Implications Of Psycho-Social Media Networking On Adolescents Academic Performance In Public Day Secondary Schools In Nakuru East Constituency, Nakuru County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Most studies in Social media indicate that about 52% of the world’s population, including school going ones has been found to be frequent users of the social media networking. Despite this understanding few studies have examined the implication of media networks on academic performance of secondary school students. Using rational choice theory and planned behavior theory, this study examined the Implications of psycho- social media networking on academic performance among Adolescents in Nakuru East Constituency. The study focused on exploratory survey design. The target population was 6632 form two and three students in Nakuru East constituency. A sample size of 140 was selected using stratified and purposive sampling methods. Data collection was done using questionnaires and interviews. Quantitative data was coded and analyzed using descriptive statistics mainly frequencies, percentages and means, with the results presented in tables and figure. Qualitative data was coded and analyzed through thematic analysis. The study found out that adolescents’ frequent Whatsapp, Facebook, You tube and other sites with Whatsapp and Facebook being popular with 42% and 29.9% respectively. This study observed that 88% contacted friends and discussed trending issues while 0.7% contacted teachers and their friends on academic related issues. This indicated most adolescents’ spent a substantial amount of time in discussing social issues that has potential of undermining their academic performance. The study recommends that school administrators and Teachers need to do a lot of psycho-education of social media instead of punishments which have met with a lot of resistance.