Impact of Social Media On the Behavior of Teenagers and Young Adults: A Case Study of Makindye Division Kampala

ABSTRACT

The main objective of the study is to determine the effect of social media on the behavior of teenagers and young adults in Uganda and the specific objectives were; to determine how the youth in Uganda use social media in their daily lives, to determine if the youth in Uganda prefer social media as means of communication as opposed to traditional methods, to find out the impacts social media has on behavior changes among the Ugandan youths to determine the threats that comes with use of social media on the Ugandan youth and to determine the relationship between social media and the behavior of teenagers and young adults in Uganda. The study used a survey research design and data was collected from 30 respondents randomly selected for makindye division Kampala Uganda. The findings of the study revealed that there is a high level of using social media for various aspects only that it was revealed that social media is not used for academic purposes. The findings of the study revealed that generally most of the youth prefer social media to other channels of communication. The findings of the study also showed that Social media affects the behavior of the youth, social media is negative to the youth, social media affects relationships for young adults and that social media affects the spiritual morals of teenagers and young adults. Furthermore, the findings of the study revealed that most of the respondents said that social media creates a gap between parents and teenagers, social media is the biggest route cause to marriage break ups among the young adults as most ladies spend much of the time on social media other than fulfilling family duties. More so it was revealed that social media promotes pornography as this has greatly affected the sexual life style of the teenagers and young adults.Moreso,the findings of the study revealed that there is a negative relationship between social media and the behavior of the youth and young adults in Uganda. Thus increased use of social media leads to a negative behavior among the teenagers and young adults. The study recommended that, the government should regulate the use of social media among the teenagers and young adults by increasing OTT as it affects their behavior negatively, Young adults should stay away with social media in order to keep their marriages safe by avoiding time wastage from social media and that the government should impose strict laws on those who promote pornography via social media platforms as it is harmful to the teenagers and young adults.