The Nigerian students among other complex problems are fixated with social media usage, I
thers problems ranges from the five-months-old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) to an underfunded education system, all pile up to rob on the reading culture of the average student.
A healthy reading habit is second to none in intellectual development of any student.
According to K. Palani’s “Promoting Reading Habit and Creating Literate Society,” reading is a significant aspect of creating a literate society. It helps individuals develop a good thinking ability that helps in making good decisions. “Ability to read is crucial as reading affects intellectual and emotional growth of an individual. Those who read well have more chances in widening their mental horizons and better opportunities of success.”
In recent time, research has shown that young people spend more of their time on different social media platforms, than time spent on reading and other profitable ventures,
Social media is the newest technological explosion in the information world. It is an online networking platform that focuses on developing, building and reflecting on the social relation among people, who share the same interest, goal or activities.Some of the popular social media platforms include- Facebook, WhatsApp, twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Since the advent of social networking sites in mid 90s, social media has enabled extensive communication with people around the world and beyond. It is a common knowledge that millions of people across the world use social media on a regular basis for various reasons making the world a global village. The use of social media cuts across all age groups in the society. Young people including tertiary students are not left out among those who extensively use social media, but not without serious negative effects on reading culture and invariably on their academic development.
According to Prof Godspower Osaretin Ekuobase, of the Department of Computer Science, University of Benin, “the social media generally has negative effects on students, because it leads to what we call addiction and anything addction is bad, they may have a good awarness of their environment,but you know that there are a lot of information and misinformation on the social media space, and that will effect them academically.So generally,It is counter productive. It has no benefit to the students at all, ICT can be of benefit, but not the social media. The social media is a nuisance to the student, the reason is that the information is not controlled, vetted nor verifiable, and nothing does more damage than misinformation.
“It is a cankerworm, especially In a developing economy like ours. A good student does not have time for the social media, because it is a distraction . One is not saying that you should not use the social media, but the problem is addiction and that will occur as long as you become attached to it.
“In advanced countries there are e-learning platforms,they may appear social,but not like the Facebook and the rest of them.” He said .
Also,Amina Abdulrazak Yusuf, librarian IIat Bayero University Kano said, the attitude of students towards reading culture is low. Nowadays most of them do read to pass exam unlike in the past whereby students read further by browsing through resources that are available in the library collection. They are often overwhelmed by the resources find online or offline, most especially on the internet.
“Students do read to pass their examination, most of them don’t even read or consult the resources, and they only read their lecture notes. You hardly find students who try to update their lecture notes or harmonize what had been taught in the class with the available resources in the library. It is only when they have assignments that you find them looking for a particular title to satisfy their need”.
On how the social media has contributed to the decline of reading culture among students she added that in reality, it’s supposed to boost up the reading habits of the students, but it is so shameful that instead of the young minds to read via the social media all they do is chat. They rarely make use of it to the effect of updating their knowledge”.She said.
In view of the unpleasant consequences, Dr. Chris Anyokwu, who teaches African Poetry, African Literature and Literary Theory, at the Department of English, University of Lagos, calls on the National Orientation Agency (NOA), to mount sustained campaigns on the need for students to develop a strong bond with their books, and also make conscious efforts to imbibe reading culture, while scaling down on the number of productive hours spent on social media.
The university teacher who spoke during the second edition of Reading Café, which took place at the University of Lagos, maintained that social media has negatively affected the intellectual ability of youths.
“Internet poses a threat to our students, as they no longer read novels, plays, and poems in the traditional media i.e. the book form. They do not enjoy the synchro of the page any more. They prefer to go online, not to read the e-copy of these books, but they are more interested in the snippets, summaries or spark notes than reading than whole book .” He concluded
Godwin Esosa a 300 level Accounting student of the University of Benin(UNIBEN) said he reads at leat one hour a day and does not just read any books but reads newspapers in the serial section of the library. To him the social media has negative impact on his academic studies.
“I spent at least one hour a day for reading, but not everyday, it might be in the morning or evening and I don’t use to read in the library, I prefer reading in the class. To me the social media has a negative impact on my studies because I noticed that whenever I have data I read less by spending most of my time chatting online.” He said.
