Social Media And Its Contribution To Education Among The Youths: A Case Study Of Kampala International University

Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks (Ahlqvist 2003). Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as ‘a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content (Kaplan 2010). Furthermore, social media depends on mobile and webbased technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify usergenerated content. It introduces substantial and pervasive changes to communication between organizations, communities and individuals. Social media differentiates from traditional/industrial media in many aspects such as quality, reach, frequency, usability, immediacy and permanence (Agichtein et al, 2008; Nigel 2012) There are many effects that stem from internet usage. According to Nielsen, internet users continue to spend more time with social media sites than any other type of site. At the same time, the total time spent on social media in the U.S. across PC and mobile devices increased by 37 percent to 121 billion minutes in July 2012 compared to 88 billion minutes in July 2011.