A Study on Social Media Usage among Ethiopian University Undergraduate Students: Impacts and Opportunities
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Date
2014-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The advance and popularity of the social media is increasing rapidly since the last few years.
These social media have been noted for some benefits. This is especially in the socialization
process by giving access to communicate with old ji-iends, new friends' and family. Social
medialFacebook has also been used as a source of news and as a vehicle for political and
humanitarian causes too. However, these benefits do not erase the foars associated with the
usage of these forms of media. These fears range ji-om privacy issues to waste of time,
addiction, Loss of educational achievements, eliminating interpersonal communication in its
most original form and many others. However, the aforementioned social media impacts
remains hazy when it comes to the case of Ethiopia, especially of the young students. This
study, therefore, examines the usage and related impacts of Facebook, one of the most
popular social media, among young University Undergraduate students in Ethiopia.
Accordingly, using the uses and gratifications, media dependency and the network society
theories as a theoretical guide, the study investigated 'why for' and 'how' HE students in the
country use Facebook. Obsen'ation and questionnaire has been used to collect data from 300
respondents studying at four different HE institutions. Hence, the finding shows that many
students in the HE institutions are heavy users of Facebook with many already tending
toward excessive usage and over dependency. Many undergraduates access their Facebook
account several times a day and spend an average of 1-2 hours per day. Furthermore the
study provide consistent evidence that chatting and messaging as well as posting and viewing
photos as the most frequent activities of these undergraduate students on Facebook. They use
the site mainly for personal and socialization purposes, but lower for academic purposes.
However, the study, of course, does not find any relationship with academic achievement of
the sample students.
Moreover, Facebook has created an opportunity for students to easily communicate with
their existing friends, to enjoy leisure time, to date online and to keep them up-to-date.
However, the finding also detected some sort of negative Facebook impacts including time
wastage, addiction and loss of privacy. Hence, the study recommends that students and any
user should be carejid in their social media use and should exert targeted efforts to counter
Facebook risks and thereby achieve maximum benefit the site offers.
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Keywords
Social Media Usage, Ethiopian University