SOCIAL MEDIA USE AND REAL-LIFE SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS: A STUDY OF NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY, AWKA UNDERGRADUATES

This qualitative survey was conducted to ascertain whether social media use by undergraduate students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Nigerian have in anyway influenced their real-life social relationships and interaction, as well as identify the social and psychological consequences of social media use on social interaction of these young students. Merton s Functionalist theory and Symbolic Interactionism theory underpinned this study. The two basic questions asked in this study were; 1 Whether social media use has influenced real-life social relationships of these undergraduate students? 2 What are the social and psychological consequences of social media use on the social interaction of these youths? Questionnaire schedule, FGDs and interviews were used to generate data which were qualitatively analyzed. Study result shows that there are more negative influences associated with social media use as a means of social interaction and relationships than with real-life social interaction and relationships. The study recommends that government and policy makers should set up machinery that will encourage and supervise social media network service providers to monitor the adequacy of content generated and shared on their social media networking sites