THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ADOLESCENT ESSAY WRITING: A STUDY OF SS II AND III STUDENTS OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AZARE

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of social media on adolescents’ essay writing. A test on essay writing is given to the students to write an essay, after marking the essay, impact(s) of social media is ascertained using simple percentage to analyse the impact of social media on students essay writing The paper reveals that adolescents as a group that are negatively influenced by the usage of social media and it affects their essay writing as most of them abbreviate words without following the rules and do not consider the rule of tenses more importantly use slangs in their writing as found on most social media platforms. The paper concludes that social media have an important role in students’ daily life but there is another side to it, which affects their essay writing. The researchers use a sample of 20 SS 2 and students who are selected purposively as the time each student spends on social is taken in to consideration and serves as yardstick for the selection of the respondents. The paper recommends that teachers should pay attention to students’ essay writing by emphasizing on making corrections after marking and students’ access to the internet should be censored and restricted wherever possible. Students should not be exposed to social media at early levels. Parents should be monitoring their children and wards activities on social media so that they will not be so much carried away by it. Teachers should try to explain the difference between texting and writing as well as between spelling and abbreviation. Emphasis should be made on making formal writings. Essay written by students should be marked and the students should be made to make corrections pointed out.