Chapter Two Utilization of Social Media
Chapter Two Utilization of Social Media
Chapter Two Utilization of Social Media
2.1 Introduction
Boateng and Amankwaa (2016) defined social media as the application that allows users to
converse and interact with each other. It is an online space that is used by people to connect,
share, communicate, establish or maintain connection with others for various purposes. Social
media is an online platform which enables people to build social networks or relations with
other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life
connections. Social media is therefore the interaction among individuals in which they create
and share information and ideas in networks. However, social media relies on many
electronic devices like tablets, i-pads, laptops, and Internet-based technologies for connecting
people. Thus, social media can be described as technologies that facilitate social interaction,
make collaboration possible, and enable deliberation among people at the global level.
Boyed & Ellison (2007) define social media as Internet-based services that allow individuals
to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other
users with whom they share a connection, and traverse their list of connections and those
made by others within the system. According to Ali, Iqbal & Iqbal (2016), social media is the
among others, that link people together as they share information through social networking.
As indicated by Junco, Heibergert & Loken (2010), social media is referred to as a collection
of Internet websites, services, and practices that support collaboration, community building,
participation and sharing. From the above, it can be deduced that social media is the platform
that gives individuals the opportunity to interact, using two way communication, such that it
allows anyone who has an online account to share their opinions with other social media
users.
Social media has become one of the prominent communication tools, particularly in the
school community. Talaue, Alsaad, AlRushaidan & AlHagail (2018) emphasise that social
Considering the aforementioned, many students and instructors are using social media as a
teaching and learning tool. More so, academic institutions are increasingly using social media
platforms, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, to connect with current and potential students and
to deliver instructional content (Paul, Baker, & Cochran, 2012) Therefore, social media
platforms allow students to interact with one another, their teachers and communities that
share in their education and related activities (Pardo 2013). Bearing this in mind, many
universities now maintain profiles and groups on social networking sites such as Facebook,
where students and faculty can interact, share resources and express ideas Conversely,
Lenhart, Purcell, Smith & Zickuhr (2010) assert that not all students interact constantly on
social media platforms for academic purposes. This suggests that social media platforms are
explored by students for different reasons. Junco & Cotton (2012) affirm that time spent by
student on social media is slightly negatively related to time spent studying. In this same
manner, Pempek, Yermolayeva & Calvert (2009) declare that most students spend valuable
hours daily on social media platforms. Rideout (2012) reveals that young people spend time
on social media more than twice the average amount of time spent in school each year. This
supports the position of Subrahmanyam & Patricia (2008) who underscore that using social
media sites has both negative and positive effects, because there are harmful ways in which
used written correspondence delivered by hand from one person to another. Social media are
mere extension and explosion of traditional word of mouth networks (Sajithra & Patil, 2013).
This primitive delivery system would become widespread and streamlined in future centuries
(Hendricks, 2013). It therefore makes sense to take a step back and provide an insight
regarding where social media came from and what they include.
In 1972, the telegraph was invented. This allowed message to be delivered over a
long distance far faster than a horse and rider could carry them. Although telegraph
messages were short, they were revolutionary way to convey news and information.
Important discoveries happened in the decade of the 1980s: The telephone in 1980 and radio
in 1981. They have become more sophisticated than they were when they were invented.
In 20th Century, technology began to change very rapidly. After the first super computers
were created in 1940s, scientists and engineers began to develop ways to create networks
between those computers, and this later lead to the birth of the Internet. The earliest form of
the Internet included CompuServ, developed in 1960s. Primitive forms of email were also
developed this time (Hendricks, 2013). And it was Ray Tomlinson who invented Internet
based email in late 1971. In 1970s networking technology had improved, and in 1979
students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1980 (Sajithra & Patil, 2013).
According to Hendricks (2013) in 1980s home computers were becoming more
common and social media was becoming more sophisticated. Internet relay chats, or IRCs,
were used in 1988 and continued to be popular well into 1990s. IRC is a form of chatting.
Originally designed for group chatting in discussion forums, this also allowed one-to-one
communication via private message as well as chat and data transfers (Sajithra & Patil,
2013).
According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) the era of social media as we understand
it today probably started when Bruce and Susan Abelson founded ‘‘Open Diary,’’ an early
social networking site that brought together online diary writers into one community. After
the invention of blogging, social media began to explode in popularity (Hendricks, 2013).
The term ‘‘weblog’’ was first used, and truncated as ‘‘blog’’ later when one blogger jokingly
transformed the noun ‘‘weblog’’ into the sentence ‘‘we blog (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). In
1999, the first blogging site became popular, creating a social media sensation that’s still
The first recognised social media site, Six Degrees, was created in 1997 (Boyd &
Ellison, 2007). SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles, list their Friends and,
beginning in 1998, surf the Friends lists (Ibid.). Sites like Myspace and LinkedIn gained
prominence in the early 2000s, and sites like Photobuket and Flickr facilitated online photo
sharing. YouTube came out in 2005, creating an entirely new way for people to communicate
and share information with each other across great distances (Hendricks,
2013).
By 2006, Facebook and Twitter both became available to users throughout the world.
These sites remain some of the most popular social media on the Internet. According to
Twitter, Tumblr and Tencent Weibo ranked as the top 10 social platforms on the globe
popping up to fill specific social networking niches. Today, there is a tremendous variety of
social media tools available to students, and many of them can be linked to allow
crossposting. For example one can be playing YouTube videos and sharing the activity with
Friends on Facebook or Twitter. This creates an environment where users can reach the
communication.
Considering that social media are in different categories, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010:62)
tried
Collaborative Projects
In the most general sense, collaborative projects are a special form of social media
application that enable the joint and simultaneous creation of knowledge related content by
many end-users. Whereas blog content is authored by a single person or a few editors and
may
later be commented on by others, collaborative projects are different in that they allow all
users
to equally post, add, or change content. In this sense they are probably the most democratic
form of social media. Collaborative projects allow community of people to add and edit
content
2.2.1.1 Wikis
Wiki means “quick” in the Hawaiian language and its originator, Microsoft Encarta
described a wiki as a type of server software that enables users to create or alter
content on a Web page. Wikis are interlinked web pages based on the hypertext
system of storing and modifying information. Each page can store information and
is easily viewed, edited, and commented on by other people using a web browser.
pages. There can be benefits to student engagement when a wiki is employed as part
of a blended learning approach (Neumann & Hood, 2009). One well known
example of wiki is Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedia that makes use of wiki
(Desilets et al., 2005). A wiki enables readers to create and edit encyclopaedia
articles.
collaborative tagging services. They allow users to organize and share links to
by others that can subsequently be organized in the form of tag clouds: visual
representations of tags, the importance of each indicated by its font size or colour.
portmanteau of folk and taxonomy. The most widely known representative of this
Delicious was founded in 2003 and today has more than 5 million users and 1 billion
linked bookmarks (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2014). Online forums or message boards
The third type of collaborative project is online forums or message boards, via
which people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. As opposed
to wikis, forums usually do not allow users to edit content posted by others, but
rather only respond to or discuss this content within their own postings. The right
relevance in human life. Here interaction is by voting for articles and commenting
Epinions.com. Review sites usually employ some form of reputation system that
allows them to compute reliability scores based on ratings received within user
reviews. These systems are designed to avoid strategic manipulation of the content
2.2.1.4 Blogs
Blogs are Web information sharing technology (Boulos, Maramba, & Wheeler, 2006).
According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), blogs are the social media equivalent of personal
web pages and can come in a multitude of different variations, from personal diaries
describing
the author’s life to summaries of all relevant information in one specific content area.
Functioning as an online journal, blogs have unique date entries about an issue with the most
recent comments shown first in reverse chronological order (Mayfield, 2008). Composed of
text, image, videos, commentary, and links to other Web sites, the contents are contributed by
individuals or a group of both professionals and amateurs. Boyd (2006) distinguished blogs
from generic Websites in that blogs capture ongoing expressions, not the edits of a static
creation and because the expressions are captured locally, not in a shared common space.
Moreover, blogs are easily subscribed through RSS technology. Popular blogs include
Wordpress, Blogger, Movable, LiveJournal, and Xanga. Although blogs did not originate in
education sectors, they have become useful in various educational levels and settings, and as
an authoring tool. According to Kist (2013) Blogs offer students the chance to keep
multimedia
records, incorporating video and sound files, as well as images into their written record. The
ability for students to comment on each other’s blogs allows classroom discussions to
continue
around the clock. Åkerlund (2011) remarked that the assignment to the students in traditional
teaching is often based on production of written texts that are submitted to the teacher and/or
presented to the class. With blogging from and the use of cameras inside or outside the
classroom, the mission can be to tell a factual story in words and pictures. Thus engaging in
dialogues in the form of blog comments are associated with positive attitudes towards online
peer interaction and academic achievements, as well as positive motivation to learn from
peers
Content communities according Dewing (2012) allow users to share photos or videos
and commenting on other users’ submission. They allow users to organize, share and
comment
on different types of contents such as images, videos. The main objective of content
communities according to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) is the sharing of media contents
between users. Content communities exist for a wide range of different media types,
including
text (e.g., BookCrossing), photos (e.g., Flickr), videos (e.g., YouTube), and PowerPoint
presentations (e.g., Slideshare). YouTube footages enable direct access to a vast array of
performance techniques, interpretative decisions and visual cues that can be replayed and
reviewed at will, thus affording a learning tool of great potential thus it may be used as a tool
to inform and display and as a forum for critical analysis and commentary (Jones & Cuthrell,
2011). Since its creation in February, 2005, YouTube saw rapid growth; sixteen months after
its creation, 100 million clips were being viewed per day (comScore, 2006). Exposure to
YouTube as a teaching tool in the curriculum has been beneficial: the development of critical
awareness and judgement in that forum would appear to have contributed to this cohort being
willing to engage extensively with this audio-visual resource as a tool for personal learning
(Monkhouse & Forbes, 2015). YouTube was established primarily to enable users to share
personal objects, experiences and observations with the world (Kietzmann, Hermkens,
This category of social media allow users to connect by creating personal information
profiles, inviting friends and colleagues to have access to those profiles, and sending
messages
between each other (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). SNSs have achieved phenomenal success
since
the launch of sixdegrees.com in 1997 (Kent, 2008). According to Statista 1.4 billion people
used social networking sites around the globe in 2012; by 2016, this number will grow to an
estimated 2.13 billion. While Facebook remains the dominant platform with just over 1.5
billion registered users many other platforms and apps have considerable audiences. Created
in 2004, Facebook according to NOIPolls (2016) is the most popular SNS in Nigeria. To join
Facebook, a user had to have a harvard.edu email address. Beginning in September 2005,
Facebook expanded to include high school students, professionals inside corporate networks,
and, eventually, everyone. The change to open signup did not mean that new users could
easily
access users in closed networks—gaining access to corporate networks still required the
appropriate dotcom address, while gaining access to high school networks required
administrator approval (Boyd and Ellison, 2007). Facebook allows each user to create a
such as home address, mobile phone number, interests, religious views, and even data like
relationship status. In addition to creating individual profiles, Facebook users can also
“designate other users as friends, send private messages,” join groups, post and/or tag
pictures
and leave comments on these pictures as well as on either a group’s or an individual’s wall
(Grossecka et al., 2011). Other SNSs include Pinterest (a site where the user can “pin” the
things he/she likes in a particular category to create a “board” to group them all together, for
example, future research ideas) and Instagram (a site dedicated to taking pictures and
allowing
them to tell an entire story) allow members to instantly see the creativity of a friend and can
help the user to brainstorm new ideas (Diercksen, DiPlacido, Harvey & Bosco, n.d.).
The virtual game worlds have the features of choices, the framing of the game world
through a set of rules for how to interact with it, and the possibility of interacting with the
game
environment. In virtual game worlds users are usually required to follow strict rules that
govern
their behaviour (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009). Many multi-player worlds are intrinsically
associated with the role-playing game genre, inspired in its computerised format by the
tabletop
role-playing games; “you” as player inhabit the body of a character, your avatar, through
whose
eyes you see the world (Klastrup, 2003). Virtual game world has no definite outcome, the
game never stops (in principle; in practice virtual world publishers may go bankrupt!), and
hence you can never win the game (Ibid.). Generally game world has an open structure within
which many variations of the game rules can be carried out, however many in-world
activities
actually have finite goals with predetermined methods of completion, such as quests.
Klastrup
(2003) noted that the implicit goal here is to improve the “stats” (statistics of health, stamina)
and skills (dexterity, intelligence, fighting skills with sword, arrow) which the character is
born
with by gaining experience points, which at some point sends the character to a new “level”
where he or she gains access to more skills, new objects in the world, improved health etc. In
Sony’s EverQuest for example, one needs to be a wizard to perform magic or a cleric to heal
others. In commercial worlds a stats and skills structure is typically not implemented, rather it
is through activities and wealth your character gains a reputation and progresses in the social
hierarchy (Klastrup, 2003). However, virtual game worlds often do not allow one to engage
in
economic activities with other users within the world, including the sale and purchase of
content. Instead, such activities are conducted using means from outside the world, such as
the
online auction house eBay and virtual game worlds have also reached the interest of
academics
(Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009). Generally, the urge to advance one’s character, socially or
“statistically” often remains an important part of the motivation for returning to the world
(Klastrup, 2003). The popularity of virtual game worlds have been on the increase. The
applications that have gained popularity in recent years, as standard game consoles include
Microsoft’s X-Box and Sony’s PlayStation. They now allow simultaneous play among a
“residents” are avatars representing individuals participating online. Users of virtual worlds
design their environments and often their avatars as well, from gender to clothing and
hairstyle,
and control how those avatars communicate, move, create things, and interact. The
functioning
of a virtual world can mirror that of the real world, or it can allow residents to do such things
as fly, wander around underwater, or teleport themselves to other locations (Klastrup, 2003;
Papp, n.d.; EDUCAUSE, 2006). Having lived in the world for so long that you have had
significant experiences or experienced significant changes you have shared – or want to share
– with other players also familiar with the world, your story of “the world as lived” can,
community
exclusion
from smaller or larger social networks (Ibid.). What we find in virtual worlds is exactly
performances (people acting) and thus, transposing but of real events, realised and performed
by players (and subsequent readers) in interaction with each other and the world, which
would
retrospectively make good stories (Klastrup, 2003). Today’s virtual worlds are immersive,
animated, 3D environments that operate over the Internet, giving access to anyone in the
world.
Although many online games take place in such environments, the concept of a virtual world
does not require the elements of a game, such as rules or an explicit objective. Residents of a
virtual world have the freedom to do and be nearly anything they want, limited only by the
McCarthy, and Silvestre (2011:423); and Kietzmann, Silvestre, McCarthy and Pitt (2012)
provided a framework for examining the functionality of social media. According to them,
the
Identity: The identity functional block represents the extent to which users reveal
their
identities in a social media setting. This can include disclosing information such as
name, age, gender, profession, location, and also information that portrays users in
certain ways. Aggarwal (n.d) is of the opinion that social media contain a tremendous
information about the individual in terms of their interests, demographic information,
friendship link information, and other attributes. This can lead to disclosure of different
disclosure, and linkage information disclosure. For instance, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010)
explain that the presentation of a user’s identity can often happen through the
Steinfield, Ellison, Lampe, and Vitak (2012), the information disclosures on social
elopment, and maintenance that permits the establishment of bridging and bonding so
(2011) represents the extent to which users communicate with other users in a social
media setting. Many social media platforms are designed primarily to facilitate
conversations among individuals and groups. These conversations happen for all sorts
of reasons. People tweet, blog, ping and chat to meet new like-minded people, to find
true love, to build their self-esteem, or to be on the cutting-edge of new ideas or trending
topics. Social media makes it easy for one to get involved discussion by answering
questions or taking part in the conversation without having to take a day off school.
Cabral (2011) express the opinion that social media is a web-based technology that
transforms how people communicate by enhancing interactive conversations. There is
Sharing: Sharing represents the extent to which users exchange, distribute, and
receive
content. The term ‘social’ often implies that exchanges between people are crucial
(Kietzmann et al, 2011). Social media technologies comprise a wide range of tools and
technologies, such as media sharing sites, blogs, social bookmarking sites, virtual
communities, SNSs, and virtual worlds. These tools provide people with various ways
to interact and share information and knowledge with friends and the public. Steinfield
et al (2012) are of the opinion that rich interaction such as sharing photos and videos among
friends can enhance and sustain strong ties that are a source of bonding
social capital.
Presence: The framework building block presence represents the extent to which users
can know if other users are accessible. It includes knowing where others are, in the
virtual world and/or in the real world, and whether they are available. In the virtual
world, this happens through status lines like ‘available’ or ‘hidden.’ Given the
increasing connectivity of people on the move, this presence bridges the real and the
virtual (Kietzmann et al, 2011). Social media afford users who prefer to engage in realtime
along with a suitable mechanism through which these users can contact each other and
interact.
the extent to which users can be related to other users. By ‘relate,’ they mean that two
or more users have some form of association that leads them to converse, share objects
of sociality, meet up, or simply just list each other as a friend or fan. The popularity of
social media by implication, provide a simple interface for individuals to establish some
form of association.
Reputation: Reputation is the extent to which users can identify the standing of others,
including themselves, in a social media setting. Reputation can have different meanings
on social media platforms. In most cases, reputation is a matter of trust, but since
information technologies are not yet good at determining such highly qualitative
criteria, social media sites rely on ‘mechanical Turks’: tools that automatically
Groups: The groups’ functional block represents the extent to which users can form
communities and sub-communities. The more ‘social’ a network becomes, the bigger the
group of friends, followers, and contacts. Facebook and WhatsApp have groups, for
instance, with administrators who manage the group, approve applicants, and invite
assumed that a social media community would enjoy a way to group its users, even
when the number of likely contacts is low for each member initially. Groups in social
media are more than just alisting of users.
Despite the benefits of social media on student learning and achievement with respect to
knowlede sharing, Rithika & Sara (2013) underline that even when social media is used for
an educational purpose, students incorporate the technology into their lives in a way that may
differ from the intentions of the course instructor. Extant literature has provided an array of
challenges of social media on students’ academic life. O'Keeffe & Kathleen (2011) highlight
the negative impacts of social media to include accessing inappropriate content, online
The following challenges are the most prominent ones posed by social media as shown in the
literature.
Decades ago, the main issue was the addiction to television; today’s issues deal with Internet
addiction and the increased amount of time young people and adults spend searching the
Internet.
Students can get very involved in social media activities, such that they become social media
addicts. Due to this addictive behaviour, students use social media even while in the
classroom,
which creates a disturbance for other students and concentration issues for them. Inability to
carefully follow lectures affects their grades. Many students spend much time on their
laptops,
tablets, desktop computers and smart phones to check Tweets and status updates of their
friends
and families. Addiction to the use of social media platforms can squander an individual’s
time that could be used for profitable tasks and exercises. Christakis & Moreno (2009)
consider addiction to social networks to be capable of frustrating precious time and the lives
of individuals.
2.2.2 Distraction
Spending immeasurable hours on social sites can deflect the focus and concentration from a
particular task. Thus, excessive use of social media networking takes most of the time of
improper activities. As a result, social media platforms increase students’ tendency towards
oftentimes utilising social media to while away time and for purposes which disengage them
The results of a study by Owusu-Acheaw & Larson (2015), showed that the use of social
media
had affected students’ academic; most of the respondents used social media sites to chat
rather
Anti-social behaviours are actions that are not acceptable in a given society. However, some
of
these unacceptable actions do find expression on social networks and thereby make its users
vulnerable to such. Social network websites grab the attention of some students and then
divert it towards unethical and inappropriate practices. Some students, instead of taking
advantage of
social media for learning purposes, have diverted their attention to, erroneous usage which
includes sexting, hacking, fraud and scams. Several cases are available where people have
committed fraud and scams through online networking. According to Fodeman & Monroe
(2009), many students use social media platforms to post embarrassing, humiliating, and
hurtful content in text, photos, and videos which harm others. Engaging in these habits may
Cyber bullying involves any behaviour performed through electronic media by individuals or
groups that repeatedly communicates hostile or aggressive messages intended to inflict harm
or discomfort on others (Tokunaga, 2010). Cyber bullying uses different forms of writing and
posting mean or inappropriate things online. These include threatening messages, sexual
gossip, and encouraging others to share and circulate the posts. Lenhart, Duggan, Perrin,
Stepler, Rainie & Parker (2015) postulate that cyber bullying among students is associated
Students generally utilise slang words or word abbreviations on long range interpersonal
communication when interacting on social media platforms. This habit has the capacity to
affect their communication skills with respect to writing and spelling. Some social media
users often depend on their smart phones for language structure and spelling check highlights.
This reduces their command of language and language use and their creative writing skills
The numerous problems of social media usage have recently been the major focus of
attention worldwide (Buhari & Ashara, 2014). Even though many schools have created many
strict rules that forbid the use of handheld technology during school activities or that block
certain social media applications, many students are still able to connect during lecture hours
as they please (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008). According to moralists like Onah and
Nche (2014) while social media have fuelled or deepened the level of immorality among the
youths in the country; new acts of immorality have cropped up as result of the negative
influences available on these social sites. According to them, some of the moral issues that
have arisen from the abuse and obsession with social media include: Sexual promiscuity,
Internet crimes, indecent dressing and sexual harassment, loss of sense of sacredness of
human
life and neighbourliness, impatience and quick syndrome. Other scholars have equally
expressed their concerns about the problems of social media. They are angered that social
media have caused distractions during instruction time (Al-Sharqi, Hashim & Kutbi, 2015),
encourage terror (Buhari & Ashara, 2014; Bloem et al., 2013), cause students to become less
sociable, make students become mentally dull (Al-Sharqi, Hashim & Kutbi, 2015; Bloem et
al., 2013).
Bloem et al., (2013) remark that social media have brought us attention and knowledge
deficits that tend to darken the bright benefit which was so badly sought after. They have
given
rise to information overload. Information is causing lack of focus and flow and this corrodes
the productivity and innovation capability of students (Bloem et al., 2013). Based on the
information in our profiles, social media will automatically bury all true serendipity if we do
not watch out, and thus also eliminate an important source of creativity and innovation,