Social media use, social interaction and academic engagement of undergraduate students at Makerere University

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between social media use, social interaction, and academic engagement of undergraduate students at Makerere University. The objectives were to establish the relationship between social media use and social interaction among students, to determine the relationship between social interactions on students‟ academic engagement, and to examine the relationship between social media use on students’ academic engagement. The study used a cross-sectional correlational research design. The study approach used was quantitative. A sample of 326 students was selected who participated in the study. A simple random sampling method was used to select the students. Analysis involved descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and inferential statistics (Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Co-Efficient). Findings revealed a significant positive relationship between social media use and social interaction, a significant negative relationship between social interaction and students’ academic engagement, and a significant negative relationship between social media use on students’ academic engagement. This implies that the study rejected all the null hypotheses and proved that social media use and social interaction had a significant relationship with academic engagement. This implies that when students use social media and interact with each other this significantly affects their academic engagement. This study therefore based on the research findings recommends that students be helped to reduce their social media use and social interaction through sensitization and counseling in order to improve students’ academic engagement.