. Moreover, more than half of the respondents used social media mainly to chat with friends and relations while a fifth used it for academic purposes. Respondents admitted that social media usage took time from their academic work. Some indicated that they spent about two United States dollars each day on social media and that they used such media during lectures, thereby making them lose concentration during lectures. It also emerged from the study that students put such media to perpetuate fraud. The study recommends that university authorities should regulate usage of social media. In particular, students should be prevented from using phones during lectures. Ghana’s National Media Commission and National Communications Authority must enact cyber protection regulations to reduce the harmful effects of social media usage on tertiary students.