Social Media Addiction Among Students Of The University Of Ghana

ABSTRACT

This study is a quantitative analysis of the level of social media addiction among students of the University of Ghana. Using the Uses and Gratification theory and Media Systems Dependency theory as the theoretical framework, the study investigated the level of addiction to the various social media platforms among a sample of Students of the University of Ghana. The objective of the study was to see whether social media addiction existed among students and the extent to which they were addicted if in fact the phenomenon existed. Two hundred students from the four colleges of the University of Ghana were sampled for this study. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires which was made up of 13 items from the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) which was developed by Dr Kimberly Young to measure the level of addiction to social media by students. The uses and gratifications and media Systems Dependency theories underpinned the study. Findings show that while scores from almost 19% of the respondents are not within the social media addiction bracket, only 1% of the respondents is severely addicted. Scores from the remaining 80% of the respondents established that they are moderately and mildly addicted to social media. Findings from the study also revealed that the most subscribed to and most used social media platform by students is WhatsApp and also a majority of the students use their social media accounts for entertainment