Rotary Cautions Students on Excessive Use of Social Media

Mary Nnah

The Rotary Club of Anthony Golden has called on stakeholders in the education sector to enforce limits and boundaries for social media usage by secondary school students, as its excessive use is seemingly affecting their academic performance.

This was disclosed by the club Secretary, Rotarian George Nwibo, one of the facilitators at the Basic education and literacy campaign held at Ajao Estate Junior Secondary School, Anthony-Lagos, with the theme: “Social Media Influence on the academic performance of secondary school students.”

Nwibo said spending lengthy hours on social media has a negative effect on the reading culture and performance of the students.

“Social media addiction is a huge problem, on students’ academic performance, so stakeholders need to contend that this development could lead to very poor learning outcomes.”

He added that staying connected to global trends, making friends, and getting news as it breaks are all great aspects of social media, but who really knows the true impact it has on students academically.

“The Internet poses a threat to our students, as they no longer read novels, playlets, and poems in the traditional media i.e. the book form.

“They do not enjoy the synchro of the page any more. They prefer to go online, not to read the e-copy of these books, but they are more interested in the snippets, summaries or spark notes than reading the whole book.”

According to him, social media, which has become necessary and important, must be used by everyone who is alive, adding that getting addicted to it is what we must ensure our students do not.

He noted that it is a common practice to see students walking along the main road, chatting, watching films and listening to music on phone with earpiece or headphone on, such that they get carried away and must be discouraged.

He pointed out that social media should be a tool that would enhance life and learning. He urged secondary school students who are using social media to set a limit, so they do not fall into such a problem.

On his part, a member of the club who was equally a facilitator, Rtn Aniekan Udoh called on stakeholders need to mount sustainable campaigns on the need for students to develop a strong bond with their books, and also make conscious efforts to imbibe reading culture, while scaling down on the number of productive hours spent on social media.

He stressed that social media has negatively affected the intellectual ability of youths, adding “we need to reawaken the reading culture among secondary school students because youths are increasingly being caught up in the web-social media”.

Udo encouraged the students to read as wide as they can and practice writing frequently, adding, “Writing is not what you acquire overnight. A good reader makes a good writer”.