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.