Effect Of Social Media On Academic Performance Of Entrepreneurial Undergraduates In Rivers State Nigeria

This study examined the Effect of social media on the Academic Performance of Entrepreneurial Undergraduates in Rivers State Nigeria. The study was instigated because of unparalleled sensitivity of undergraduates in the use of social media applications has not been properly explored especially in learning and communicating abilities, thereby affecting academic performance among entrepreneurial undergraduates in Rivers-State Universities and persistent rise in unemployment among Rivers-State graduates. To achieve the aims of the study, three research questions were raised and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted the pretest, posttest Quasi-experimental survey design. The study population comprised 200 undergraduates, drawn from a target population of 1,870 undergraduates taking entrepreneurial courses in the 2022/2023 academy session from three public universities in Rivers State University: Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rivers-State University and University of Port Harcourt, all in Rivers- State, Nigeria. The selection was done through the purposive sampling technique based on functionality and accessibility to smartphones and iPhones on the use of social media (Telegram and WhatsApp) groups while the control group was the discussion method. The instrument used for the data collection was a questionnaire titled: Effect of social media on Academic Performance of Entrepreneurial Undergraduates Questionnaire (ESMAPEUQ), which was developed by the researchers and was validated by experts in Department of Educational Management, University of Calabar and Measurement and Evaluation in the Department of Educational Foundations in Faculty of Educational foundation studies, University of Calabar, Calabar. Data collected were subjected to statistical analysis using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) of statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 25. The results revealed that undergraduates who are exposed to the Experimental group (Telegram and WhatsApp) performed better than those exposed to the control group while there was gender disproportion on the part of the females, indicating that the males performed better than the females in the three groups. It was recommended among others that the use of social media should be a seal in supplemented lessons while gender disportion should be frowned against to give a boost in academic performance, while females should be guided against marginalization in entrepreneurship to create academic stability.