Abstract

The barrier of age, which was a major problem in the adoption and usage of technological devices in the pre-21^st century era, has today been either blurred or out-rightly removed. Statistical evidence shows that more teenagers and children are gaining greater access to the Internet and technological devices. The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between social media and education amongst teenagers. Mixed method of survey and focus group discussion was adopted. The study population comprised of parents, teachers and secondary school students. A sample of 600 students was drawn from four government secondary schools while multi-stage and stratified sampling techniques were used. Semi-structured questionnaire was used as instrument for survey and interview for focus group discussion. Findings showed that there exists advantageous symbiotic relationship between social media and education. The focus group discussion corroborated the survey results that social media was highly beneficial for academic purposes but teenagers prefer using if for socialising. The study concludes that social media can be used for educational purposes as instructional and interactive tools to make the classroom technological compliant.

Key Words: Teenagers, Social Media, Education, Online Content.

*Abimbola Adekemi Oluyemi is of the Department of Mass Communication, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria

^AMCRON Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 10, No. 2, October 2018:   186 – 196