CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The invention of the internet brought a new dimension to the media landscape. It marked the beginning of technological transformation and socialization with a higher desire for information about everything. This slowly developed into social media, which essentially is information about people. The internet has taken the process of information dissemination to a higher platform thereby going beyond being a mere medium of socialization or information seeking and has become something much more. With this development, users are driving content (Dominick et al.,2013) in ways never seen before. This has led to the transformation in not just one medium; there is more to come as new trends emerge continually. Shapiro cited in Croteau and Hoynes, (2003) argues that the emergence of new, digital technologies signals a potentially radical shi of who is in control of information, experience and Covenant Journal of Communication. Social Network usage by students is so rampant recently because of easy access to devices such as smart phones, iphones, black berry, tablets, ipad and laptops which are connected to the internet (Griiths, 2011). Addiction to the usage of social network has extremely increased in recent times. The perils of its effects on the academic performance of the over-involved students are disturbing. Academic performance which is depicted by the grades of students (Jenkins, 2006), is a great concern to Benue State University, Makurdi.
Students that spend excessive time on social networks become dependent on it and it is believed that their academic performance diminishes proportionately. It is perceived that school grades will suffer when spending too much time on social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and My space as valuable study time is lost (Sherry et al., 2008). These therefore necessitate the study of the effects of social network usage on university students’ academic performance. The social network overuse certainly has some negative impact that may counterbalance the potential benefits and poses grave consequences to the academic performance of its victims. Students spend quality time to comment, update, read and share posts on social networks.