Influence Of Social Media On Face To Face Communication Among College Students: A Study Of Selected Colleges In Eldoret

Abstract

Face to face communication has been the basic form of communication since time immemorial. However with the continuous growth of information technology and social networking sites, it is important to find out the impact social media sites has had on face to face communication and interpersonal interactions since technology can no longer be taken for granted. This thus creates the need to ascertain the influence of social media on the education life of college students. For this purpose the study sought to achieve the following objectives: to investigate whether social media use among college students is beneficial to their educational development; to find out the effects of social media on face to face interactions; and to determine the preferred method of communication among college students. The study was guided by social penetration theory that falls under symbolic interaction perspective. Developed in 1973 by psychologists Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor, the theory states that relationships begin and deepen through self-disclosure. The study took a mixed method approach employing both quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The study was carried out in Eldoret town with the target population constituting College students in Eldoret drawn from colleges and universities, both private and public. With a total of 43 Universities and colleges with an approximate population capacity of 50000, stratified random sampling technique was used to select the participating institutions classified into private and public. The researcher thus considered participation of 5 institutions; 3 of which were private and 2 public. Simple random sampling was then used to obtain a sample size of 250 respondents; 50 of which were selected from each institution. Data was collected using questionnaires, interview schedules, and Focus group discussions that took a 2-3 hours engagement. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in tables, graphs and pie charts. The study established that social networking sites are quite beneficial to academic development of college students. The study further found out that social media does not to a great extent threaten face to face communication. The study also found out that social media was the preferred form of communication among students in Eldoret town due to its many benefits. In view of the above findings it is recommended that students should utilise well the advantages that social media presents and also appreciate the natural part of face to face communication. The researcher proposed that further studies be carried out to tap whether there is correlation between social media use and poor performance of languages in examinations.