Influence of Social Media on Students’ Cultural Diversity and Academic Achievement

Abstract

This paper examined the influence of Social media on students’ cultural diversity and academic achievement. Social media are web applications which generally refer to the social environment in which everybody has the potential to become a creator of content or applications. Social media allow users to organize, create and share their own media their own way. This is possible with the special qualities of platforms. Today, social media has been accepted by several institutions of learning, making it a platform where students connect with their instructors, fellow students and other higher authorities across the board. This therefore called for the study to explore how social media has impacted on students’ cultural diversity and academic achievement. The study adopted survey research method, while data was collected using a 15-item structured questionnaire. The population of study comprised students of Alex Ekwueme Federal University. A sample size of 180 respondents was drawn, out of which 162 responded effectively. The findings revealed that 96% of the respondents use social media and they access them regularly. Also, 69% of the respondents stated that social media have supported their academic life positively, while 67% agreed that social media contributes to their socio-cultural awareness. In line with the findings of the study, the paper recommended among others, that social media platforms should be used to promote cultural diversity in Nigeria especially in these times when the country is bedeviled by a lot of divisive tendencies, while caution must be exercised to avoid the malicious use of social media platforms by students.