Use of social networking sites by undergraduate students in two African Universities

Abstract

The paper investigates the use of social networking sites (SNS) amongst undergraduate students at the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria and University of Zimbabwe, Harare.  A number of 300 undergraduates were randomly selected from various Faculties in the two universities. The findings revealed that Facebook and Twitter were the most commonly used by the respondents and chatting is the main purpose of using social media. It was also revealed that the use of social media contributed to their overall academic performance. The recommendations amongst others were as follows: the need to teach the use of computers in the university curriculum, and to provide more computer laboratories for student use.